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The growth of electronic payments can substantially reduce the social cost of a country's payment system. We provide an estimate of the potential savings in social cost and determine the responsiveness of payment users when relative prices are used to speed up the substitution of electronic for paper-based payments. While some countries (Norway, Japan) have encouraged their banking systems to establish explicit prices to promote electronic payments, others (the United States) have not. For the first time ever, survey data are available to permit estimation of a model of payment choice from which own price, cross price, and payment substitution elasticities are derived. The data, which are semiannual panel data, concern the use of three methods for making retail payments in Norway: cash withdrawals at ATMs, writing a check, or using a debit card at the point of sale. Our finding that payment users are quite sensitive to relative prices that reflect the relatively lower cost of electronic payments is generalizable. Both production techniques and consumer needs for payment instruments are very similar across developed countries, even though instrument usage differs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents commentary and additional empirical evidence regarding the money supply volatility hypothesis of Milton Friedman, modeling the U.S. decline in income velocity in the 1980s as a result of volatile money supply growth. Support of this theory regarding Granger-causation analysis is cited and additional data is provided by the author from nine non-U.S. industrialized nations. The data suggests certain examples of evidence for Friedman's theory, but generally invalidates the general application of the principle.

This article examines impact that monetary aggregates have had in major industrialized countries while focusing specifically on Great Britain and Switzerland. The authors investigate factors that produced monetary growth in these countries and discuss some of the resulting policy implications. They examine some of the structural differences in the economies of the two countries that have resulted in different forms of growth. Their findings indicate that interest rates play an important role in determining the behavior of narrow and broad monetary growth.

This paper analyzes the impact of changes in monetary policy regimes on the relation between stock returns and changes in expected inflation. Post-war evidence from four countries reveals a direct link between these relations and the central banks' operating targets (i.e., money supply or interest rates). Specifically, the post-war negative relations between stock returns and changes in expected inflation are significantly stronger during interest rate regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal Architecture & Planning is the property of King Saud University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper conducts a qualitative narrative appraisal of the existing empirical literature on the key macroeconomic determinants of economic growth in developing and developed countries. Much as other empirical studies have investigated the determinants of economic growth using various econometric methods, the majority of these studies have not distinguished what drives or hinders economic growth in developing or developed countries. The study finds that the determinants of economic growth are different when this distinction is used. It reveals that in developing countries the key macroeconomic determinants of economic growth include foreign aid, foreign direct investment, fiscal policy, investment, trade, human capital development, demographics, monetary policy, natural resources, reforms and geographic, regional, political and financial factors. In developed countries, the study reveals that the key macroeconomic determinants that are associated with economic growth include physical capital, fiscal policy, human capital, trade, demographics, monetary policy and financial and technological factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Industrial Relations / Relations Industrielles is the property of Universite Laval, Department of Industrial Relations and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

While new empirical findings and theoretical frameworks provide insight into the interrelations between socioeconomic development, gender equity, and low fertility, puzzling exceptions and outliers in these findings call for a more all-encompassing framework to understand the interplay between these processes. We argue that the pace and onset of development are two important factors to be considered when analyzing gender equity and fertility. Within the developed world, 'first-wave developers'-or countries that began socioeconomic development in the nineteenth/early twentieth century-currently have much higher fertility levels than 'late developers.' We lay out a novel theoretical approach to explain why this is the case and provide empirical evidence to support our argument. Our approach not only explains historical periods of low fertility but also sheds light on why there exists such large variance in fertility rates among today's developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounts of globalisation fail to distinguish the current globalisation from that which followed the industrial revolution. Before the industrial revolution most economic activity was local, with production and consumption bundled in the close geographic proximity. In the first globalisation, production and consumption unbundled on an unprecedented global scale as natural and man-made trade costs fell. In the second unbundling the production process itself is being unbundled globally, with traditional 'made in' labels losing meaning as supply chains become more and more complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the interaction between fictitious capital and the neoliberal model of growth and distribution, inspired by the classical economic tradition. Our renewed interest in this literature has a close connection with the recent international crisis in the capitalist economy. However, this discussion takes as its point of departure the fact that standard economic theory teaches that financial capital, in this world of increasing globalization, leads to new investment opportunities which improve levels of growth, employment, income distribution, and equilibrium. Accordingly, it is said that such financial resources expand the welfare of people and countries worldwide. Here we examine some illusions and paradoxes of such a paradigm. We show some theoretical and empirical consequences of this vision, which are quite different and have harmful constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed at comparing the well-being of children across the most economically advanced countries of the world while discussing the methodological issues involved in comparing children's well-being across countries. A Child Well-being Index was constructed to rank countries according to their performance in advancing child well-being. The Index used 30 indicators combined into 13 components, again summarised in 5 dimensions for 29 rich countries. Data from various sources were combined to capture aspects of child well-being: material well-being, health, education, behaviour and risks, housing and environment. The scores for the countries on all variables and combinations of variables were discussed in detail. The Child Well-being Index revealed that the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries (excluding Denmark) did relatively better than the other countries while Romania and the United States performed well below the average. Overall, serious differences existed in child well-being across countries suggesting that in many, improvement could be made in the quality of children's lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss the effect of formal political institutions (electoral systems, fiscal decentralization, presidential and parliamentary regimes) on the extent and direction of income (re-)distribution. Empirical evidence is presented for a large sample of 70 economies and a panel of 13 OECD countries between 1981 and 1998. The evidence indicates that presidential regimes are associated with a less equal distribution of disposable incomes, while electoral systems have no significant effects. Fiscal competition is associated with less income redistribution and a less equal distribution of disposable incomes, but also with a more equal primary income distribution. Our evidence also is in line with earlier empirical contributions that find a positive relationship between trade openness and equality in primary and disposable incomes, as well as the overall redistributive effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to make the research on the possibilities of the economy stimulation in the case of developed countries, more precisely, to determine the ways of the GDP growth staying within the model framework that was built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic crisis in Euro- Atlantic economy came in it's fifth year although governments of developed countries have taken all measures that they were using more or less successfully in last 60 years. And while governments keep looking for more drastically measures to end the crisis, we believe that the time has come for analyzing this situation from another angle. That angle is integral historical analyses of actual roots of this crisis instead of shallow partial analysis that take place these days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the emergence of intractable economic stagnation in most developed countries, spectacular failures in financial markets and the empirical refutation of hypotheses central to economic policy for the last three decades, the economics profession remains largely complacent. Some reasons for this complacency are discussed, along with some suggestions for future directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic crisis triggered in 2007 in the U.S. had reverberations around the world, with serious consequences in the field of economic exchanges and financial, which required a rethinking of economic policy at the global level. The economies of the developed countries and emerging markets were affected, the crisis deepening the gap between heavily industrialized nations and developing states as well as the least developed states, in particular African states. In this context the world expected a minimal state involvement in the financial sector through the provision of funds to be used to meet the need of liquidity of banks. A natural consequence is the increasing indebtedness of these countries with naturally impact on the trade deficits. The financial crisis has boosted the role of governments in national economies, making at the same time necessary the cooperation at international level in order to adopt concerted measures for economic recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing international mobility is more important to depict global migration patterns and its characteristics, not only in receiving countries, but also in origin ones. With the growth and diversification of migration flows to developed countries in the past 15 years, migration of labour force occupy now a prime place on the political agenda of many governments. Due to the current economic crisis, associated with deterioration in the employment situation in most countries, it seems very important to examine the factors that determine migration, relative importance of migration in different regions of the world, and understand more clearly its mechanisms. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the main trends of international migration, which plays a significant role in our days, in helping to fill the shortfall in labor supply in many countries and of the fact that fewer young people are entering the labor markets. In addition, we try to answer by identifying the shortterm effects of economic crisis on labor migration, what are the recent changes, quantitatively and qualitatively in migration of labor force and how the immigrants could be integrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses surveys of young workers in developed capitalist countries as of November 2012, with a focus on workers' attitudes toward collective organization. Topics include how social context plays a role in political attitudes and participation, individualism and social conformity, and sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's concept of "cultural capital." Additional information is presented on workers' perceptions of the global financial crisis, identification of professional goals, and political activism.

The main purpose of this article is to conduct a concise critical analysis of the division of the world into highly developed countries (the rich North) and underdeveloped countries (the poor South) at the beginning of the 21st century. The criteria used at the end of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries to define the boundary between the highly developed and the underdeveloped world, while valid in the past, are no longer applicable. The new criterion for this boundary is quality of life, which combines the socioeconomic element (constituted by such factors as consumption, level of health care and education) and the political (which is reflected in the degree to which political rights and civil liberties are observed). Therefore, the dividing line between the rich North and the poor South at the beginning of the 21st century differs from the well-known Brandt line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how globalization, government ideology, and their interaction have shaped income distribution in 59 developing countries from 1975 to 2005. Using pooled time-series data analysis, the results show that globalization, measured by trade flows and foreign direct investment, has significantly expanded income inequality in developing countries. However, countries with leftist government parties and chief executives have experienced significantly smaller income gaps and even moderated the income inequality from increasing world market integration. The results in this article suggest that the traditional role of government ideology for income redistribution, drawn from the experiences of advanced countries, is applicable to the developing world as well. Rather than being diminished by the integration of international markets, the influence of government ideology will continue to play a key role in shaping the outcomes of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author argues that the history of slavery, culture, and politics of the southern states in the U.S. is not unique when compared and contrasted with the history of humankind. She asserts that much of the world has had to face questions of volatile issues such as slavery, the role of labor, and transitioning to societies and economies that are primarily agrarian to more modern and industrialized economies. In addition, the author argues that there are several nations that have not undergone the economic transformation from rural to urban and, thus, similar patterns of development and difficulties that characterized the American south will emerge in other parts of the world.

As the United States and the rest of the developed world lurch toward austerity economics-spending cuts-to deal with the latest financial crises of 2011 and surely 2012, Stephen Dunn says John Kenneth Galbraith offered us one of the most cogent warnings-that these events do repeat-always believing that financial markets were inherently unstable. His lessons went unheeded for the past few decades, but now, the same arguments these nations were given in the 1930s are being repeated. How can this be? We need a good history. Galbraith wrote one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the degree of stickiness in aggregate consumption growth (sometimes interpreted as reflecting consumption habits) for thirteen advanced economies. We find that after controlling for measurement error, consumption growth has a high degree of autocorrelation, with a stickiness parameter of about 0.7 on average across countries. The sticky consumption growth model outperforms the random walk model of Hall (1978) and typically fits the data better than the popular Campbell and Mankiw (1989) model, though in a few countries, the sticky consumption growth and Campbell-Mankiw models work about equally well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Management / Vadyba (16487974) is the property of Lithuania Business University of Applied Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper investigates the economic efficiency–oil consumption relationship in 42 countries during the period 1986–2006. In a first stage by using DEA window analysis countries' economic efficiencies are obtained. In a second stage an econometric analysis based on robust GMM estimators reveals an inverted ‘U’-shape relationship between oil consumption and economic efficiency. In order to capture heterogeneities among countries' development stages the analysis has been separated into two groups (advanced economies and developing/emerging economies). The results show that advanced economies have much higher turning points compared to emerging and developing economies. It appears that oil consumption increases countries' economic efficiency. In addition the consumption patterns of oil products and its derivatives have changed through years and among countries. The different turning points from the econometric analysis indicate the dependence of oil consumption in advanced economies (higher turning points) is driven mainly by household purchasing activities and their standards of living (transport, housing and water, food, etc.). Finally, it appears that oil consumption is the main driver behind the progress of industrialization and urbanization regardless of the country's development stage. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

An essay is presented on the class struggles of in the world with a focus on immigrants in developed countries. Topics include theories about class conflict with the bourgeosie and the proletariat by philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, mass migration in countries such as the U.S. and Canada, and the importance of immigration in solving problems such as the wealth gap and economic inequality between developed and developing countries in the world.

Following the Great Recession, many commentators are already forecasting a bleak economic future for developed economies over the next decade. Our research suggests, however, that there are ample opportunities for new growth and jobs in mature economies. Policymakers and business leaders can mine rich seams of growth through imaginative responses to oft-perceived challenges around aging populations, the transition to a low-carbon future, rising demands for public services, new information-based services, and growing demands in the emerging world for social and physical infrastructure. However, such growth will fail to materialize unless action is taken today to secure the necessary supply-side foundations for longer-term growth. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Global Commodity Chain (GCC) approach, the present study investigates the factors that influence the positions of developing nations within the governance structure of the international sex trafficking network. Previous research focuses on the influences of economic reforms or culture on countries' positions within the network, for both developing and developed nations. The present paper focuses on developing nations to avoid biasness, and to address contextual differences. We argue that in addition to economic reforms, other factors such as political conditions reflected in the level of corruption, and values pertaining to gender discrimination can influence a nation's position within the governance structure of the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies performed during the second half of the twentieth century on the relations between the patterns and growth rates of socio-economic development, the speed, shape and extent of deterioration phenomena of natural capital in developing and developed countries have shown that socio-economic development has always been accompanied by environmental damage. Analysis of these reports has stressed the need to develop strategies and action programs to reduce long-term socio-economic impact and to adapt these systems to the changes that occur in the structure, quality and functionality of natural capital components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report evidence of a time-varying link between returns on national stock market indexes and exchange rate returns (exchange rate exposure). We use this evidence to analyze the sources of changes over time in exchange rate exposure. Using monthly data for 14 industrialized countries for the period 1975-2006, we report evidence of a cointegration relation between exchange rate exposure and the industry composition of a country's imports, and weaker evidence of a cointegration relation between exchange rate exposure and openness to trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyber-crime's footprints across the developing world are getting bigger. The aim of this article is to examine the structure of cyber-crimes in developing economies. Its central idea is that economic and institutional factors facing cyber-criminals and potential victims in the developing world are different from those in the developed world. In economies characterised by low internet penetration rates and few resources devoted to fighting cyber-crimes, formal institutions related to such crimes tend to be thin and dysfunctional. A cyber-criminal is less likely to be stigmatised in such economies. Moreover, organisations' and individuals' technological and behavioural defence mechanisms are likely to be weaker. Many people in developing economies are also attracted into cyber-crime because of high unemployment and low wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an empirical assessment of a number of aspects of the reduction of market income inequality as a result of government taxes and transfers, and of the distributive effect of wage-bargaining institutions and minimum wages, in thirteen developed countries over the last twenty five years. It considers five broad themes in the literature: the median voter approach, which argues that government redistribution is associated with inequality of pre-government income; the power resources approach, which emphasizes partisan political contestation and electoral participation; the institutional approach, which focuses on political institutions such as the electoral system; the labor organization approach, which argues that labor unions play a key role in government efforts to achieve a more egalitarian distribution of market income; and the economic globalization approach, which argues that integration into the global economy has undermined public social protection efforts. The article finds consistent positive relationships between direct government redistribution and four variables: the extent of pre-government inequality; the level of electoral turnout; the share of the labor force that is unionized; and the presence of proportional representation electoral systems. As to wage-bargaining institutions, the article confirms that there is a positive relationship between the degree of coordination of wage bargaining and a relatively egalitarian distribution of earnings across various income groups, and (more weakly) between the level of statutory minimum wages in a country and the earnings share of the lowest-income group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper introduces a new framework for projecting potential growth of the world economy, emphasizing the contribution of information technology. We first analyze the sources of economic growth for the world economy, seven regions, and fourteen major economies during four periods—1989–1995, 1995–2000, 2000–2004, and 2004–2008. The contribution of investment in information technology has increased in all regions, but especially in industrialized economies and Developing Asia. We then project the potential growth rates of labor productivity and GDP for 122 economies over the ten-year period 2009–2019. Relative to historical growth for 1989–2008, we project lower growth rates for productivity and GDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Panel analysis of 21 industrial countries shows evidence for pro-cyclicality of capital gains on domestic stock markets over a medium term horizon. Thus, with cross-border ownership of portfolio equity investments, potential for hedging against domestic output fluctuations by means of the capital gains channel of foreign liabilities is found. Individual country analysis reveals substantial heterogeneity of cyclicality patterns. Evidence suggests that this cross-country variation can be explained by the level of economic development and the size of financial markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically investigates the effectiveness and feasibility of two FDI policies, fiscal incentives and deregulation, aimed at improving the attractiveness of a country in the short run. Using disaggregated data on sales by US MNEs’ foreign affiliates in 43 developed and developing countries over the 1982–94 period, results show that the provision of fiscal incentives or the deregulation of the labour market would exert a positive impact on total FDI. Given the drawbacks frequently associated with the use of incentive packages, economy-wide policies which ease firing procedures and reduce severance payments would certainly be the best policy option. This paper also highlights the different aggregation and omitted variable biases that have affected results of previous studies and provides some support to recent theoretical models of FDI by showing that third-country effects and spatial interdependence influence respectively the location of export-platform FDI and vertical FDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to identify the extent of inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide. A large number of countries were aggregated on a regional basis to examine their inward and outward stocks as a percentage of gross fixed capital formation for the period 1980-2006. Among the findings was that the annual increase for both inward and outward FDI was less than 1%. Also, countries grouped by the aggregates developed, Africa, Latin America and Caribbean, Asia and Oceania, and developing were found to differ significantly in their means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studies in Adult Education & Learning / Andragoška Spoznanja is the property of Andragoska Spoznanja and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We analyse the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) by multinational enterprises (MNEs), in developed economies (DCs). We compare between EU and non-EU DCs, in the context of an estimated equation derived from economic theory, which compares the main demand and supply-side determinants of FDI. We contribute to the literature in three ways. First, by comparing between European and non-European DCs. Second, by employing different proxies for the determinants in question. Third, by testing for the relative importance of total factor productivity (TFP) as a determinant of FDI in the two sets of countries. Our results are in line with theoretical predictions, but point to the special importance of TFP as a determinant par excellence of FDI in DCs. They also highlight differences even within developed, European and non-European counties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article considers historical economic data spanning approximately 200 years for 44 countries to consider the effects of increased public or government debt on economic growth. The article compares and contrasts economic models for both rich countries and emerging markets, or developing countries. Some of the countries considered include the U.S., Ireland, Norway, Chile, and India. Other subjects discussed include GDP (Gross Domestic Product), inflation, and government sponsored economic stimulus efforts to reduce the effect of the global financial crisis of 2007-2009.