Transformation of the Welfare State or Monetary Unions and Hard Pegs

Transformation of the Welfare State: The Silent Surrender of Public Responsibility

Author: Neil Gilbert

How much has really changed in the world of welfare? A great deal, according to Neil Gilbert, one of our most deeply engaged and thoughtful analysts of social welfare policy. In this panoramic inquiry, Gilbert spans the globe to assess, in provocative yet dispassionate fashion, what welfare looks like in a free market world. From Sweden to the U.S., Gilbert finds a fundamental transformation in the welfare state--a turn away from broad-based entitlements and automatic benefits to a new, "enabling" approach defined by policies designed to promote privatization and labor force participation. He provides tangible evidence of how these new systems promote work and responsibility over protection and how they thicken the glue of civil society by diluting the pervasive role of government.

Interesting book: Warum Leute Dinge Kaufen, Brauchen Sie nicht: Das Verstehen und Voraussagen des Verbraucherverhaltens

Monetary Unions and Hard Pegs: Effects on Trade, Financial Development, and Stability

Author: George M von Furstenberg

This book analyzes formal approaches to overcoming monetary divisions within countries and within integrating regions, focusing on the consequences of monetary union for trade among union members and their financial development and stability. The authors discuss hard pegs such as those attempted by the currency board of Argentina, outright dollarization, such as in Ecuador, and multilateral monetary union, as in Europe, the least reversible form of monetary union and the most powerful elixir of financial integration and trade.

Table of Contents:

	List of figures
	List of tables
	Acknowledgments
	Notes on contributors
1	Editorial introduction to the volume and detailed introductions to each of its four parts	1
Pt. I	Current and past concepts of monetary union
2	Euroization, dollarization, and the international monetary system	27
3	Unilateral and multilateral currency unions : thoughts from an EMU perspective	41
4	International money and common currencies in historical perspective	51
Pt. II	Trade and price effects of monetary union
5	Geography, trade, and currency union	69
6	Comparing apples and oranges : the effect of multilateral currency unions on trade	89
7	The effects of common currencies on international trade : a meta-analysis	101
8	Common currencies and market integration across cities : how strong is the link?	113
Pt. III	Monetary integration in Latin America
9	Trade agreements, exchange rate disagreements	135
10	Sudden stops, the real exchange rate, and fiscal sustainability : Argentina's lessons	151
11	Living and dying with hard pegs : the rise and fall of Argentina's currency board	183
12	The anatomy of a multiple crisis : why was Argentina special and what can we learn from it?	231
Pt. IV	Common monies, political interests, and infrastructure
13	America's interest in dollarization	289
14	Dollarization and euroization in transition countries : currency substitution, asset substitution, network externalities, and irreversibility	303
15	Electronic money and the optimal size of monetary unions	321
16	Currency substitution in anticipation of EU accession	337
17	Allocating lending of last resort and supervision in the Euro area	347
	Name index	361
	Subject index