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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Fred Furlong; Simon Kwan |
| Abstract: | In 1986, a task force of banking academics organized and sponsored by the American Bankers Association convened to examine the banking industry and the efficacy of its regulatory system. The group was charged with reviewing the problems of ensuring the safety and soundness of the banking system and evaluating a number of policy options to improve the efficiency, performance, and safety of the system by changing the structure of the deposit insurance system and the bank regulatory and supervisory process. The results of the work of the task force were published by the MIT Press as the book, Perspectives on Safe and Sound Banking (Benston et al., 1986, the Report), which includes a set of principal options and recommendations. The purpose of this article is to assess the extent to which changes in public policy regarding depository institutions have been aligned with the recommendations of the Report. We find that, over the past 20 years, several legislative initiatives and changes in regulations and the bank supervisory process have been in keeping with the specific recommendations of the Report or with the analytic framework underlying the recommendations. At the same time, other recommendations in the Report have not been taken up and some proposals rejected in the Report have been put in place by legislative and regulatory initiatives. Overall, public policy and private sector initiatives appear to have contributed to safer and sounder banking and thrift sectors over the past 20 years. Consistent with what we see as the main theme of the Report, a likely contributing factor is the more appropriate alignment of incentive for risk-taking among larger depository institutions. Developments affecting risk-taking by depository institutions likely include higher capitalizations, greater risk exposure of private sector stakeholders more generally, improvements in risk management, and supervision and regulation that is focused on overall risk. |
| Keywords: | Banks and banking ; Bank supervision |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedfwp:2006-27&r=hpe |
| By: | Klein, Daniel B. (George Mason University and Ratio Institute, Stockholm.); Stern, Charlotta (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT: In a recent Public Opinion Quarterly article “Is the Academy a Liberal Hegemony?,” John Zipp and Rudy Fenwick pit themselves against “right-wing activists and scholars,” citing our scholarship (Klein and Stern 2005a; Klein and Western 2005). Here we analyze Zipp and Fenwick’s characterization of our research and find it faulty in three important respects. We then turn to their “liberal v. conservative” findings and show they concord with our analysis. If one feels that it is a problem that humanities and social science faculty at four-year colleges and universities are vastly predominantly Democratic voters, mostly with what may called establishment-left or progressive views, then such concerns should not be allayed by Zipp and Fenwick’s article. <p> This Reply was submitted to Public Opinion Quarterly on October 16, 2006, except that the submission did not include the Summary and without Appendix 1 that appear here at the end of the paper. |
| Keywords: | - |
| Date: | 2006–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2006_007&r=hpe |
| By: | Patricia Justino (Institute of Development Studies) |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:18&r=hpe |
| By: | Maurice Marchon (IEA, HEC Montréal) |
| Date: | 2005–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iea:carech:0505&r=hpe |
| By: | Don J. DeVoretz (RIIM, Simon Fraser University and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Economists studying the economic behaviour of immigrants have tended to avoid serious interdisciplinary work. I argue that when presented with a particular set of research questions that lend themselves to a utility maximisation framework, an economist will be able to pursue interdisciplinary work. I further argue that the necessary if not sufficient ingredient for true economic collaborative research has been met in the field of citizenship acquisition. I review the existing empirical research on citizenship acquisition and its economic impacts to support this argument. |
| Keywords: | immigration, citizenship, methodology |
| JEL: | J61 J68 F22 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2392&r=hpe |
| By: | Giuseppe Fontana |
| Abstract: | One of the greatest achievements of the modern ÒNew ConsensusÓ view in macroeconomics is the assertion of a nonquantity theoretic approach to monetary policy. Leading theorists and practitioners of this view have indeed rejected the quantity theory of money, and defended a return to the old Wicksellian idea of eliminating high levels of inflation by adjusting nominal interest rates to changes in the price level. This paper evaluates these recent developments in the theory and practice of monetary policy in terms of two basic questions: 1) What is the monetary policy instrument controlled by the central bank? and 2) Which macroeconomic variables are affected in the short and long run by monetary policy? |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_476&r=hpe |
| By: | Alvin E. Roth |
| Abstract: | This essay examines how repugnance sometimes constrains what transactions and markets we see. When my colleagues and I have helped design markets and allocation procedures, we have often found that distaste for certain kinds of transactions is a real constraint, every bit as real as the constraints imposed by technology or by the requirements of incentives and efficiency. I'll first consider a range of examples, from slavery and indentured servitude (which once were not as repugnant as they now are) to lending money for interest (which used to be widely repugnant and is now not), and from bans on eating horse meat in California to bans on dwarf tossing in France. An example of special interest will be the widespread laws against the buying and selling of organs for transplantation. The historical record suggests that while repugnance can change over time, change can be quite slow. |
| JEL: | A10 C78 D62 D63 I11 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12702&r=hpe |
| By: | Paola Lanaro (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Ca’ Foscari) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to provide a general overview on the recent works in the economic history of Venice. Instead of a “pessimistic” interpretation, focused on the lost in the maritime position and on the rigidity of the corporative institution, this paper breaks down on the fundamental changes in the economic framework of the whole Republic of Venice, particularly in its mainland: investment in the agrarian sector, development of new manufactures, foreign market shift from Western to Eastern Europe. Published in the volume: At the Centre of the Old World: Trade and Manufacturing in Venice and the Venetian Mainland (1400-1800), edited by P. Lanaro, Toronto, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2006. |
| Keywords: | Economic history, Venice. |
| JEL: | N63 N93 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:50_06&r=hpe |