Obstacles to Coordination, and a Consideration of Two Proposals to Overcome Them

Obstacles to Coordination, and a Consideration of Two Proposals to Overcome Them PDF Author: Jeffrey A. Frankel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The paper reviews the obstacles to successful international macroeconomic policy coordination, and then offers a proposal for coordination that is designed to have the best chance of overcoming these obstacles: an international version of nominal GNP targeting. There are three sorts of obstacles to coordination: uncertainty, enforcement, and inflation-fighting credibility. Enforcement is always a problem for coordination, but the problem is particularly great in the presence of uncertainty. This is partly because it is difficult to verify compliance if the "performance criteria" are not directly enough under the control of the authorities and partly because a country may end up regretting ex post the criterion that it agreed to ex ante if the criterion is not directly enough related to the target variables about which it ultimately cares. For example, a country that commits to a narrow range for the money supply may regret the commitment if a shift in velocity occurs. The time-inconsistency of inflation-fighting has been offered as a third reason why policy-makers would be better off renouncing period-by-period coordination of discretionary policymaking. But the way to establish inflation-fighting credibility is to precommit to some nominal anchor. The paper argues that International Nominal Targeting (INT) is the best choice for nominal anchor, as well as the best choice for the performance criterion by which compliance with international agreements can be monitored. Nominal GNP (or, better yet, nominal demand) is superior to other candidates such as Ml as a candidate for the nominal variable on which policy-makers should focus, because it is far more robust to velocity shifts and other uncertainties.

Obstacles to Coordination, and a Consideration of Two Proposals to Overcome Them

Obstacles to Coordination, and a Consideration of Two Proposals to Overcome Them PDF Author: Jeffrey A. Frankel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
The paper reviews the obstacles to successful international macroeconomic policy coordination, and then offers a proposal for coordination that is designed to have the best chance of overcoming these obstacles: an international version of nominal GNP targeting. There are three sorts of obstacles to coordination: uncertainty, enforcement, and inflation-fighting credibility. Enforcement is always a problem for coordination, but the problem is particularly great in the presence of uncertainty. This is partly because it is difficult to verify compliance if the "performance criteria" are not directly enough under the control of the authorities and partly because a country may end up regretting ex post the criterion that it agreed to ex ante if the criterion is not directly enough related to the target variables about which it ultimately cares. For example, a country that commits to a narrow range for the money supply may regret the commitment if a shift in velocity occurs. The time-inconsistency of inflation-fighting has been offered as a third reason why policy-makers would be better off renouncing period-by-period coordination of discretionary policymaking. But the way to establish inflation-fighting credibility is to precommit to some nominal anchor. The paper argues that International Nominal Targeting (INT) is the best choice for nominal anchor, as well as the best choice for the performance criterion by which compliance with international agreements can be monitored. Nominal GNP (or, better yet, nominal demand) is superior to other candidates such as Ml as a candidate for the nominal variable on which policy-makers should focus, because it is far more robust to velocity shifts and other uncertainties.

Economic, Industrial and Managerial Coordination between Japan and the USA

Economic, Industrial and Managerial Coordination between Japan and the USA PDF Author: Kiyoshi Abe
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349224456
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
This volume is the product of a three-year collaborative project between Japanese and American scholars. Topics include foreign trade, foreign direct investment, coordination of monetary and fiscal policy, development assistance, telecommunications, intellectual property rights, and agricultural and corporate culture issues. The comparative analyses benefited from continuous dialogue among scholars from both sides of the Pacific.

Understanding Interdependence

Understanding Interdependence PDF Author: Peter B. Kenen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691231133
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 566

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Book Description
Drawing together new papers by some of today's leading figures in international economics and finance, Understanding Interdependence surveys the current state of knowledge on the international monetary system and, by implication, defines the research horizon for the future. Covering topics including the behavior of exchange rates, the choice of exchange-rate regime, current-account adjustment in classical and Keynesian models, the extent and effects of capital mobility, international debt, the stabilization and reform of the formerly planned economies, European monetary union, and international policy coordination, the book underscores the importance of these subjects and identifies lessons for policymakers. The contributors to the volume are Michael Bruno, Ralph C. Bryant, Richard N. Cooper, Michael P. Dooley, Barry Eichengreen, Stanley Fischer, Charles A. E. Goodhart, Peter Hooper, Peter B. Kenen, Paul R. Krugman, Henri Lorie, Jaime Marquez, Ronald I. McKinnon, Michael Mussa, Maurice Obstfeld, John Odling-Smee, Assaf Razin, Dani Rodrik, Mark P. Taylor, and John Williamson.

International Policy Coordination and Exchange Rate Fluctuations

International Policy Coordination and Exchange Rate Fluctuations PDF Author: William H. Branson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226071383
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
Since the five largest industrial democracies concluded the Plaza Agreement in 1985, the theory and practice of international economic policy coordination has become the subject of spirited academic and public-policy debate. While some view policy coordination as crucial for the construction of an improved international monetary system, others fear that it risks delaying or weakening the implementation of macroeconomic and structural policies. In these papers and comments, prominent international economists consider past and present interpretations of the meaning of international policy coordination; conditions necessary for coordination to be beneficial both to the direct participants and the global economy; influential factors for the quantitative impact of coordination; obstacles to coordination; the most—and least—effective methods of coordination; and future directions of the coordination process, including processes associated with greater fixity of exchange rates. These studies will be readily accessible to policymakers, while offering sophisticated analyses to interested scholars of the global economy.

The International Monetary System

The International Monetary System PDF Author: Peter B. Kenen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521467292
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
In the two decades prior to publication of this 1994 book, international monetary relations had been characterised by latent instability, and then by severe tensions. Yet the issue of reforming the international monetary system does not appear on the agenda of the policy makers of the major countries involved. The International Monetary System tries to analyse this apparent contradiction. It brings together contributions from some of the most authoritative academic economists and monetary officials, and examines each of the fundamental functions of the international monetary system. There is broad support for improving present monetary arrangements with the aim of ensuring more stable conditions in monetary and financial markets and of promoting the orderly adjustment of payments disequilibria. For political reasons a fully-fledged reform exercise is unlikely, but very few experts seem to like the status quo. This book provides the reader with a comprehensive account of the institutional and policy changes required to manage an increasingly integrated and interdependent global monetary and financial system.

Financial Markets and Monetary Policy

Financial Markets and Monetary Policy PDF Author: Jeffrey A. Frankel
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262061742
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
In this second collection of his writings on financial markets (the first, On Exchange Rates, covered international finance), Jeffrey Frankel turns his attention to domestic markets, with special attention to how national monetary policy is handled. The decade of the 1980s left many central bankers disillusioned with monetarism, so that the question of the optimal nominal anchor remains an open one. In this second collection of his writings on financial markets (the first, On Exchange Rates, covered international finance), Jeffrey Frankel turns his attention to domestic markets, with special attention to how national monetary policy is handled. The fifteen papers are divided into three sections, each introduced by the author. They cover, respectively, optimal portfolio diversification, indicators of expected inflation, and the determination of monetary policy in the face of uncertainty. In the first section, Frankel explores what information the theory of optimal portfolio diversification can give the macroeconomist. In the second section, he considers what economic variables central bankers might use to gauge whether monetary policy is too tight or too loose. And in the final section, he looks at the range of uncertainty over policy effects and how that complicates coordination of macroeconomic policymaking. The book concludes with a sympathetic analysis of nominal GDP targeting.

International Coordination of National Stabilization Policies

International Coordination of National Stabilization Policies PDF Author: Ralph C. Bryant
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 9780815791324
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
As cross-border transactions and economic integration among nations have increased, formerly neglected differences among the domestic economic policies of nations have become progressively exposed to international scrutiny. National governments trying to pursue autonomous polices have found their decisions more difficult and the consequences of their decisions more uncertain. These trends have in turn provoked debate about whether governments should cooperate more fully when making their policy decisions. In this book, part of the Integrating National Economies series, Ralph A. Bryant considers how much national governments might benefit from coordination of their macroeconomic stabilization polices, the circumstances in which they might cooperation; and how ambitious that cooperation should be. Bryant argues that the potential benefits of attempted coordination are often greater than the potential risks. When national decisionmakers take into account the cross-border spillovers of their actions, and especially if the are prepared to consider mutually beneficial adjustments of their policy instruments, each cooperating nation may be able to attain higher levels of welfare. Bryant discusses circumstances in which efforts to coordinate could prove counterproductive. On the whole, however, he contends that efforts to coordinate policies internationally typically deserve examination and, frequently, can be expected to advance the common interests of nations' citizens. Bryant identifies and analyzes different forms of intergovernmental cooperation for monetary, fiscal, and exchange rate policies. One of the contributors of the book compares and evaluates three different analytical perspectives: the traditional policy-optimization approach favored by economists, the rule analysis of international regime environments, and the institutional analysis developed by scholars of international relations and political science. The book concludes with an o

Macroeconomic Policies in the World Economy

Macroeconomic Policies in the World Economy PDF Author: Horst Siebert
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9783540219170
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
The integration of goods and financial markets has progressed on a global scale in recent years. Thus, the cyclical patterns in the world economy may have changed too. Against this background, experts in international economics analyze the synchronization of business cycles and their volatility in this book. Is there an European business cycle? What is the role of multinational corporations and monetary policy in transmitting business cycles? Further, they discuss the need and feasibility of internationally coordinating monetary and exchange rate policies and the quantitative effects of tax competition.

Nominations of Yolanda Townsend Wheat, Jeffrey A. Frankel, and Charles A. Gueli

Nominations of Yolanda Townsend Wheat, Jeffrey A. Frankel, and Charles A. Gueli PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
Hearing Before the Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs, United States Senate, One Hundred Fifth Congress, First Session, on Nominations of Yolanda Townsend Wheat, of Missouri, to Be a Member of the National Credit Union Administration Board; Jeffrey A. Frankel of California, to Be a Member of the Council of Economic Advisors; Charles A. Gueli, of Maryland, to Be a Member of the Board of Directors of the National Institute of Building Sciences.

Dynamic Modeling of Monetary and Fiscal Cooperation Among Nations

Dynamic Modeling of Monetary and Fiscal Cooperation Among Nations PDF Author: Joseph E.J.K Plasmans
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387279318
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Dynamic Modeling of Monetary and Fiscal Cooperation Among Nations analyzes coordination of monetary and fiscal stabilization policies between countries and currency areas using a dynamic game approach. The first four chapters introduce the reader to the dynamics of fiscal and monetary policy cooperation. Issues covered include: fiscal coordination, fiscal stringency requirements, structural and bargaining power asymmetries and the design of monetary and fiscal policymaking in a monetary union. In the four last chapters multiple-player settings with aspects of fiscal and/or monetary coordination are analyzed using the endogenous coalition formation approach. The analysis is focused on shock and model asymmetries and issues of multi-country coordination in the presence of (possibly many) monetary unions.