Article Abstract:

Recent developments in macroeconomics and macroeconomic policy, what has come to be known as “New Consensus in Macroeconomics”, downgrades the role of fiscal policy and upgrades that of monetary policy. This contribution aims to consider this particular contention by focusing on fiscal policy. We consider fiscal policy within the current “new consensus” theoretical framework, which views fiscal policy as ineffective, and argue that it deserves a great deal more attention paid to it than it has been recently. We review and appraise recent and not so recent theoretical and empirical developments on the fiscal policy front. The possibility of fiscal and monetary policy coordination is proposed and discussed to conclude that it deserves a great deal more attention and careful consideration than it has been given to in the past. Our overall conclusion is that discretionary application of fiscal and monetary policy in a coordinated and focused manner as a tool of macroeconomic policy deserves serious attention paid to it than hitherto.

Article Abstract:

U radu se razmatra optimalna politika monetarne stabilizacije unutar dalekovidog modela kada centralna banka uviđa da očekivanja privatnog sektora ne moraju biti nužno konzistentna modelu, i želi da izabere politiku zadovoljavajuću u slučaju bilo kog uverenja dovoljno bliskog konzistentnosti modela. Utvrđeno je da je obavezivanje i dalje bitno za optimalnu politiku, da optimalni dugoročni inflacioni target nije pod uticajem stepena potencijalnih distorzija verovanja, i da je optimalna politika čak više zavisna od istorijskog konteksta nego u slučaju pretpostavljenih racionalnih očekivanja.

Article Abstract:

This paper analyses the fundamentals of the Portuguese crisis. The financial crisis of 2007 worsened and triggered the current Portuguese crisis. We argue that the main problem the economy is facing is its output stagnation due to a kind of Dutch disease that has created high and increasing levels of indebtedness, low and decreasing levels of saving and has reduced Portuguese competitiveness. Moreover, the existence of a dualist labour market and a new wave of emigration produce inefficiency, increasing unemployment of younger workers and the supply of human capital abroad funded by the Portuguese taxpayers. Governance problems such as poor public budget governance and lack of transparency and accountability are also at stake. These governance problems must be solved to allow the economy to return to its long-run growth path.

Article Abstract:

The failure of credit rating agencies to properly assess risks of complex financial securities was instrumental in setting off the global financial crisis. This paper studies the incentives of companies and rating agencies and argues that the way the current rating market is organized may provide agencies with intrinsic disincentives to accurately report credit risk of securities they rate. Informational inefficiency is only enhanced when rating agencies function as an oligopoly or when they rate structured products. We discuss possible market and regulatory solutions to these problems.

Article Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to identify factors that affect the pricing policy in Slovenian manufacturing firms in terms of the markup size and, most of all, to explicitly account for the possibility of differences in pricing procedures among manufacturing industries. Accordingly, the analysis of the dynamic panel is carried out on an industry-by-industry basis, allowing the coefficients on the markup determinants to vary across industries. We find that the oligopoly theory of markup determination for the most part holds for the manufacturing sector as a whole, although large variability in markup determinants exists across industries within the Slovenian manufacturing. Our main conclusion is that each industry should be investigated separately in detail in order to assess the precise role of markup factors in the markup-determination process.

Article Abstract:

The increase in the concentration of the banking industry across European Union countries during the last fifteen years can be explained in terms of: a) global factors, like the comprehensive adoption of technological innovations, the intensification of competition that has resulted from the deregulation of the financial sector and, more recently, as a consequence of the government interventions and forced acquisitions prompted by the 2007-2009 financial crisis; and, b) factors that have been specific to the E.U., in particular, the structural changes that took place in the region as a result of the creation of the Single Financial Market (1993) and the introduction of the euro (1999). This work analyzes the concentration process of the banking industry in the E.U. during the last fifteen years giving preeminence to the strategic choices made by the region’s commercial banks. It also reports the most visible E.U. banks’ M&As and government interventions that resulted from the 2007-2009 financial crisis, make a preliminary evaluation of the outcomes, and suggests possible future trends for the banking industry in the region.

Article Abstract:

The globalization is breaking-down the idea of national state, which was the base for the development of economic theory which is dominant today. Global economic crisis puts emphasis on limited possibilities of national governments in solving economic problems and general problems of society. Does it also mean that globalization and global economic crisis points out the need to think about new economic theory and new understanding of economics? In this paper I will argue that globalization reveals the need to change dominant economic paradigm – from traditional economic theory (mainstream) with macroeconomic stability as the goal of economic policy, to the “quantum economics“, which is based on “economic quantum” and immanent to the increase of wealth (material and non-material) of every individual in society and promoting set of values immanent to the wealth increase as the goal of economic policy. Practically the question is how we can use global market for our development!

Article Abstract: