This is the first major joint presentation of macroeconomic models of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Its origin is a selection of the presentations at a seminar on macroeconomic modelling in the Nordic countries held in Lyngby, Denmark, 8-9 October 1984, sponsored by the Nordic Ministries of Finance.The book is concentrated around a thorough presentation of the main macroeconomic medium-term models used in government planning and policy-making in each of the four countries. These models are: in Denmark, ADAM, developed by the Central Statistical Office, in Finland, KESSU, developed within the Ministry of Finance, in Norway, MODAG, developed by the Central Bureau of Statistics, and in Sweden, EMMA, developed within the Ministry of Finance.An introduction to Nordic macroeconomic models is provided, as well as significant features of the institutional use of models within governments in these countries. On the basis of the data presented in the book, the effects of devaluation, wage increases and fiscal policy in the Nordic economies can be compared with each other as well as with other small open economies.
The purpose of this study is to investigate interrelations between planning mechanisms and disequilibria in a case where the planning decisions are centralized and are exogenously given to enterprises. The first introductory chapter is intended to provide an understanding of Poland's economic situation during the period under research. In the next five chapters the basic model, describing the households-planners relations in terms of consumption, labour, money and plans are derived, estimated, used for calculation of excess demands, for simulation of some monetary policies, and, finally, for providing optimal control experiments in which consumption excess demand is minimized on a reasonable level of the consumption volume. In the next two chapters the basic model is gradually extended, and the last chapter summarizes the results by formulating a more effective macroeconomic policy.
The aim of this volume is to examine and compare the trade policies followed by the most important trading nations of the world. Today there are few, if any, large scale studies of comparative trade such as this one. Moreover trade policies and controversies are expected to become even more important in the future.The volume offers an easily accessible overview of trade policies in each of the world's major trading countries. Thus, this handbook can be of great use to students of comparative economic systems in general and to economists, policymakers, and the general informed public, serving as a comprehensive source of reference and comparison. The references at the end of each chapter and the selected bibliography at the end of the volume identify the most important sources of additional information on the trade policies of the world's most important trading countries.
This book presents an overview of national economic policies in the world's most important countries or groupings of countries. The purpose of the volume is to examine and compare the policies followed by different types of countries and study their effects. Although numerous studies have been published on how individual countries conduct economic policies, few if any comparative studies, such as the present one, have been issued.This volume will be of great use to students of comparative economic systems in general and to economists, policymakers, and the general informed public as a source of reference and comparison.
The Czech Republic and Economic Transition in Eastern Europe is the first in-depth, comparative analysis of the Czech Republic's economic transition after the fall of the Communist bloc. Edited by Jan Svejnar,a principal architect of the Czech economic transformation and Economic Advisor to President Vaclav Havel, the book poses important questions about the Republic and its partners in Central and Eastern Europe. The thirty-five essayists describe the country's macroeconomic performance; its development of capital markets; the structure and performance of its industries; its unemployment, household behavior, and income distribution; and the environmental and health issues it faces.In this in-depth, comparative analysis of the Czech Republic's economic transition, an international team of thirty-five economists examine the Republic and its partners in Central and Eastern Europe. Important questions and issues permeate the essays. For example, prior to 1939 the Czech Republic possessed the most advanced economy in the region; is it capable of reestablishing its dominance? Relative to its neighbors, the Republic ranks especially high on some transition-related performance indicators but low on others. What economic effects are related to the 1993 dissolution of the Czech and Slovak governments? And what can be learned by comparing the economic outcomes of two countries that shared legal and institutional frameworks? Data describe the country's macroeconomic performance; its development of capital markets; the structure and performance of its industries; its unemployment, household behavior, and income distribution; and the environmental and health issues facing it. Its most important contributions are its clarifications of the transition process.The authors included in Transforming Czechoslovakia combine the best available data and techniques of economic analysis to assess the replacement of the inefficient but internally consistent central planning system with a more efficient market system. These authors, among whom are central European economic analysts, senior U.S. economists, and Czechoslovakian professors and economic researchers, discuss the country's macroeconomic performance; its development of capital markets; the structure and performance of its industries; its unemployment, household behavior, and income distribution; and the environmental and health issues facing it. The essays vary between presentations of history and policy and technical examinations of data. Together they offer the most comprehensive and detailed assessment of the country's economic transformation in print.This book is important because its essayists compile results and reach conclusions that are broad and credible. The empirical data were gathered on the ground and have been subjected to advanced methodologies, including game theory, industrial organization, and Granger-Sims causality.
The object of this book is to compare the macroeconomic characteristics of the French and German economies. It focusses on the effect of stabilization policy and of international disturbances and tries to find out the trade-offs of economic policy. The study is based on a simulation analysis using large-scale econometric models of the two countries. Instead of using models as black boxes the dynamic structures are compared in considerable detail. This entails decomposing the models into blocs of strategic sets of equations. Comparing bloc by bloc allows one to distinguish between the contribution of various economic processes (price-wage dynamics, monetary mechanism, multiplier-accelerator interaction) to macroeconomic performance.Main features: Franco-German comparison of macroeconomic response to policy measures and international shocks; Evaluation of policy trade-offs; Detailed institutional and historical background to macro-policy in France and Germany.
Contained in this book are studies related to the computation of purchasing power parities for comparing real income and product among Latin American countries. The principal components of income and product comparisons are discussed: from designing and executing benchmark studies, to extrapolating results for non-benchmark years. Different comparative methods and measurement techniques, including index number formulations, are considered. Comparisons of Latin countries with other countries are also undertaken.This volume aims to illuminate the thorny theoretical and methodological issues involved in regional comparisons, and to facilitate the practical application of the comparative approach to the many sided policy problems generated by a rapidly integrating international economy.
Recent international economic events have demonstrated the vulnerability of individual countries to external disturbances, or `shocks'. Such disturbances necessitate major adjustments to developing countries' trade behaviour, and therefore also to their domestic economies.This volume is an integrated theoretical and econometric study of the impact of global economic changes on the developing Turkish economy during the period 1970-1983. Structural adjustment is defined and presented in the context of a small open economy reacting to external shocks. The interaction of government and private sector is incorporated explicitly in an intertemporal model through examination of dynamic game equilibria, and the implications of this interaction for the effectiveness of stabilization and liberalization policies are explored. This theoretical structure provides the structure for macroeconomic estimation. The estimated model then is employed for an econometric decomposition of Turkish historical economic experience into portions due to various external shocks and government policy changes.The theoretical section demonstrates the necessity of consideration of government/private interactions when measuring and evaluating structural adjustment policies. The econometric results confirm the importance of such analysis for Turkey, and provide evidence of the impact of various government policies on aggregate consumption, investment, inflation and current account deficits.This book will be of use to both international and development economists as a systematic and insightful examination of structural adjustment in Turkey, as well as a template for similar analyses for other open economies.