1 comments about Fiscal Sustainability in Theory and Practice: A Handbook.

1. Developing countries sometimes get into trouble running government or current account deficits. This book outlines the state of the art tools used to assess whether trouble is on the way and provides examples to show how they work. Written for professional economist, but useful to others willing to make an investment.

No comments about The First Latin American Debt Crisis: The City of London and the 1822-25 Loan Bubble.

1 comments about Evidence-Based Health Care Management: Multivariate Modeling Approaches.

1. A well-organized text with clear examples that demonstrate the practical value of applying multivariate modeling techniques to health services research. It's a great source to reorient to such techniques if, like me, you've been away for awhile.

1 comments about Public Finance: A Normative Theory, Second Edition.

1. This is a great college textbook. It treats the Public Finance issues in a very accessible way for both graduates and undergraduates. I deeply recommend it.

No comments about Transport Economic Theory.

2 comments about Restoring Japan's Economic Growth (Policy Analyses in International Economics).

1. Posen does a good job of presenting his case that the Japanese recession can be alleviated through the effective use of fiscal policy. He supports his argument well by employing statistical evidence and economic tools.

   I believe, however, that Posen fails to address the psychological effect the current recession is having on the Japanese government & people. Structural Reform is being instituted rapidly because stagnation has brought about the realization that the current system needs serious overhaul.

   It also seems to be the case that fiscal policy needlessly pours money into the inefficient construction sector, leading to undesirable consequences in terms of sectoral allocation.

   Overall, Posen makes a strong argument in favor of fiscal policy. Hopefully he will update his book to explain the current apparent recovery of the Japanese economy.




2. This is an excellent little book. Posen, an increasingly influential monetary economist, gives us his view on what is wrong and what needs to be done in Japan. While this effort was published in late 1998, the diagnosis and medication prescribed are the same now as then.

   In Posen's view, all but one of the economic stimulus packages unveiled in the 1990s was equivalent to pouring money down the drain. Government money either wasn't spent at all because regional and municipal governments are bust or money was thrust at wasteful construction industries which add nothing to GDP. Also, monetary policymakers have decided that their new independence means they should do exactly the opposite to what everyone outside the BOJ thinks they should do. So policy is in a state of paralysis.

   Posen argues that Japan needs aggressive stimulus, both through fiscal and monetary policy channels. In his view, there is nothing terribly wrong with Japan - a very different view from consensus. He also shows that BOJ fears of igniting inflation if they loosen monetary policy aggressively are complete nonsense.

   This isn't a happy read for amateurs. It's quite in depth and needs some knowledge of the dismal science. It's very mainstream or Keynesian, just in case you were wondering. But it's a good read nonetheless.

No comments about Dealing Fairly with Developing Country Debt (Economic Policy).

No comments about International Debt Threat: Bargaining Among Creditors and Debtors in the 1980's (Policy Papers in International Affairs).

No comments about Cultural Economics and Cultural Policies.

No comments about International Debt Reexamined.