This paper explores the implications of a pandemic influenza outbreak on the global economy through a range of scenarios (mild, moderate, severe and ultra) that span the historical experience of influenza pandemics of the twentieth century. An influenza pandemic would be expected to lead to: a...

Copenhagen failed to produce an agreement on climate change commensurate with the scale of the problem, highlighting the fundamental weaknesses in the existing UN framework. Progress on a new agreement is agonisingly slow. Weightier commitments by the major emitters are necessary, but calls for...

In this Perspective, based on the 2007 Shann Memorial Lecture, Professor Warwick McKibbin outlines the key features that are needed in a new climate change framework beyond Kyoto, drawing on lessons from monetary history. Using the analogy of the way modern central banks run monetary policy, it...

The massive fiscal stimulus in the wake of the global financial crisis has refocused the international community onto the nature and role of infrastructure spending. Although this type of spending can provide a short-term demand stimulus to an economy, in the medium to longer term it can form a...

The authors identify as the primary cause of the East Asian crisis a fundamental reassessment of the profitability of investments in the region. They identify a number of secondary shocks as well, including interest risk premia, monetary expansion, and declines in output brought about by...

This paper examines the design of macroeconomic policies after Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) have joined the EU. We consider scenarios with and without CEECs being members of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and analyze consequences of different intermediate...