Policy Responses (policy + response)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Humanities and Social Sciences


Selected Abstracts


Increasing Support for Those on Lower Incomes: Is the Saving Gateway the Best Policy Response?

FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2003
Carl Emmerson
Abstract The government is committed to introducing a new savings account for people on lower incomes. This will provide a strong incentive for eligible individuals to save, or at least to hold financial assets, in these accounts. This paper describes possible rationales for this government intervention. It then presents new evidence on the characteristics of people with lower incomes and finds that many already have some financial assets, while those who do not often appear to have good reasons for why they may not want to be currently saving. The result is that the proposed Saving Gateway will be extremely difficult to target at those who might benefit in the way the government hopes. The danger is that the policy will be expensive relative to the number of genuine new savers and savings that it generates. [source]


Children Caring for Parents with HIV and AIDS: Global Issues and Policy Responses

HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 5 2010
Margaret Rogers Dr
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


The Diverse Housing Needs of Rural to Urban Migrants and Policy Responses in China: Insights from a Survey in Fuzhou

IDS BULLETIN, Issue 4 2010
Liyue Lin
Based on a survey of rural-urban migrants and subsequent in-depth interviews in Fuzhou, the capital city of Fujian Province in China, this article first provides a brief review of migrants' housing conditions, and assesses the current approaches in meeting their housing needs and security. We then examine migrants' housing needs in the context of their mobility and their diversified migration flows, demonstrating that migrants have different housing needs from local urban residents, and among themselves. The article also explores the policy implications of this analysis, and makes policy recommendations, focusing mainly on redefining the roles of the state and the necessity of making policies to meet the diversified needs of rural,urban migrants in the provision of housing and housing security. [source]


Introduction: The Global Financial Crisis, Developing Countries and Policy Responses

IDS BULLETIN, Issue 5 2009
Neil McCulloch
How is the global financial crisis affecting developing countries and what should policy responses be? This is the subject of this IDS Bulletin. In this introduction, we summarise the key findings of a set of research projects on the financial crisis undertaken at IDS between February and April 2009 and propose policy responses. [source]


Local Policy Responses to Globalization: Place-Based Ownership Models of Economic Enterprise

POLICY STUDIES JOURNAL, Issue 1 2003
David L. Imbroscio
The destabilizing forces wrought by economic globalization increasingly buffet local communities throughout America. This article explores a local policy strategy for coping with the effects of these forces and restoring some degree of stability to local economies. This strategy entails the creation of place-based ownership models of economic enterprise. With ownership and control held in a more collective or community-oriented fashion, such enterprises tend to anchor or root investment more securely in communities, providing a counterforce to globalization. We present and critically assess six place-based ownership models while providing illustrative examples to demonstrate how each model can work in practice. [source]


China and the Global Financial Crisis: Assessing the Impacts and Policy Responses

CHINA AND WORLD ECONOMY, Issue 3 2010
Yan Liang
F40; O11; O53 Abstract The present paper explores the role of China in the creation of the current global financial crisis and the impacts of the crisis on its economy. It argues against the view that the "saving glut" in China (along with other Asian emerging economies) played a significant causal role in the crisis. The global financial crisis did not engender much damage in China's financial structure, thanks to the relatively closed, bank-centered financial system. However, the impacts on the "real" side of the Chinese economy were hard felt. Growth and employment have fallen, largely due to the decline in exports and foreign direct investment. The crisis reveals the vulnerability of the export-dependent growth pattern. Policy responses of the Chinese Government, including monetary, fiscal and social policies, have helped to stem the downfall of the economy in the immediate term, but some of the policies have not addressed the structural problems of the Chinese economy and might well aggravate such problems over time. The present paper proposes a tentative reform blueprint to rebalance the economy and to sustain long-term growth. [source]


Endowments: Stable Largesse or Distortion of the Polity?

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 3 2007
Renée A. Irvin
As ever more private resources are held in foundations and nonprofit organizations' endowment funds, more scholars and practitioners are demanding that these assets be put to good use immediately. Those favoring the preservation of capital,primarily representing private foundations,sound unnecessarily cautious. This article examines endowment conservation from a variety of critical angles, finding strong rationales for both conserving and liquidating endowments. Policy responses to the buildup of endowment assets include requiring a faster payout or regulating the amount and type of administrative expenses included in annual payout. This article reviews the relationship of the business cycle and wealth distribution to annual giving. The most prudent course, in view of the cyclical nature of giving as well as the substantial generational wealth currently held by elders, appears to be to conserve significant assets now in order to establish a stable flow of future social benefits. [source]


China and the Global Financial Crisis: Assessing the Impacts and Policy Responses

CHINA AND WORLD ECONOMY, Issue 3 2010
Yan Liang
F40; O11; O53 Abstract The present paper explores the role of China in the creation of the current global financial crisis and the impacts of the crisis on its economy. It argues against the view that the "saving glut" in China (along with other Asian emerging economies) played a significant causal role in the crisis. The global financial crisis did not engender much damage in China's financial structure, thanks to the relatively closed, bank-centered financial system. However, the impacts on the "real" side of the Chinese economy were hard felt. Growth and employment have fallen, largely due to the decline in exports and foreign direct investment. The crisis reveals the vulnerability of the export-dependent growth pattern. Policy responses of the Chinese Government, including monetary, fiscal and social policies, have helped to stem the downfall of the economy in the immediate term, but some of the policies have not addressed the structural problems of the Chinese economy and might well aggravate such problems over time. The present paper proposes a tentative reform blueprint to rebalance the economy and to sustain long-term growth. [source]


Economic Policy and Women's Informal Work in South Africa

DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 5 2001
Imraan Valodia
This article examines the gender dimensions of the growth in informal and flexible work in South Africa and the government's policy response to this. It outlines the growth in informal and flexible work practices and, as illustrative examples, analyses how trade and industrial policies and labour market policies are impacting on the growth of informal and flexible work. It is argued that the South African government's trade and industrial policies are shifting the economy onto a path of capital intensification. Allied to this, firms are undergoing a process of extensive restructuring. These developments are further promoting the growth of flexibilization and informalization, and thereby disadvantaging women. The article demonstrates that whilst the government offers a vast package of support measures to big business, its policy is largely irrelevant to the survivalist segment of small business, where most women in the informal economy are to be found. The picture for labour policy is more diverse. Aspects of the labour legislation are promoting the growth of a dual labour market, whilst there seems to be some tightening up of practices aimed at bypassing aspects of the protection provided to workers. [source]


Other people, other drugs: the policy response to petrol sniffing among Indigenous Australians

DRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 3 2004
Dr PETER H. D'ABBS
Abstract This paper examines the policy response of Australian governments to petrol sniffing in Indigenous communities from the 1980s until the present. During this period, despite the formation of numerous inquiries, working parties and intergovernmental committees, there has been little accumulation of knowledge about the nature and causes of sniffing, or about the effectiveness of interventions. Policies are fragmentary; programmes are rarely evaluated, and most rely on short-term funding. The paper sets out to explain why this should be so. It draws upon a conceptual framework known as ,analytics of government' to examine the ways in which petrol sniffing comes to the attention of government agencies and is perceived as an issue; the mechanisms deployed by governments to address petrol sniffing; ways in which knowledge about sniffing is generated; and the underlying assumptions about people that inform policy-making. Drawing upon case studies of policy responses, the paper argues that a number of structural factors combine to marginalize petrol sniffing as an issue, and to encourage reliance on short-term, one-off interventions in place of a sustained policy commitment. Four recommendations are advanced to help overcome these factors: (1) agreements should be reached within and between levels of government on steps to be taken to reduce risk factors before the eruption of petrol-sniffing crises; (2) the evidence base relevant to petrol sniffing (and other inhalants) should be improved by funding and directing one or more existing national drug research centres to collate data on inhalant-caused mortality and morbidity, and to conduct or commission research into prevalence patterns, effectiveness of interventions and other gaps in knowledge; (3) the current pattern of short-term, pilot and project funding should be replaced with longer-term, evidence-based interventions that address the multiple risk and protective factors present in communities; and (4) insistence by governments that communities must take ,ownership' of the problem should be replaced by a commitment to genuine partnerships involving governments, non-government and community sectors. [source]


Housing, credit and the euro: the policy response

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK, Issue 4 2003
John Muellbauer
HM Treasury produced its long-awaited assessment of the five economic tests in June, having signalled the basic decision months in advance. The Treasury sees important impediments to adopting the Euro in UK housing and credit markets, and makes some proposals for further investigation and policy. In this paper, John Muellbauer considers the policy options. [source]


Measuring the Time Inconsistency of US Monetary Policy

ECONOMICA, Issue 297 2008
PAOLO SURICO
This paper offers an alternative explanation for the great inflation of the 1970s by measuring a novel source of monetary policy time inconsistency. In the presence of asymmetric preferences, the monetary authorities generate a systematic inflation bias through the private-sector expectations of a larger policy response in recessions than in booms. The estimated Fed's implicit target for inflation has declined from the pre- to the post-Volcker regime. The average inflation bias was about 1% before 1979, but this has disappeared over the last two decades, because the preferences on output stabilization were large and asymmetric only in the former period. [source]


Women in Science, Engineering and Technology: A Review of The Issues

HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2002
Diane Bebbington
Concern continues to be expressed over women's difficulties in advancing their careers as academic scientists. Though some sciences may be numerically ,feminised', few women reach the upper echelons of science. Scant attention has been paid to issues of the progression of women from non,traditional backgrounds, such as those from ethnic minorities, who may be particularly disadvantaged. What research there is indicates a variation between the sciences in terms of women's careers and patterns that are replicated globally. Explanations are now focusing on how the scientific culture itself acts as a barrier to women rather than on the notion that women themselves lack the requisite skills. The Athena Project is a policy response to this issue. Future research and policy needs to look more closely at differences between the sciences, how women from diverse backgrounds experience the academic labour market and epistemological connections between employment and engagement with the scientific agenda. [source]


Family Changes in the Context of Lowest-Low Fertility: The Case of Japan

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF JAPANESE SOCIOLOGY, Issue 1 2008
Makoto Atoh
Abstract: Japan has currently one of the lowest-low fertility rates in the world. Low fertility in Japan is due to the extreme postponement of marriage and childbearing, and their weak recuperation in women in their 30s, as well as very low levels of cohabitation and extra-marital fertility. Both changing and unchanged aspects of families are related to lowest-low fertility in Japan. Although premarital sexual activities have increased, women's contraceptive initiative is very weak: they may be connected with weak partnership formation. "Parasite singles", "freeters", or "NEETs", probably related to weak family formation, have increased, but they may be connected with strong filial bondage derived from the traditional family system, i.e. Women have been normatively, educationally, and occupationally emancipated, but gender norms are currently divided in half among Japanese people, which may deter the revising of working conditions for women with children, leading to delaying family formation among working women. Lowest-low fertility conversely brings about family changes. Its direct effect is the increase of lifetime celibacy and childless couples, which may jeopardize the universality of families. Its indirect effect is through policy response to low fertility as well as labor shortages and population aging: recently, both family and labor policies have been strengthened to make it easier for working women to continue their jobs after marriage and childbirth, which might in turn promote family formation in Japan. [source]


Was Arthur Andersen Different?

JOURNAL OF EMPIRICAL LEGAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2004
An Empirical Examination of Major Accounting Firm Audits of Large Clients
Enron and other corporate financial scandals focused attention on the accounting industry in general and on Arthur Andersen in particular. Part of the policy response to Enron, the criminal prosecution of Andersen eliminated one of the few major audit firms capable of auditing many large public corporations. This article explores whether Andersen's performance, as measured by frequency of financial restatements, measurably differed from that of other large auditors. Financial restatements trigger significant negative market reactions and their frequency can be viewed as a measure of accounting performance. We analyze the financial restatement activity of approximately 1,000 large public firms from 1997 through 2001. After controlling for client size, region, time, and industry, we find no evidence that Andersen's performance significantly differed from that of other large accounting firms. [source]


Monetary Policy with an Endogenous Capital Stock When Inflation is Persistent

THE MANCHESTER SCHOOL, Issue S1 2002
Richard Mash
The paper presents a monetary policy model with an endogenous capital stock when a backward,looking element in wage setting causes inflation persistence. We analyse how the endogeneity of the capital stock changes the macroeconomic dynamics with which policy interacts and its implications for optimal policy and time inconsistency. Capital stock endogeneity makes inflation more persistent in reduced form. This makes the optimal contemporaneous policy response to shocks more vigorous but the subsequent return to steady state more gradual. Observed output becomes more serially correlated. Capital endogeneity can also give rise to disinflation bias under discretion for some parameter values. [source]


Independent living units: Managing and renewing an ageing stock

AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL ON AGEING, Issue 3 2007
Sean McNelis
Objectives:,To report on a key challenge (and its implications) that Australian not-for-profit organisations face as they manage and renew an ageing stock of independent living units (ILUs) for older people. Methods:,A national survey of ILU organisations complemented by 28 interviews with ILU managers, peak aged care organisations and government officers, and five workshops with ILU managers. Results:,ILUs are a policy response to the housing needs of older people with low income and limited assets. However, ILU organisations face significant challenges as the overall condition of ILUs deteriorates, as they seek to meet higher expectations and as they move into a phase of renewal. Conclusions:,The future of ILU organisations is at a watershed, with many reconsidering their role as providers of ILUs. Any extensive reduction in ILUs will have implications for older people, for public housing providers and for delivery of community care to older renters. [source]


,From awareness to practice': children, domestic violence, and child welfare

CHILD ABUSE REVIEW, Issue 4 2006
Mark Rivett
Abstract This paper traces the development of social care practice in relation to child witnesses of domestic violence. It suggests that this development has been dominated by subsuming the needs of these children into a child protection process. The paper outlines how this has led to significant (but often unclear) legal and policy initiatives which have failed, as yet, to be translated into practice. The paper argues that there are a number of important reasons why child witnesses of domestic violence should not always be assumed to need the response of a child protection system and that a future practice, legal and policy response should be based on a wider understanding of their needs. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


The Impact of AIDS on Rural Households in Africa: A Shock Like Any Other?

DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2002
Carolyn Baylies
In areas where HIV prevalence is high, household production can be significantly affected and the integrity of households compromised. Yet policy responses to the impact of HIV/AIDS have been muted in comparison to outcomes of other shocks, such as drought or complex political emergencies. This article looks at the reasons for the apparent under,reaction to AIDS, using data from Zambia, and examines recent calls to mitigate the effects of AIDS at household level. Critical consideration is directed at proposals relating to community safety nets, micro,finance and the mainstreaming of AIDS within larger poverty alleviation programmes. It is argued that effective initiatives must attend to the specific features of AIDS, incorporating both an assault on those inequalities which drive the epidemic and sensitivity to the staging of AIDS both across and within households. A multi,pronged approach is advocated which is addressed not just at mitigation or prevention, but also at emergency relief, rehabilitation and development. [source]


Disaster risk, climate change and international development: scope for, and challenges to, integration

DISASTERS, Issue 1 2006
Lisa Schipper
Abstract Reducing losses to weather-related disasters, meeting the Millennium Development Goals and wider human development objectives, and implementing a successful response to climate change are aims that can only be accomplished if they are undertaken in an integrated manner. Currently, policy responses to address each of these independently may be redundant or, at worst, conflicting. We believe that this conflict can be attributed primarily to a lack of interaction and institutional overlap among the three communities of practice. Differences in language, method and political relevance may also contribute to the intellectual divide. Thus, this paper seeks to review the theoretical and policy linkages among disaster risk reduction, climate change and development. It finds that not only does action within one realm affect capacity for action in the others, but also that there is much that can be learnt and shared between realms in order to ensure a move towards a path of integrated and more sustainable development. [source]


Food Security in Protracted Crises: Building More Effective Policy Frameworks

DISASTERS, Issue 2005
Margarita Flores
This paper considers the principal elements that underpin policy frameworks for supporting food security in protracted crisis contexts. It argues that maintaining the food entitlements of crisis-affected populations must extend beyond interventions to ensure immediate human survival. A ,policy gap' exists in that capacities for formulating policy responses to tackle the different dimensions of food insecurity in complex, fluid crisis situations tend to be weak. As a result, standardised, short-term intervention designs are created that fall short of meeting the priority needs of affected populations in the short and long term and only partially exploit the range of policy options available. The paper discusses key attributes of agency frameworks that could support more effective policy processes to address longer term as well as immediate food security needs. Additionally, it points to some main challenges likely to be encountered in developing such frameworks and, with the participation of beneficiaries, translating them into effective action. [source]


Constructing Vulnerability: The Historical, Natural and Social Generation of Flooding in Metropolitan Manila

DISASTERS, Issue 3 2003
Greg Bankoff
Flooding is not a recent hazard in the Philippines but one that has occurred throughout the recorded history of the archipelago. On the one hand, it is related to a wider global ecological crisis to do with climatic change and rising sea levels but on the other hand, it is also the effect of more localised human activities. A whole range of socio-economic factors such as land use practices, living standards and policy responses are increasingly influencing the frequency of natural hazards such as floods and the corresponding occurrence of disasters. In particular, the reason why flooding has come to pose such a pervasive risk to the residents of metropolitan Manila has its basis in a complex mix of inter-relating factors that emphasise how the nature of vulnerability is constructed through the lack of mutuality between environment and human activity over time. This paper examines three aspects of this flooding: first, the importance of an historical approach in understanding how hazards are generated; second, the degree of interplay between environment and society in creating risk; and third, the manner in which vulnerability is a complex construction. [source]


Other people, other drugs: the policy response to petrol sniffing among Indigenous Australians

DRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 3 2004
Dr PETER H. D'ABBS
Abstract This paper examines the policy response of Australian governments to petrol sniffing in Indigenous communities from the 1980s until the present. During this period, despite the formation of numerous inquiries, working parties and intergovernmental committees, there has been little accumulation of knowledge about the nature and causes of sniffing, or about the effectiveness of interventions. Policies are fragmentary; programmes are rarely evaluated, and most rely on short-term funding. The paper sets out to explain why this should be so. It draws upon a conceptual framework known as ,analytics of government' to examine the ways in which petrol sniffing comes to the attention of government agencies and is perceived as an issue; the mechanisms deployed by governments to address petrol sniffing; ways in which knowledge about sniffing is generated; and the underlying assumptions about people that inform policy-making. Drawing upon case studies of policy responses, the paper argues that a number of structural factors combine to marginalize petrol sniffing as an issue, and to encourage reliance on short-term, one-off interventions in place of a sustained policy commitment. Four recommendations are advanced to help overcome these factors: (1) agreements should be reached within and between levels of government on steps to be taken to reduce risk factors before the eruption of petrol-sniffing crises; (2) the evidence base relevant to petrol sniffing (and other inhalants) should be improved by funding and directing one or more existing national drug research centres to collate data on inhalant-caused mortality and morbidity, and to conduct or commission research into prevalence patterns, effectiveness of interventions and other gaps in knowledge; (3) the current pattern of short-term, pilot and project funding should be replaced with longer-term, evidence-based interventions that address the multiple risk and protective factors present in communities; and (4) insistence by governments that communities must take ,ownership' of the problem should be replaced by a commitment to genuine partnerships involving governments, non-government and community sectors. [source]


The operating costs of taxation: a review of the research

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2001
Chris Evans
This paper considers key aspects of the literature on the operating costs of taxation, identifying the factors that have led to its development and evaluating its impact on policy responses to compliance and administrative costs issues. It starts by identifying the key components of the operating costs of the taxation system. The paper then identifies the main research trends over the past 60 years or so around the world, placing current concerns about taxation compliance and administrative costs within a broader - deregulatory - context and analyzing governmental responses to concerns about compliance costs highlighted by the literature. Finally, it offers some tentative views on the likely directions that research in the area may take in the coming decades. [source]


From Great Depression to Great Credit Crisis: similarities, differences and lessons

ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 62 2010
Miguel Almunia
Summary The Great Depression of the 1930s and the Great Credit Crisis of the 2000s had similar causes but elicited strikingly different policy responses. While it remains too early to assess the effectiveness of current policy, it is possible to analyse monetary and fiscal responses in the 1930s as a natural experiment or counterfactual capable of shedding light on the impact of current policies. We employ vector autoregressions, instrumental variables, and qualitative evidence for 27 countries in the period 1925,39. The results suggest that monetary and fiscal stimulus was effective -- that where it did not make a difference it was not tried. They shed light on the debate over fiscal multipliers in episodes of financial crisis. They are consistent with multipliers at the higher end of those estimated in the recent literature, and with the argument that the impact of fiscal stimulus will be greater when banking systems are dysfunctional and monetary policy is constrained by the zero bound. --- Miguel Almunia, Agustín Bénétrix, Barry Eichengreen, Kevin H. O'Rourke and Gisela Rua [source]


Macroeconomics and Politics Revisited: Do central banks Matter?

ECONOMICS & POLITICS, Issue 1 2000
M. Lossani
This paper provides a model encompassing both partisan influences on monetary policy and the issue of central bank independence. In a regime of partial independence, central bank's policy responses are not immune from partisan influences. Still, the latter fail to affect systematically the expected output level in election years. The predictions of the model are consistent with the empirical literature on partisan cycles and account for some of its controversial findings. [source]


AIChE offers technological insights to the public policy debate on global climate change

ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRESS & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, Issue 3 2000
David E. Gushee
Global climate change has been a major issue on the national political agenda since 1988. Several Committees on Capitol Hill conducted hearings concerning the heat waves then searing the nation. Testimony by several well-regarded scientists at those hearings that "we ain't seen nothing yet" led to impressive headlines in the national media. Since then, unusually high temperatures, a succession of forecasts of serious negative impacts from the projected continued warming, and well-publicized Congressional hearings led to the creation of the United Nation's Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol. As a result, climate change is on just about every technology organization's agenda. In 1996, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers joined the list of organizations formally responding to the issue. The Government Relations Committee (GRC) formed a Task Force on Climate Change, made up of Institute members active in a number of aspects of the issue area. The charge to the Task Force: Look for opportunities for the Institute to contribute to the public policy debate on the issue and frame position papers accordingly. The first major conclusion of the Task Force was that AIChE is not in a position to state whether or not global climate change is a real public policy problem. However, to the extent that the public policy process treats climate change as an issue, the Institute is well positioned to comment on the technical merits of proposed policy responses. The Task Force recommended this posture to the GRC, which agreed. [source]


Moving Mountains: will qualifications systems promote lifelong learning?

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, Issue 4 2007
PATRICK WERQUIN
This article aims at providing a check list of possible mechanisms to trigger more and better lifelong learning from within the national qualifications system. It analyses the existing policy responses to the lifelong learning agenda in the countries under study and identifies possible mechanisms within the qualifications system that could impact on the behaviour of the many stakeholders. There are many other ways to impact on lifelong learning but they are not addressed in this article which focuses on the role of national qualifications systems. Two mechanisms in particular are studied in more detail because they seem to be at the top of the research and policy agenda of many countries: qualifications frameworks and recognition of non-formal and informal learning systems. [source]


Doctoral and Postdoctoral Education in Science and Engineering: Europe in the international competition

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, Issue 4 2005
PHILIPPE MOGUÉROU
In this article, we discuss the recent evolutions of science and engineering doctoral and postdoctoral education in Europe. Indeed, Ph.Ds are crucial to the conduct of research and innovation in the national innovation systems, as they provide a large amount of input into creating the competitive advantage, notably through basic research. First, we show that Asia, and notably China, is producing more Ph.Ds than the United States and Europe. In many EU countries, the number of Ph.Ds has levelled off or even declined recently in many natural sciences and engineering fields. Second, we discuss the European situation in the international competition for talents. We study the European brain drain question, mainly at the doctoral and postdoctoral level. We find that there is an asymmetry in the flows of Ph.D students and postdoctorates between Europe and the United States, at the advantage of this latter country. These two points , production of Ph.Ds, international flows of doctorates and postdoctorates , lead us to be concerned about the future growth and innovation in Europe. In conclusion, we outline some European policy responses in the perspective of building the European Research Area and the European Higher Education Area. [source]


Policy decisiveness and responses to speculative attacks in developed countries

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 6 2009
KYUNG JOON HAN
Why are some countries able to defend their currencies when there are speculative attacks, while others fail to do so and devalue their currencies? This article suggests that intragovernment factors as well as government-legislature relations should be considered because many of the policy responses to speculative attacks do not require legislative acquiescence, so that intragovernment attributes will have more substantial effects on the policy responses than those of government-legislature relations. This article suggests that cleavages within government and its instability have a negative effect on decisiveness. Data regarding speculative attacks in developed countries from the 1970s to the 1990s and the Heckman selection model show that governments with many veto players and with less durability have had difficulty in defending their currencies in the face of speculative attacks. The article also finds that governmental institutional effects can be constrained by central bank independence. The effects become substantially smaller and statistically insignificant when central banks are very independent. The overall results imply that policy indecisiveness induced by some political factors makes governments less able to adopt a new policy equilibrium that is necessary to respond to an exogenous shock such as speculative attack. [source]