The ongoing Great Financial Crisis that began in 2007–2008 has dramatically called into question the previously dominant neoliberal approach to macroeconomic and financial policy. Unfortunately, these lessons are being learned in a highly uneven manner – and in some important...

Summarizes employment oriented macroeconomic and financial policies that governments in developing countries can adopt to help promote more and better employment as a key to reducing poverty over the medium to long run.

This paper presents an employment targeting (ET) framework as an alternative to an inflation targeting monetary policy framework for South Africa. The framework incorporates some of the advantages normally claimed for a targeting framework - namely, enhancing transparency and accountability -...

This study explores the determinants of investment using both aggregated industry-level data and disaggretated data on 27 sub-sectors of the manufacturing sector for the period 1970-2001. According to the results in this study, the government has potentially powerful means at its disposal to...

Aging populations have altered saving and investment patterns in many developed and emerging market economies. The structural changes that have occurred have important implications for financial stability and for the conduct of monetary policy. As assets and borrowing shifted from banks to...

This paper presents new non-linear regression estimates of the relationship between inflation and economic growth for 80 countries over the period 1961 – 2000. We perform tests using the full sample of countries as well as sub-samples consisting of OECD countries, middle-income countries, and...

The monetary policy that culminated in the current crisis and the failure of the Federal Reserve’s efforts to end the credit freeze in 2008 are critical components of the analysis needed as a backdrop for reform. This working paper argues that the link between excess liquidity, the buildup in...

Keynesian economists have generally supported quantitative easing (QE) on grounds it increases aggregate demand and anything that increases demand at this time of demand shortage is welcome. This paper argues that response may be misplaced. QE may back fire with respect to demand stimulus,...