Women and economic development

This article relates some experiences of local authority interventions in Wolverhampton which have contributed to effective economic development work with women. The intention is to highlight approaches and actions which we believe need to be incorporated into local authority economic strategy in order to address women's needs. We also aim to identify certain limiting factors arising from the national context. The paper is based on work undertaken by the authors whilst working for Wolverhampton Council.     

“Unanticipated consequences” in anti-poverty programs

Many anti-poverty programs have unanticipated consequences. A typology is provided, and one of its categories is illustrated with examples: insufficient attention to the economics of the institutions that implement anti-poverty programs. This in turn leads to practical suggestions for improving these institutions, especially through better information and incentives.     

Bimetallism: The “rules of the game”

Based on historical evidence found in Juglar and Bonnet that over the Bimetallic period French and British central banks did co-operate when using their discount rates as policy instruments for currency stabilization, we test whether Bimetallism was a regulated system or not. Our revised story of Bimetallism contrasts the existing literature which identifies this regime as a self-equilibrating system, constrained by specie points.     

“Keep silent and make money”: Institutional patterns of earnings management in China

Assessing the overall quality of Chinese financial data is important to both academic researchers and regulators. Using data from the industrial census of China, we examine the institutional pattern of the manipulation of reported profit statistics by manufacturing firms. This manipulation of profits is called “earnings management.” We find that earnings management is more pervasive in China than in mature market economies such as the U.S., and that Chinese firms appear to follow a “keep silent, make money” strategy by managing their reported earnings to zero. Specifically, we find that increased earnings management is associated with state-owned firms, firms reporting to higher levels of government, and firms in more marketized regions.