<p>While most people intuitively know that low unemployment is important to job seekers, they may not realize that high levels of employment actually would make an enormous difference in the lives of large segments of the workforce who already have jobs. Particularly in an era of historically high wage and income inequality, many in the workforce depend on full employment labor markets, and the bargaining power it provides, to secure a fair share of the economy’s growth. For the bottom third or even half of the wage distribution, high levels of employment are a necessary condition for improving wages, higher incomes, and better working conditions. This book is a follow-up to a book written a decade ago by the authors, The Benefits of Full Employment (Economic Policy Institute, 2003). It builds on the evidence presented in that book, showing that real wage growth for workers in the bottom half of the income scale is highly dependent on the overall rate of unemployment. In the late 1990s, when the United States saw its first sustained period of low unemployment in more than a quarter century, workers at the middle and bottom of the wage distribution were able to secure substantial gains in real wages. When unemployment rose in the 2001 recession, and again following the collapse of the housing bubble, most workers no longer had the bargaining power to share in the benefits of growth. The book also documents another critical yet often overlooked side effect of full employment: improved fiscal conditions (without mindless budget policies like the current sequestration). Finally, in this volume, unlike the earlier one, the authors present a broad set of policies designed to boost growth and get the unemployment rate down to a level where far more workers have a fighting chance of getting ahead.</p>

Getting Back to Full Employment: A Better Bargain for Working People

Business & Money

Bernstein, Jared

Baker, Dean

Economics

Center for Economic Policy Research

Launched in 1999 by CEPR and the International Center for Monetary and Banking Studies, the Geneva Reports on the World Economy series consists of an annual report, written by a team of internationally-known macroeconomists, and occasional Special Reports. The tenth volume in the series looks at the effects of low inflation on the global economy.

Are the Golden Years of Central Banking Over? The Crisis and the Challenges (Geneva Reports on the World Economy, No. 10)

Gerlach, Stefan

Giovannini, Alberto

Tille, Cedric

Viñals, José

Launched in 1999 by CEPR and the International Center for Monetary and Banking Studies, the Geneva Reports on the World Economy series consists of an annual report, written by a team of internationally-known macroeconomists, and occasional Special Reports.

Geneva Reports on the World Economy 11: The Fundamental Principles of Financial Regulation

Brunnermeier, Markus

Crockett, Andrew

Goodhart, Charles

Persaud, Avinash D.

Shin, Hyun

Launched in 1998,  Monitoring the European Central Bank (MECB) brings together a group of economists internationally known for their work on macroeconomics and monetary policy. MECB aims to monitor the European economy and the work of the ECB, and presents its analyses to the broader public including the European Parliament and the media.

Managing the Liquidity and Credit Crunch: Monitoring the European Central Bank

Gourinchas, Pierre-Olivier

Repullo, Raffael

<p>The Mexican Crisis of 1994/5 came as a rude surprise to the international policy-making community. It revealed serious confusion over how markets, governments, and multilateral institutions like the International Monetary Fund should deal with financial crises in heavily-indebted developing economies. It laid bare a remarkable lack of planning for financial crises in today's world of globalized bond and equity markets. This report analyses various approaches to coping better with Mexico-style crises.</p>

Crisis? What Crisis?: Orderly Workouts for Sovereign Debtors

Eichengreen, Barry

Baldwin, Richard E.

Portes, Richard

This book examines the implementation of competition policy during the 1990s in Hungary, Poland, and the Czech and Slovak Republics. It looks at the economic predicament of countries in transition, considering how far this has required the state to actively police the competitive process. It assesses the extent to which initial economic and political conditions have constrained the involvement of the state in such activity. It then analyzes the statutes of the countries and the structure of the institutions established to implement competition policy. A comprehensive discussion of the case law and the experience of policy in practice is used to suggest lessons for the task of competition policy, both in these countries and in others undergoing the transition from central planning. This book will be valuable not just for those interested in competition policy but for all students of the political economy of transition.

Competition Policy and the Transformation of Central Europe

Fox, Eleanor

Seabright, Paul

Neven, Damien

How should central banks view movements in equity, housing and foreign exchange markets? Can policy-makers improve economic performance by paying attention to asset prices, as well as inflation and output forecasts? Is it possible to identify asset price misalignments and bubbles? Is it possible to use non-conventional policies to address asset price misalignments? Should asset prices be included directly in measures of inflation? Do asset prices contain information about future consumer price inflation? This is the second report in a series of Geneva Reports on the World Economy, organized by the Center for International Monetary and Banking Studies, Geneva, in conjunction with the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

Asset Price Inflation: What to do about it? Geneva Reports on the World Economy 2

Genberg, Hans

Cecchetti, Steven

Lipsky, John

Wadhwani, Sushil

Sponsored by the UK Department for International Development, this book deals directly with concerns that reform may have adverse effects on poverty in developing countries. The first part of the book recaps the current debates over trade policy and anti-poverty policy and the connections between them. The second part explores ten areas of trade policy that are likely to figure in future trade negotiations and examines the possible impact upon poverty in each case.     The authors argue that the poverty impact of trade liberalization is extremely country specific, being pro-poor in some cases and anti-poor in others. However, they believe that it is better to tackle poverty concerns directly (for example, by safety nets and investments to facilitate structural reform) rather than through the continuation of protectionist policies. Given the popular suspicions about trade liberalization, this handbook will make an important contribution to debate on globalization and poverty.

Trade Liberalization and Poverty: A Handbook

Cirera, Xavier

Winters, L. Alan

McCulloch, Neil

The fiscal policy framework of the EMU is in a states of crisis. Since the start of EMU, fiscal conditions in some member states have slipped considerably beyond the limits set by the Maastricht Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact. It is clear that the preventive arm of the Stability and Growth Pact has failed to preclude excessive deficits. There is no shortage of proposals to reform the current fiscal framework in this crisis situation. They range from calls for softening their implementation, and to proposals for closer coordination of national fiscal policies. None of these proposals offers a convincing solution to the problem at the heart of the current crisis: how to balance the need for effective long-run fiscal stability in EMU with the need for short-run flexibility of fiscal policy in the member states. After a detailed analysis of the virtues and defects of the current fiscal framework, this report presents a proposal for reform that addresses this issue. The authors argue that EMU should move away from rigid fiscal rules for annual deficits towards a more judgmental process of monitoring the sustainability of fiscal policies. This approach is guided by three principles: independence, transparency, and legitimacy. Together wit the ability to assess the fiscal situation and outlook of each euro-area member state, they are the keys to designing a framework that provides enough flexibility and, at the same time, can build the required credibility and political support. The authors propose the creation of a Sustainability Council for the EMU, and independent body with the sole statutory task of safeguarding the sustainability of public finances in the euro area. The Sustainability Council regularly and openly reports to the public and the European Parliament its assessment of the member states' fiscal policies, taking into account past performance, current perspectives and the future course of fiscal policies. Its mandate is the counterpart of the ECB's principal task of maintaining price stability. However, the Sustainability Council has no operative role in fiscal policy; it relies solely on the pressure of informed public opinion to discipline national governments. The use of the instruments of fiscal policy is entirely left to the national governments, and the Sustainability Council can only be conceived as a judge of national public finances.

Stability and Growth in Europe: Towards a Better Pact: Monitoring European Integration 13 (MONITORING EUROPEAN INTEGATION)

Von Hagen, Jürgen

Fatas, Antonio

Hallett, Andrew Hughes

Strauch, Rolf

Sibert, Anne

The fifth report in this series focuses on conflicts of interest that arise when a firm combines multiple lines of business, creating multiple interests. Conflicts between research and underwriting in investment banking and between auditing and consulting in accounting firms are investigated, as are the problems that arise from rating agencies providing consulting services and from universal banks combining commercial and investment banking. In the recent stock market collapse, confidence in the financial industry was shaken by numerous scandals. Beginning with Enron in 2001, scandals brought about the demise of prominent financial figures, damaged the reputation of premiere firms and destroyed the global accounting giant Arthur Andersen. Central to this crisis was the exploitation of conflicts of interest. Research analysts at investment banks were found to be distorting information at the behest of underwriting departments eager to promote new issues. Auditors appeared to sanction misleading accounting in order to gain business for the consulting side of their firms. Policy response in the United States was quick. Large fines were levied and regulators compelled the separation of financial security function, constraining financial conglomerates. But are these new regulations and safeguards adequate protection? What costs do they impose on the industry? This fifth title in the ICMP/CEPR series of Geneva Reports on the World Economy examines the problem of conflicts of interest in the financial system. Conflicts of interest lead to a decrease in information that makes it harder for the system to provide savers wit the accurate, essential information that induces them to provide credit to borrowers. This study focuses on conflicts of interest that arise when a firm combines multiple lines of business, creating multiple interests. Conflicts between research and underwriting in investment banking and between auditing and consulting in accounting firms are investigated, as are the problems that arise from rating agencies providing consulting services and from universal banks combining commercial and investment banking. Determining the appropriate remedy for a conflict is a challenge because the elimination of conflicts may also eliminate benefits from economies of scope. This study examines five generic remedies: market discipline, regulation for increased transparency, supervisory oversight, separation of financial activities by function, and socialization of the collection and distribution of information. The authors apply this framework to assess critically the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Global Settlement between American regulators and investment banks.

Conflicts of Interest in the Financial Services Industry: What Should We Do About Them?: Geneva Reports on the World Economy 5

Mishkin, Frederic S.

Harris, Trevor

White, Eugene N.

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