An announcement by Kenya's Central Bank indicating that the country had experienced 5.8 percent economic growth in 2006 was dismissed by the media and the government opposition as political propaganda. Under former President Daniel Arap Moi's government in the late 1990s, Kenya's economic growth fluctuated from negative values to highs of 2.3 percent. In spite of an upturn in economic growth, h…
The active role of the Federal Reserve (Fed) in responding to the financial crisis has provoked questions not only about its policies' economic wisdom but also about the political significance of the Fed's exercise of expanded power. This article places the Fed's actions into perspective, framing three counterfactuals that yield different vantage points on the key question: Have the Fed's actio…
The 1990s have witnessed a wave of monetary reform throughout the world. More than 30 countries have increased the independence of their central banks, including many in Latin America and Eastern Europe. In Western Europe, countries of the European Union have agreed on plans to adopt a single currency, with an independent European central bank at the controls. Maxfield seeks to explain this tre…
This article addresses how the Hungarian Central Bank gained autonomy in its operations from ruling politicians. While stressing the substantial influence of external actors in exercise of this reform, the article also demonstrates the limits of external influence by shedding light on the domestic political costs of this reform. The high costs of central bank reform in the calculations of the r…
Have Democratic and Republican presidents used force more often than members of the other party under some circumstances during the postwar era? This article presents evidence that unemployment and inflation produce differences in the likelihood of a diversionary use of force by presidents from different parties. Because Republicans are more reluctant than Democrats to use potentially inflation…
Most recent research on the relationship between trade unions and unemployment focuses on the size and structure of trade union movements and argues either that strong unions are bad for unemployment, due to their effect on wages, or that encompassing unions are good for unemployment, because their wage-setting behavior takes economic externalities into account. This article reports the results…
The aim of the present study was to determine whether or not young university students are worried about being unemployed after graduation. Choice of field for university education influences unemployment worries and therefore we collected data from 287 university students from Ankara University who were studying social sciences or sciences. The results demonstrated that the level of concern ab…
Questionable methods for increasing nominal wages reduce real wages (i.e., buying power) by creating inflation, shortages, lower quality, and long-term unemployment. To increase real wages (i.e., the ability to buy more), economic principles prescribe increasing productivity (i.e., greater output from less input). In contrast, marketing principles prescribes increasing the value of output (i.e.…
For over 50 years, a heated debate has raged over developments in Cuba, dealing with everything from ideology, politics, and the economy to independence and sovereignty. Today, transformations taking place on the island have inspired a renewed interest in the country. Processes of social and economic change are often a long march into the unknown. They require significant effort to build con…
The economic well-being of consumers is among the most reliable indicators of the economic conditions existing in a specific socio-geographic area. One measure of consumer well-being is known as the index of consumer sentiment (ICS), which represents consumers' perception of prevailing economic conditions as obtained through interviews. It is hypothesized that ICS is influenced more strongly by…