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on Post Keynesian Economics |
| By: | Crafts, Nicholas (University of Sussex and CAGE, University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | In 1930 Keynes opined that by 2030 people would work only 15 hours per week. As such, this prediction will not be realised. However, expected lifetime hours of leisure and non-market work in the UK rose by 60 per cent between 1931 and 2011, considerably more than Keynes would have expected. This reflects increases in life expectancy at older ages and much longer expected periods of retirement. Leisure in retirement contributes to high life satisfaction for the elderly but building up savings to pay for it is a barrier to working only 15 hours per week. |
| Keywords: | Leisure: Life Expectancy; Retirement; Work JEL Classification: J22; J26; N34 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:566&r= |
| By: | Vines, David |
| Abstract: | A new health-sector institution is necessary at the national level. The UK needs a Health Resilience Commission whose purpose would be to monitor the UK health system and provide policy advice about its ongoing reform. This would be a statutory body holding public enquiries, making use of research skills and quantitative modelling abilities, and delivering reports to Parliament. The Australian Productivity Commission provides an indication of how to build such a body and how it might operate. New health-sector institutions are necessary at the global level. The world needs a reformed WHO, a body with delivery capabilities including crisis management skills, money to spend where necessary, and the ability to train and support national officials. It also needs a Global Health Board which can monitor the global health system and make recommendations about its ongoing reform. This body would have a similar role, at the global level, to the role of the Health Resilience Commission within the UK. The IMF provides a guide as to how a reformed WHO might operate and how it might be governed. The OECD provides a model for a Global Health Board, as does the Financial Stability Board, a body set up to help reform the global financial system after the Global Financial Crisis. All heath systems – both national and global – require greater cooperation between three "poles of delivery": namely markets, government, and civil society. The private sector is flexible, and is where innovation in production happens. Government can respond to crises, spend big money, manage society-wide systems, and enforce system change. Mechanisms involving civil society will come to the fore when markets and government alone cannot solve pressing problems. Civil Society can activate generosity and mobilise group support, and some things are best achieved with the kind of knowledge, skills and capabilities possessed by people who do not work for either the corporate sector or the government sector. Cooperation between these three poles of delivery is essential for health-system reform. Greater international cooperation on health policy is necessary between nation states, and between health-policy makers and the national treasuries and central banks who deliver economic policy. |
| Date: | 2021–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amz:wpaper:2021-15&r= |
| By: | Crafts, Nicholas (CAGE, University of Warwick and University of Sussex) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the claim that economic policymakers in the post-Covid UK should learn the lessons of the 1940s. Post-1945 policies relating to delivering full employment, levelling up, upgrading social security, dealing with the public debt legacy, and addressing the productivity puzzle are considered. The paper finds many reasons to criticize 1940s’ policies. Although, superficially, outcomes appear to have been good, a closer look reveals significant failings notably concerning design of the welfare state and supply-side policy for growth. The main lesson from the 1940s is not to repeat the policy errors of those days. |
| Keywords: | economic growth; policy reform; post-war settlement; welfare state. JEL Classification: N14; N34. |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:579&r= |
| By: | Mr. Abdelhak S Senhadji; Alexander F. Tieman; Mr. Edward R Gemayel; Ms. Dora Benedek |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic hit countries’ development agendas hard. The ensuing recession has pushed millions into extreme poverty and has shrunk government resources available for spending on achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This Staff Discussion Note assesses the current state of play on funding SDGs in five key development areas: education, health, roads, electricity, and water and sanitation, using a newly developed dynamic macroeconomic framework. |
| Keywords: | Sustainable Development Goals, Development, Fiscal Policy, Structural Reform; policy option; composite index; case study countries' SDG spending; financing gap; SDG performance; analysis of development strategy; Sustainable Development Goals (SDG); COVID-19; Human capital; Emerging and frontier financial markets; Infrastructure; Sub-Saharan Africa; Global |
| Date: | 2021–04–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfsdn:2021/003&r= |