Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Program conditionality and ownership are important considerations in the IMF's current rethinking of program design. This paper contributes to the literature by developing a theory of program conditionality and ownership on the basis of Cumulative Prospect Theory. The policymaker may value a set of programs, each with fewer conditions, more than an extended program with as many conditions. This valuation bias is greater in ambiguity (Knightian uncertainty) than under uncertainty. If greater valuation of a program engenders more explicit and implicit ownership, then programs with fewer conditions may have a better chance of success. Less is more.

Banks and Banking --- Positive Analysis of Policy-Making and Implementation --- Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty --- Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects --- Finance --- Discount rates --- Financial services --- Discount --- Argentina

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Ambiguity, as opposed to uncertainty, reflects lack of sufficient information about distribution and payoffs of infrequent events. Reforms are infrequent events, undertaken in ambiguous second-best environments where bad reform outcomes are feasible. A general case for the gradualist reform strategy is that it may pay to defer some reforms until relevant information about possible reform outcomes and associated probabilities is revealed, and ambiguity is reduced over time. Gradualism may dominate the big bang strategy, if some of the reforms in a reform sequence are not sure bets and waiting costs do not dominate reversal costs under some information sets forthcoming over time. The relation to Ellsberg's Paradox is discussed. Some cases for and against gradualism are reviewed.

Investments: Options --- Macroeconomics --- Taxation --- Industries: Financial Services --- Environmental Economics --- Social Choice --- Clubs --- Committees --- Associations --- Positive Analysis of Policy-Making and Implementation --- Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty --- Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions --- Pension Funds --- Non-bank Financial Institutions --- Financial Instruments --- Institutional Investors --- Environmental Economics: General --- Trade Policy --- International Trade Organizations --- Financial Institutions and Services: General --- Finance --- Environmental economics --- Public finance & taxation --- Personal income --- Options --- Environment --- Tariffs --- Financial sector --- National accounts --- Financial institutions --- Taxes --- Economic sectors --- Income --- Derivative securities --- Environmental sciences --- Tariff --- Financial services industry --- United States

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The recent Boskin Commission Report (1996) underscores a significant upward bias in CPI measurement in the United States. This may result in excessive cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) of some entitlements in the federal budget because COLA is indexed to CPI. This paper presents some evidence that overall CPI may be biased against lower income elderly households, the primary beneficiaries of COLA. Although a downward adjustment in CPI resulting in an across-the-board cut in COLA of entitlements may yield significant budgetary savings, it may result in a deterioration in income distribution against lower income elderly households.

Inflation --- Macroeconomics --- Public Finance --- Demography --- Price Level --- Deflation --- National Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs --- Social Security and Public Pensions --- Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions --- Economics of the Elderly --- Economics of the Handicapped --- Non-labor Market Discrimination --- National Government Expenditures and Related Policies: General --- Population & demography --- Public finance & taxation --- Personal income --- Aging --- Consumer price indexes --- Expenditure --- National accounts --- Population and demographics --- Prices --- Income --- Population aging --- Price indexes --- Expenditures, Public --- United States

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Excess wages tax (EWT) is a tax-based incomes policy instrument introduced in many centrally-planned economies and still used in some FSU and Eastern European countries in transition. The main macroeconomic goal of EWT is to curb inflationary pressures by penalizing through taxation the “excessive” wage awards granted by enterprises in the course of wage and price liberalization. In this paper, effects of EWT on the behavior of a profit-maximizing enterprise under monopsony, its incidence on wages and profits, and its impact on inflation are analyzed. The effect of EWT on an enterprise that maximizes workers’ income is also examined with some observations on EWT’s impact on managerial behavior. Finally, recent experience with EWT is assessed and compared to that suggested by the model.

Labor --- Macroeconomics --- Corporate Taxation --- Business Taxes and Subsidies --- Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: Firm --- Firm Behavior --- Employment --- Unemployment --- Wages --- Intergenerational Income Distribution --- Aggregate Human Capital --- Aggregate Labor Productivity --- Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs: General --- Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs: Public Policy --- Labor Economics: General --- Labour --- income economics --- Corporate & business tax --- Minimum wages --- Wage adjustments --- Corporate income tax --- Taxes --- Minimum wage --- Corporations --- Taxation --- Labor economics --- Poland, Republic of --- Income economics

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This paper provides background information on the Lebanese economy, based on an analysis of the economic consequences of war, and discusses several issues that will be central to Lebanon's prospects for recovery.

Third World: economic development problems --- Lebanon --- Industrial promotion --- Economic conditions --- Economic policy --- -338 <569.3> --- 338.22 <569.3> --- histoire generalite --- liban --- politique economique --- situation economique --- LB / Lebanon - Libanon - Liban --- 331.30 --- 331.061 --- 335.6 --- 330.05 --- 330.95692 --- Commerce --- Industrial development projects --- Economische situatie. Economische structuur van bepaalde landen en gebieden. Economische geografie. Economische produktie.economische produkten. Economische diensten--Libanon --- Economische organisatieleer. Economisch beleid. Economische politiek--Libanon --- geschiedenis algemeen --- libanon --- economisch beleid --- economische toestand --- Economische toestand. --- Economische vooruitzichten. --- Liquidatie van de oorlogseconomie: economische demobilisatie en herstel. Marshall Plan. --- Economic conditions. --- Economic policy. --- History --- -Civil War, 1975 --- --Economic aspects. --- Working papers --- 338.22 <569.3> Economische organisatieleer. Economisch beleid. Economische politiek--Libanon --- 338 <569.3> Economische situatie. Economische structuur van bepaalde landen en gebieden. Economische geografie. Economische produktie.economische produkten. Economische diensten--Libanon --- 338 <569.3> --- Economische vooruitzichten --- Economische toestand --- Liquidatie van de oorlogseconomie: economische demobilisatie en herstel. Marshall Plan --- Developing countries: economic development problems --- Liban --- République libanaise --- Libanon --- Lubnān --- Libanan --- Livan --- Mont-Liban (Turkey : Mutaṣarrifīyah) --- Jabal Lubnān (Turkey : Mutaṣarrifīyah) --- Levanon --- Líbano --- Livanos --- Grand Lebanon --- Grand Liban --- Lebanese Republic --- Jumhūrīyah al Lubnānīyah --- Jumhouriya al-Lubnaniya --- Republic of Lebanon --- لبنان --- جمهورية اللبنانية --- Ліван --- Ліванская Рэспубліка --- Livanskai︠a︡ Rėspublika --- Ливан --- Република Ливан --- Republika Livan --- Λίβανος --- Δημοκρατία του Λιβάνου --- Dēmokratia tou Livanou --- Jumhūrīyyah al-Lubnānīyyah --- 레바논 --- לבנון --- רפובליקה הלבנונית --- Republiḳah ha-Levanonit --- Либан --- Либанска Република --- Libanska Republika --- レバノン --- Rebanon --- レバノン共和国 --- Rebanon Kyōwakoku --- Ливанская Республика --- Республіка Ліван --- Respublika Livan --- Ліванська Республика --- Livansʹka Respublyka --- Levonen --- 黎巴嫩 --- Libanen --- Industrial promotion - Lebanon --- Lebanon - Economic conditions --- Lebanon - Economic policy --- Banks and Banking --- Foreign Exchange --- Macroeconomics --- Money and Monetary Policy --- Public Finance --- Taxation --- National Government Expenditures and Related Policies: General --- Monetary Systems --- Standards --- Regimes --- Government and the Monetary System --- Payment Systems --- Banks --- Depository Institutions --- Micro Finance Institutions --- Mortgages --- Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit: General --- Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions --- Aggregate Factor Income Distribution --- Monetary economics --- Public finance & taxation --- Currency --- Foreign exchange --- Banking --- Exchange rates --- Monetary aggregates --- Dollarization --- Expenditure --- Personal income --- Money --- Monetary policy --- National accounts --- Total expenditures --- Expenditures, Public --- Banks and banking --- Money supply