Suchergebnisse

"As their Millennium Development Goals, world leaders have pledged by 2015 to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve universal primary education, to reduce child mortality, to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to halve the number of people without safe drinking water. Achieving these goals requires a large increase in the flow of financial resources to developing countries – double the present development assistance from abroad. In examining innovative ways to secure these resources, this book, which is part of the UNU–WIDER Studies in Development Economics series, sets out a framework for the economic analysis of different sources of funding and applying the tools of modern public economics to identify the key issues. It examines the role of new sources of overseas aid, considers the fiscal architecture and the lessons that can be learned from federal fiscal systems, asks how far increased transfers impose a burden on donors, and investigates how far the raising of resources can be separated from their use. In turn, the book examines global environmental taxes (such as a carbon tax), the taxation of currency transactions (the Tobin tax), a development‐focused allocation of Special Drawing Rights by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the UK Government proposal for an International Finance Facility, increased private donations for development purposes, a global lottery (or premium bond), and increased remittances by emigrants. In each case, it considers the feasibility of the proposal and the resources that it can realistically raise, and offers new perspectives and insights into these new and controversial proposals.
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We may not be able to agree about where we would like to end up after the economic crisis, but we can surely agree on some elements of a socially just response to the recession. Applying the principle of 'progressive social justice', along the lines indicated by Amartya Sen (2009) in The idea of justice, the article proposes two particular United Kingdom (UK) policy responses to the crisis: the restoration of effective unemployment insurance at home, and the cementing of the commitment to overseas aid as part of the UK's global responsibilities.

Social policy in the European Union has developed rapidly in recent years, following the 2000 Lisbon Summit and the subsequent adoption of National Action Plans on Social Inclusion and a set of common social indicators for all Member States. This paper describes European initiatives and examines the role played by social science research in these developments. It refers specifically to the role of theory and conceptual analysis, to the availability and quality of data, and to policy modelling. It draws lessons from the experience of European social policy for the relationship between research and policy formation.

Economists are often accused of being narrow specialists, unable to see how their particular area of expertise relates to wider issues. But there is a handful of economists of whom such statements could never be made. Among these is Professor James Meade, who sadly died in December 1995. James Meade was one of the outstanding economists of this century, and a hallmark of his work was a remarkable capacity to see the economy as a whole. He contributed to many fields, but these were not isolated forays. All that be wrote was illuminated by a comprehensive understanding of social and economic problems. What is more, be had a vision as to how social and economic institutions could be reformed to make the world a better place, and be believed in the power of rational argument as a means to bring about these reforms.

This article describes research on the analysis of the consequences of changes in personal taxation and social security carried out as part of the SSRC Programme on Taxation, Incentives and the Distribution of Income. It shows how data from the Family Expenditure Survey can be used to see who gains and who loses from policy changes, illustrating this by an examination of proposals for a tax credit scheme. It discusses the incorporation of changes in behaviour, and the effect of taxes and benefits on incentives, including the 'poverty trap'. Particular emphasis is placed on the accessibility of the analysis, and the last section describes a range of programs which are available for use on micro-computers.