Economics
University of Buckingham to launch first central banking master’s degree
Monetary economics to form core of the year-long course; university hopes programme will enrol around 12-15 students in the first year
Bank Indonesia launches training and research institute
Central bank establishes a new centre for research and staff training, with the hope of building expertise and boosting credibility
Long-run financial market volatility has strong effects on real economy, researchers say
A Bank of England working paper presents a method for breaking financial market volatility into long- and short-run components; long-run volatility closely linked to economic fundamentals, authors say
Okun’s law is empirically robust but presents modelling problems, researchers say
Economists need to find more sophisticated methods to model the relationship between financial and labour markets, say the authors of an occasional paper published by the ECB
The IFF China Report 2016: Introduction
The aim of the IFF China Report 2016 is to offer readers a unique insight into the inner workings of China’s economy by providing perspectives from its top leaders, policy-makers and financial experts
Opportunities and risks from economic recovery
Former prime minister of Japan Yukio Hatoyama, chairman of the IFF Advisory Committee, welcomes the shift in China’s direction towards sustained growth through structural reforms
Charlie Bean calls for ‘culture changes’ at ONS in final statistics report
ONS should set up two centres to better measure economic activity, Bean says; using these centres will allow the ONS to fully ‘capture’ the digital economy
Is China really the cause of sluggish global growth?
China's policy-makers blame structural problem in the West for global malaise, despite unprecedented monetary stimulus by central banks
Book notes: Civic Capitalism, by Colin Hay and Anthony Payne
A book that espouses redesigning capitalism into 'civic capitalism'
Managing financial stability, monetary systems and the economic order
If policy-makers fail to address the challenges presented by strong feedback loops between the economic and monetary systems, the next crisis could seriously damage faith in market-based economies
Book notes: The Great Divide, by Joseph E Stiglitz
Stiglitz’s new book argues that deregulation was an important cause of the recent banking crisis
Book notes: Efficiently Inefficient: How Smart Money Invests and Market Prices are Determined, by Lasse Heje Pedersen
A book that offers a condensed picture of hedge funds’ operations and strategies, written by a person with considerable academic and practical experience
Questions of credibility in the Eurozone and China
The ECB's credibility was once more called into question over the handling of Greek debt negotiations; positive signs from China amid equity market chaos
Creating an effective equity market in China
Wang Jianxi, chairman of Shenyin and Wanguo Securities, sees the delicate balancing act of supervising the financial markets as key to developing a multi-layered capital market
Are central banks the ‘Figaro’ of the financial markets?
Central banks continue to play a vital position in the functioning of markets. While this raises significant concerns about moral hazard it is not an unfamiliar role from an historical perspective
Book notes: Don’t start from here, by David Shirreff
A pointed, passionate plea for a simpler banking system that deserves to be taken seriously
Book notes: What Have We learned? Macroeconomic Policy After the Crisis, by George Akerlof, Olivier Blanchard, David Romer and Joseph Stiglitz
This book brings together the great and the good of the economics profession, policy-makers and academics, to assess what the dust jacket describes as the “brave new economic world"
Book notes: Finding Equilibrium, by Till Düppe & Roy Weintraub
This unusual book describes the early progress in the mathematisation of economics and, in particular, micro-economic model building
Book notes: Fortune Tellers: The Story of America’s First Economic Forecasters, by Walter Friedman
A fascinating book that crosses the traditional boundaries between the history of economic thought and cultural history
Book notes: Mass flourishing, by Edmund Phelps
This is a recommended read, not only because it was written by Edmund Phelps, the 2006 Nobel Laureate in economics, but for encouraging reflection on fundamental issues related to modern life
Independence no substitute for rules-based policy
Thomas Cargill summarises the conclusions of four papers by world-leading economists on the issue of central bank governance and finds independence is overrated
IMF paper finds highly indebted nations can still grow fast
Results of a new study contradict findings of Reinhart and Rogoff, who argued that growth declines at debt of more than 90% of GDP
ECB paper questions quantity theory of money in low-inflation countries
Researchers say evidence for the theory is 'just not there' in countries with low or moderate inflation, but becomes a ‘better fit' when correcting for variation in output growth