America's experience with farmland preservation is a combination of modest success and inconsistent farm policies. The successes--in terms of farmland acres preserved--have been concentrated in a relatively small number of counties, mainly in the Northeast and in California (see Sokolow and Zurbrugg, 2003). But nationwide there is a split between the farm income-oriented policies of the US fede...

In the absence of government commitment, the conduct of fiscal and monetary policy depends on the sign of inherited net nominal government obligations. When these obligations are negative, monetary policy is non-distortionary and fiscal policy distortions are smoothed over time, either forever or for a finite number of periods, depending on the initial state. For positive net nominal government...

Remanufactured products offer better environmental benefits, and governments encourage manufacturers to remanufacture through various subsidy policies. This practice has shown that, in addition to product sales, remanufactured product can also achieve its value through social donation. Based on the remanufactured product value realization approaches, governments provide two kinds of incentive p...

This Elmhirst lecture first discusses the features of the institutional environment which allow rural people in low income countries to design, plan and implement their own rural development. These are divided into two broad groups: the institutional environment for rural development (environment for the private sector, communities and civil society, local government, and sector institutions) a...

This paper critically examines attempts to revitalize the comparative political economy model in contrast to analyses based on a globalization perspective. The organized market economy approach of Peter Hall is seen as a more inviting version of the CPE model. The political dilemmas facing national governments in an era of globalization are examined through a discussion of the economic policies...

International Labor Standards and the Political Economy of Child Labor Regulation Child labor is a persistent phenomenon in many developing countries. In recent years, support has been growing among rich-country governments and consumer groups for the use of trade policies, such as product boycotts and the imposition of international labor standards, to reduce child labor in poor countries. In ...

This article introduces an issue of World Health Statistics Quarterly that summarizes the activities of working groups charged by the World Health Organization (WHO) with suggesting actions for a new holistic global health policy for the 21st century. After a brief introduction, the article describes implementation of the global consultative process to develop the new policy and highlights 10 ...

In the wake of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, caregivers are struggling to support HIV-affected children. For reasons of equity and efficiency, their needs can be best met through strong social protections and policies. This paper presents a conceptual framework to help address the needs of HIV-affected caregivers and to prioritize policies. We describe the needs that are common across diverse caregivi...

In an effort to improve the quality of schools, governments around the world have dramatically increased the resources devoted to them. By concentrating on inputs and ignoring the incentives within schools, the resources have yielded little in the way of general improvement in student achievement. This paper provides a review of the US and international evidence on the effectiveness of such inp...