Jurgen von Hagen - Böcker

The unprecedented rise and persistence of large-scale budget deficits in many developed and developing nations during the past three decades has caused great concern. The widespread presence of such deficits has proved difficult to explain. Their emergence in otherwise diverse nations defies particularistic explanations aimed at internal economic developments within a specific country. This work shifts emphasis away from narrow economic factors to more broadly defined political and institutional factors that affect government policy and national debt. The collection brings together theoretical models, empirical evidence and a series of case studies to analyze the effect of political institutions, fiscal regulations, and policy decisions on accumulating deficits. It provides an overview of the political and economic issues involved and highlights the role of budgetary institutions in the formation of budget deficits.

Focusing on the international dimension of macroeconomic policy, this handbook covers the main areas of modern macroeconomic policy in open economies. The emphasis is on policy applications rather than the development of economic theory. There are three basic goals: (1) an understanding of how economic theories affect actual policy making, (2) a description of the institutional and conceptual development of the international economy, and (3) an explanation of the way policy-making institutions deal with the so-called international economy.The handbook consists of an introductory chapter and four parts. The first treats macroeconomic policy-making from the home country versus the rest of the world perspective. The second part stresses policies among interacting and reacting countries. The third part considers the development of world capital markets and the international monetary system as important parts of the policy environment. The final part details macroeconomic policies in the G7 and Latin American countries.

The behaviour of fiscal authorities and their interplay with budgetary institutions are increasingly important areas of economic research, heightened by the move to the single currency in Europe. This volume provides a systematic analysis of the relevant issues.

When the European Monetary System (EMS) was created in 1978, economists on both sides of the Atlantic predicted its early failure. Today, EMS is alive and well, continuing to defy conventional economic wisdom. The authors address three major questions about the European Monetary System (EMS): how it came into being, how it works and how it may evolve into a fully-fledged monetary union.

When the European Monetary System (EMS) was created in 1978, economists on both sides of the Atlantic predicted its early failure. Today, EMS is alive and well, continuing to defy conventional economic wisdom. The authors address three major questions about the European Monetary System (EMS): how it came into being, how it works and how it may evolve into a fully-fledged monetary union.

Over the last 40 years odf the 20th century, the European Union has been a great force of attraction for new members. At the same time it has entered a host of bilateral and multilateral regional agreements with non-member countries. The result of these developments is a rather unique form of regionalism in Europe, consisting of deep integration within the European Union and a network of sometimes overlapping arrangements involving the Union. Regionalism in Europe: Geometries and After 2000 brings together a collection of studies of the nature and the implications of this unique regionalism in Europe written by a group of renowned economists from various countries. The issues discussed in this book range from theoretical and institutional aspects to empirical studies of the EU's regional policy, the regional implications of European Monetary Union, and empirical studies of the trade and welfare effects of regional arrangements between the EU and other countries.

The large and persistent deficits observed in many countries and the reform efforts undertaken to strengthen fiscal discipline have been the focus of a research programme in political economy. This book draws together contributions from two competing approaches, seeking to explain why deficits emerge and persist, the partisan approach and the institutionalist approach. The individual chapters, originally written for a research conference of the Centre for European Integration Studies at the University of Bonn, extend previous research and present new empirical evidence. The study also reports on three cases of institutional reform of the budget process in Belgium, Canada and Sweden.

The visible encroachment of industrial development on the environment, and its unintended consequences, has increased public demand for better environmental management and policy. As policy makers struggle to meet these demands, empirical analysis of the effects of environmental policies is crucial for guiding the development, implementation and evaluation of alternative government interventions and regulatory approaches. Such analysis is scarce, however. The need for empirical studies is particularly large in Europe, where environmental policy debates are still mainly theoretical and tend to reflect different ideological positions more than informed assessments of alternative policies. This study presents contributions on empirical environmental policy evaluation. The individual chapters, written by authors from Europe and the US, contain quantitative studies of proposed and implemented environmental policies, at both the micro- and macroeconomic levels.The policy issues studied in this volume include the "double dividend-hypothesis" of carbon taxation, the political economy of environmental policy development, the voluntary environmental efforts of corporations, the enforcement of environmental regulations, the development of environmental policies in transition economies and the implementation of environmental policies in the face of transboundary pollution.

Monetary union has dawned in Europe. Now that the common currency is a reality, questions concerning the practical conduct of monetary policy in the European Monetary Union (EMU) are moving to the forefront of the policy debate. Among these, one of the most critical is how the new monetary union will cope with the large heterogeneity of its member economies. Given the large differences in economic and financial structures among the EMU member states, monetary policy is likely to affect different member economies in different ways. Regional Aspects of Monetary Policy in Europe collects the proceedings of an international conference held at the Center for European Integration Studies of the University of Bonn, dedicated to this issue. The contributions to this conference fall into two parts. The first part consists of empirical and theoretical studies of the regional effects of monetary policy in heterogeneous monetary unions. The second part consists of papers analyzing the political economy of monetary policy in a monetary union of heterogeneous regions or member states.The papers all support the conclusion that regional differences in the responses to a common monetary policy will make European monetary policy especially difficult in the years to come. Such differences arise from a variety of sources, and they cannot be expected to be mere teething troubles that will disappear after a while. Even if they were ignored in the run-up to the EMU, Europe's central bankers and economic policy makers will have to learn how to cope with such differences in the future.

Monetary union has dawned in Europe. Now that the common currency is a reality, questions concerning the practical conduct of monetary policy in the European Monetary Union (EMU) are moving to the forefront of the policy debate. Among these, one of the most critical is how the new monetary union will cope with the large heterogeneity of its member economies. Given the large differences in economic and financial structures among the EMU member states, monetary policy is likely to affect different member economies in different ways. Regional Aspects of Monetary Policy in Europe collects the proceedings of an international conference held at the Center for European Integration Studies of the University of Bonn, dedicated to this issue. The contributions to this conference fall into two parts. The first part consists of empirical and theoretical studies of the regional effects of monetary policy in heterogeneous monetary unions. The second part consists of papers analyzing the political economy of monetary policy in a monetary union of heterogeneous regions or member states. The papers all support the conclusion that regional differences in the responses to a common monetary policy will make European monetary policy especially difficult in the years to come. Such differences arise from a variety of sources, and they cannot be expected to be mere teething troubles that will disappear after a while. Even if they were ignored in the run-up to the EMU, Europe's central bankers and economic policy makers will have to learn how to cope with such differences in the future.

Over the past 40 years, the European Union has been a great force of attraction for new members. At the same time it has entered a host of bilateral and multilateral regional agreements with non-member countries. The result of these developments is a rather unique form of regionalism in Europe, consisting of deep integration within the European Union and a network of sometimes overlapping arrangements involving the Union. Regionalism in Europe: Geometries and Strategies After 2000 brings together a collection of studies of the nature and the implications of this unique regionalism in Europe written by a group of renowned economists from various countries. The issues discussed in this book range from theoretical and institutional aspects to empirical studies of the EU's regional policy, the regional implications of European Monetary Union, and empirical studies of the trade and welfare effects of regional arrangements between the EU and other countries.

John W. Maxwell and Jiirgen von Hagen Kelley School of Business, Indiana University; ZEI, University of Bonn, Indiana University, and CEPR Prior to the 1970's, economic studies of the natural environment were chiefly concerned with the optimal extraction of natural resources such as oil, coal, and timber. This focus reflected the commonly held belief that the natural environmental was sufficient to sustain the world's population in relative comfort (at least in developed nations) and was "there for the taking". By the late 1960's, however, the spectacular levels of economic growth that had taken place since the Second World War began to exact a visible toll on the natural environment. This visibility prompted growing concern for the environment among activists, government officials, academics and the pUblic. This concern has followed a general upward, though cyclic, trend to the present day. Remarkable events during this trend include the issuing of the Brundtland report, and the world environmental summits help in Rio and Kyoto. Concern for the natural environment has impacted the discipline of economics, resulting in the birth of the field of environmental economics that has recently eclipsed in popularity its parent field of natural resource economics.

Rolf R. Strauch and Jiirgen von Hagen Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI), University of Bonn; ZEI, University of Bonn, Indiana University, and CEPR The large and persistent deficits, rising levels of debt and growing levels of public spending observed in many DECO economies during the past 25 years have stimulated much theoretical and empirical research on the political economy of public finance. Although a number of issues have been studied extensively, certain areas are still at an exploratory stage and need further theorizing and thorough empirical research. During the last two decades, the theoretical debate on budgeting has been dominated by the controversy between partisan and institutionalist approaches. Within the more political-science oriented, institutionalist literature, a controversy exists between the distributive and the informational perspectives, each setting forth a distinctive organizational rationale of parliaments with different fiscal implications. The papers in this volume cover these different perspectives, extend previous models, and test their empirical validity. The papers were originally written for a conference on "Institutions, Politics, and Fiscal Policy" organized by the Center for European Integration Studies at the University of Bonn, Germany, in July 1998. The book is organized in three parts each focusing on a distinctive aspect. The first part is dedicated to the partisan perspective. The second part focuses on budget institutions. The third part consists of three case studies of institutional reform of the budget process. This book is directed to academics and practitioners alike.

The ten countries joining the EU in 2004 will soon be forced to focus on the next big challenge of integration: their adoption of the euro.In this book, well-known economists and policymakers look at the next step in the integration process for accession countries: accession to European Monetary Union (EMU). They debate which monetary and exchange rate strategies are optimal during the run-up to EMU, and consider the conflict that may arise in trying to meet both the exchange rate stability and the Maastricht inflation criteria. The impossible trinity between monetary independence, exchange rate stability and free capital flows is also addressed, as is the question of the effects of structural changes on the real exchange rate. Estimates of the 'Balassa-Samuelson effect' on five of the new member states, and the experiences of Portugal and Greece in their run-up to EMU are discussed, and lessons for the economic policies of the new EU member states are illustrated.The distinguished list of contributors have published extensively in the relevant fields making Monetary Strategies for Joining the Euro a must-read for policymakers and economists interested in European studies. It will also be welcomed by those with an interest in the process of European integration.

What macroeconomic requirements must Turkey meet in its quest to accede to the European Union? This book, with its distinguished contributors - well-known economists and policymakers - examines and analyses these macroeconomic challenges confronting Turkey. Although the focus is on the specific situation of Turkey, the lessons are informative for other candidate countries and the findings directly relevant to the process of European integration.The book is divided into four parts:fiscal policies and sustainability of public financesmonetary policy challengespreconditions for euro adoptionsustainable regimes of capital movements.Each topic is studied in two consecutive papers, concentrating first on the challenges faced by the countries of the EU, and then by Turkey. Several papers review the experiences from the previous round of EU accession and the implications of these for Turkey.Macroeconomic Policies for EU Accession will appeal to policymakers, bureaucrats and academics interested in the macroeconomic problems of EU accession and European integration.