Beyond Twin Deficits

A bstract This paper outlines new developments in the sociology of money. It highlights certain aspects of Post Keynesian monetarism and explores Keynesian concepts of emotions relative to economics and economic sociology. Gunnar Myrdal's work on time and money contributes to the discussion. Underdeveloped areas of discourse in both sociology and economics are identified and the resulting superficiality of references to money are examined. Sociology, for example, has historically neglected concepts of future time and money, while economics has paid little attention to emotions and organizations. Removing these orthodox barriers allows economics to be informed by concepts previously relegated to sociology, such as emotions of trust and confidence. This process may induce the disaffected from both disciplines to draw from each other, creating an alternative, and ultimately more satisfactory understanding of money.     

A meta-analysis of community-based studies on quality protein maize

Biofortification, or the improvement of nutritional quality in food crops, is a promising strategy to combat undernutrition, particularly among the rural poor in developing countries. However, traditional methods of impact assessment are inadequate for biofortified crops, as they do not consider their nutritional benefits. Evidence for the nutritional impact of maize varieties with improved protein quality, collectively known as quality protein maize (QPM), was evaluated using meta-analysis of randomized, controlled studies in target communities. A new and generalizable effect size was proposed to quantify the impact of QPM on a key outcome, child growth. The results indicated that consumption of QPM instead of conventional maize leads to a 12% (95% CI: 7–18%) increase in the rate of growth in weight and a 9% (95% CI: 6–15%) increase in the rate of growth in height in infants and young children with mild to moderate undernutrition from populations in which maize is the major staple food. The proposed effect size and use of bootstrapping to determine statistical significance addressed some methodological limitations in the existing studies.     

What If the Leader of the Central Bank Told Hilarious Jokes and Did Card Tricks? A Panel of Experts

Abstract . A panel of distinguished experts discuss the linkages (if any) between monetary policy and the personality of the nation's central banker. Why is the personality of a central banker important to monetary stability and financial leadership? What follows is a written edited version of the short papers that were presented at this panel. The panel was held in Olin Auditorium on Tuesday, April 25, 2006, as part of the Carpenter Lecture Series at Babson College.     

A New Financial Infrastructure to Recover the Loss of Trust?

This paper examines four sets of proposals for a new financial infrastructure in the wake of the global financial crisis. It is argued that two concerns should inform us about the way forward. First, uncertainty cannot be ignored because money relies on trust. Second, we live in an increasingly impersonal world with many diverse peoples now involved in the global financial industry. Each proposal is assessed in terms of sociological worries about the decline of trust.