The information content of monetary aggregates in the U.K.

This paper presents some results evaluating the information content of several monetary aggregates, formed as simple sums or as Divisia quantity indices. The former tend to dominate the latter; there is considerable support for the new, broader, official monetary aggregate PSL2.     

Protection,the value of imports and optimal trade-restricting policies

Zusammenfassung Protektion, Einfuhrwerte und optimale Handelspolitik. — Optimale handelspolitische Ma\nahmen, die Eingriffe in den internationalen Handel vorsehen, um bei Unsicherheit die makroókonomischen Ziele des Schutzes der heimischen Produktion und der Begrenzung der Devisenausgaben für Importe zu verfolgen, sind in der Literatur wenig behandelt und beachtet worden. Soweit es Schrifttum gibt, erweist es sich als unzureichend. In diesem Artikel werden in einer allgemeinen Analyse zwei Theoreme über die Rangfolge m?glicher Handelsrestriktionen, die im Hinblick auf die zwei genannten Ziele ergriffen werden k?nnen, entwickelt. Es wird gezeigt, da\ unter bestimmten Bedingungen die Festsetzung entweder eines Wertzolls, eines Einfuhrkontingents oder eines spezifischen Zolls die beste handelspolitische Ma\nahme sein kann.

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Resumé La protection, la valeur des importations et les politiques commerciales optimum. — La considération des optimum politiques d’un effet restrictif au commerce international qui sont imposées, sous la condition de l’incertitude, pour réaliser les buts macroéconomiques de protéger la production industrielle locale et de reduire des dépenses importatrices a re?u peu d’attention dans la littérature. Les auteurs démontrent que la littérature existante est inadéquate. Ils offrent une analyse générale qui produit deux théorèmes sur le rang des possibles politiques restrictives commerciales pour les deux buts. Ils démontrent que, sous des conditions spécifiques, l’imposition d’un tarif ad valorem, d’un contingent ou d’un tarif spécifique peut être la meilleure politique.

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Resumen Protección, el valor de las importaciones y políticas óptimas de restricción del comercio. -La consideración de las políticas óptimas de restriccion del comercio a imponerse bajo incertidumbre para los objetivos de protejer la producción en la industria doméstica y contener el gasto externo en importaciones, ha recibido escasa atención en la literatura. La literatura que existe se demuestra ser inadecuada. Se ofrece un análisis general que propone dos teoremas sobre el rango de posibles politicas de restricción del comercio para los dos objetivos. Se demuestra que bajo ciertas condiciones la imposición de una tarifa ad valorem, o una cuota, o una tarifa especínca puede ser la mejor política.

     

James M. Buchanan: An appreciation

James M. Buchanan co-founded the field of Public Choice. He was influenced by Austrian economics, and in turn influenced Austrian economics. In particular, he advanced the understanding of subjectivist cost theory. His individualist approach to public policy making has been adopted by many Austrian economists. With Richard Wagner, he analyzed the politics of Keynesian economics. They explained why Keynesianism in practice led to a larger government, permanent deficits and inflationary monetary policy.     

Can ecotourism deliver real economic,social, and environmental benefits? A study of the Osa Peninsula,Costa Rica

Doubt persists about ecotourism's ability to make tangible contributions to conservation and deliver benefits for host communities. This work in Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula tests the hypothesis that ecotourism in this region is more effective at improving well-being for local residents, at enhancing their access to key resources and information, and at supporting biodiversity conservation than other locally available economic sectors. Data from 128 semi-structured interviews with local workers, both in ecotourism and in other occupations, together with associated research, indicate that ecotourism offers the best currently available employment opportunities, double the earnings of other livelihoods, and other linked benefits. Locally, ecotourism is viewed as the activity contributing most to improvements in residents’ quality of life in the Osa Peninsula and to increased levels of financial and attitudinal support for parks and environmental conservation. Ecolodge ownership by local people is substantial, and many local ecotourism workers plan to launch their own businesses. The data offer a convincing rebuttal to arguments that ecotourism does little to address poverty or disparities in access to resources and equally rebuts claims that ecotourism is simply a part of the “neoliberal conservation toolkit” that cannot help but exacerbate the very inequalities it purports to address.     

Testing the rational expectations and structural neutrality hypotheses: Some further results for the U.K.

In this paper we test directly for the restrictions implied by rational expectations and structural neutrality. The tests are direct in the sense that they employ theLucas output equation father than the approximations to it, which replace the lagged output term by lagged monetary shocks, commonly considered in the literature. The direct approach is considered preferable because it avoids these ad hoc approximations and saves significantly on degrees of freedom. The latter permits us to pursue a fully nested testing procedure, which was not possible in earlier work employing postwar U.K. annual data. The main result is that the rational expectations restrictions are not accepted.