Rise in Occupational Mobility Especially Amongst Women and Young People

Original Papers

Rise in Occupational Mobility Especially Amongst Women and Young PeopleSuccessful jobsearch often based on personal initiative     

Can France meet the Maastricht Criteria? slower economic growth poses new challenges to economic policy makers

Conclusion With its 1996 budget the French government has all but completely abandoned its election promises. At the same time, in economic policy terms it has gained credibility amongst its partners in the EU. Following the announcement of the fiscal consolidation measures the franc initially strengthened and the central bank was able to reduce short-term interest rates slightly for the first time since July 1994. There is still a chance that France will be able to meet the criteria for joining European Economic and Monetary Union if the country proves able to counter the current trend towards a weakening of economic growth in 1996 and 1997. Although the recent wave of strikes indicates that the cutbacks have gone as far as was possible, fiscal policy is not in a position to stimulate demand if it is to avoid undermining the aim of meeting the 3% criterion at the appointed time. This makes a perceptible cut in real interest rates all the more necessary. This in turn requires a substantial stimulus by the monetary authorities, and this is only conceivable within the framework of concerted action at European level.     

The Yen Exchange Rate and the Hollowing Out of the Japanese Industry

Open Economies Review - Since the demise of the Bretton Woods system, the yen has seen several episodes of strong appreciation, including in the late 1970s, after the 1985 Plaza Agreement, the...     

The Effectiveness of Unconventional Monetary Policy in Japan

Since the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, central bankers around the world have been forced to abandon conventional monetary policy tools in favor of unconventional policies such as quantitative easing, forward guidance, and even lowering the interest rate paid on bank reserves into negative territory. Japan, which faced a crisis in its banking sector and came up against the theoretical zero lower bound on interest rates nearly a decade earlier, was a pioneer in the use of many of these unconventional policy tools. This article analyzes the effectiveness of Japan’s bold experiment with unconventional monetary policy. Using a panel of bi-annual bank data covering the full universe of Japanese commercial banks over a fifteen-year period, this study analyzes the effectiveness of quantitative easing policy on the bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission. Our findings suggest that Japan’s unconventional monetary policy worked: there is a bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission in Japan. These results are robust to the inclusion of time fixed effects and generalized method of moments analysis.     

Trade creation and the status of FTAs: empirical evidence from East Asia

East Asia has been considered a latecomer with respect to Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Since the turn of the last century, however, FTAs with East Asian participation have seen an intra- and extra-regional expansion. Many trade initiatives have been proposed, negotiated or even implemented. This introduces interesting perspectives for the analysis of trade agreements regarding their anticipatory trade effects. This paper focuses on the trade impact of FTAs at different stages that East Asian economies participate in. The central part of this study is an econometric analysis that applies panel data to the gravity model of international trade flows. We augment the traditional model with variables to estimate trade effects of bilateral and multilateral agreements and year-to-year changes in the stages of their implementation. Our results reveal that there exist anticipatory effects preceding the actual implementation of bilateral FTAs with East Asian participation. Further, anticipation effects are larger for bilateral than for multilateral agreements, possibly because the realisation of bilateral agreements is considered more realistic.     

Discovering an accountant's tax accrual workpapers: Should auditors join the priveleged few?

This article explores the legal controversy over the limits of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) power to summons documents in an investigation of corporate income tax liability. The controversy focuses upon IRS access to an independent auditor's tax accrual workpapers. Required by federal securities laws, these workpapers record the accountant's predictions of the likelihood of successful IRS challenges to aggressive corporate tax positions. Routine IRS access to the tax accrual workpapers would stifle management's candid disclosure of questionable tax positions to the auditors. This article defines the limits of an auditor's work-product privilege premised on the social need for full disclosure of a company's contingent tax liabilities to assure the setting aside of adequate reserves to cover those contingencies. While the privilege should serve to protect those investing in American businesses, its primary purpose is to maintain a public trust in the integrity of certified financial statements.     

Toward the Development of a Global Financial Safety Net or a Segmentation of the Global Financial Architecture?

This article examines the prospects for the development of a comprehensive global financial safety net (GFSN). It discusses the optimal layout of the GFSN, comprising the International Monetary Fund, regional financing arrangements (RFAs), as well as bilateral or multilateral central bank swap arrangements, and the relationship between these. It then briefly reviews and appraises the current structure and functioning of these different layers of the GFSN and discusses the need and scope for strengthening cooperation between RFAs and the IMF. It argues that the GFSN is still very patchy and there is little reason to expect significant progress in better collaboration between RFAs and the IMF as long as the latter’s governance structure is not significantly revamped. Indeed, risks are that the GFSN will become even more fragmented with the further development of the European Stability Mechanism, and the emergence of the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement. To prevent a further fragmentation of the GFSN, substantial governance reform of the IMF is urgently needed.