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The relative impacts of the monetised and non‐monetised deficit on output and inflation in the United States are assessed using annual data for the 1923‐1982 period. With Federal Reserve purchases of government debt serving as a measure of monetisation, the results of Granger causality tests suggest that for the period 1923‐1960 neither deficit growth nor monetisation affected real GNP growth, nominal GNP growth or inflation. For the period 1961‐1982, monetisation is found to have fuelled inflation with no effect on real GNP. Non‐monetised deficits provided a negative short‐run impact on the rate of inflation over this latter period.

The latest generation of research into macroeconomic policy has turned from more technical aspects of optimal control and expectations formation to consideration of the policymaking institutions themselves. More and more countries have moved towards greater degrees of central bank independence, including many developing economies as well the member countries of the European Central Bank. What still is not generally settled among economists is how to measure the stance of policy and the institutional features of the policymaking process. The purpose of this paper is to assess prevailing monetary and fiscal policies.

The paper takes the form of a review encompassing many different measurements of policy stance and policymaking processes. The authors begin with monetary policy followed by an analysis of central bank institutions. The next sections turn to fiscal policy and the need to adjust budget balance for the state of the business cycle. There is then a brief concluding section.

The authors show in this review that fiscal and monetary rules, and economists' understanding of them, have changed substantially over the years. While on one level there is greater consensus, there have been new questions raised in the process that leave plenty of room for further ongoing research in these key policy areas as well as the optimal design of the design of the monetary and fiscal institutions concerned.

The paper provides a review of the existing literature updated and applied with reference to recent events, including the global financial crisis.

Asian markets have shown immediate response to the financial crisis in the past and stock returns were affected critically. An attempt is made to study the volatility of stock returns in this paper. The authors studied the impact of global crisis on volatility of stock returns; that can help in better policy selection and implementation in the scenario of financial downturn. Looking at the increase in volume of trades between Asia and the world, Asian markets have gained prime position within global financial industry. Thus, it is essential that more researches are employed for better understanding of Asian Markets.

Impact on volatility of stock market returns of Hong Kong, Japan, China and India during sub-prime crisis and Eurozone debt crisis has been estimated using Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (EGARCH) model. The analysis is done using time series data of daily returns for the period 2005-2011 of the major indices of these countries (Hang Seng, Nikkei 225, Shanghai Composite and Nifty for Hong Kong, Japan, China and India, respectively). These series show non-normality, thick tails and high persistence in volatility and clustering and asymmetric properties.

It has been found that the sub-prime crisis had a positive impact on the volatility of returns of Japan, China and India while it had no impact on the volatility of returns of Hong Kong. In addition, it is interesting to see that the period of Eurozone debt crisis has had a negative impact on the volatility of already highly volatile stock returns of countries such as India and China. However, no impact on volatility of stock market returns in Japan and Hong Kong was observed of the Eurozone crisis. Also the authors noticed volatility clustering, persistence, asymmetry and leverage effects’ in stock returns series of Hong Kong, Japan, China and India.

As far as limitations of the paper are concerned, the economy per say always has a cyclic tendency. This again has scope for distorting the final result and as again the reason given above the authors think that the effect will be minimized. As the paper is using specific statistical methods to verify the model and so the basic limitations of the statistical methods used will apply to the model also.

The results could be used in better understanding of the nature of sub-prime crisis and Eurozone debt crisis and how they impact different stock markets of Asia. Better policies during different scenarios of crisis could be employed by the countries. Furthermore, it can also prove useful in minimizing the impact on Asian markets from economic crisis in future.

The research is first to indicate the relationship between global crisis and sudden changes in variance of stock returns in Asian markets. The paper attempts to fill the gap of research in this area and also suggests the difference in nature of crisis and how they can affect certain countries. Further research could be done in studying suitable policy measures that can be implemented during different kinds of global crisis.

The purpose of this paper is to primarily investigate the ability of independent central banks (central bank independence (CBI)) to improve fiscal performances in Africa, accounting for election years, and also to examine whether the effectiveness of CBI in improving fiscal performance is enhanced by higher political institutional quality.

Using recent CBI data from Garriga (2016) on 48 African countries, 90 other developing countries and 40 developed countries over the period 1970–2012, the authors apply a two stage system GMM with Windmeijer (2005) small sample robust correction estimator to examine the impact of CBI and elections on fiscal policy in Africa, other developing countries and developed countries.

The authors provide evidence that unlike in other developing countries and developed countries, CBI does not significantly improve fiscal performance in Africa. However, the effectiveness of CBI in improving fiscal performance in Africa is enhanced by higher levels of institutional quality. Although elections directly worsen fiscal performance in Africa, institutional quality enhances CBI’s effect on improving fiscal performance in election years across Africa, other developing countries and developed countries.

The findings of the study are significant as they provide insight into the benefits of having strong institutions to complement independent central banks in order to control fiscal indiscipline in election years.

The study is the first among the studies of CBI-fiscal policy nexus, to measure fiscal policy using net central bank claims on government as a percentage of GDP. In addition to the use of fiscal balance, this study also uses cyclically adjusted fiscal balance as a measure of fiscal policy. This is a critical channel through which independent central banks can constrain government spending. It also compares findings in Africa to other developing countries, noting some differences.

China around 1900 was an enormous domain with approximately 400 million people, almost all of them desperately poor. Most were farmers, working intensively on small tracts of land using relatively primitive technology. It was in many respects a Malthusian economy, with high death and birth rates and many residents living close to the subsistence level.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a practical means of incorporating ecological capital into the framework of business entities. Investors and shareholders need to be informed of the viability and sustainability of their investments. Ecological (natural) capital risks are becoming more significant. Exposure to material risk from primary industry is a significant factor for primary processing, pharmaceutical, textile and the financial industry. A means of assessing the changes to ecological capital assets and their effect on inflows and outflows of economic benefit is important information for stakeholder communication.

This paper synthesises a body of literature from accounting, ecological economics, ecosystem services, modelling, agriculture and ecology to propose a way to fill current gaps in the capability to account for ecological capital. It develops the idea of the ecological balance sheet (EBS) to enable application of familiar methods of managing built and financial capital to management of ecological assets (ecosystems that provide goods and services).

The EBS is possible, practical and useful. A form of double-entry bookkeeping can be developed to allow accrual accounting principles to be applied to these assets. By using an EBS, an entity can improve its capability to increase inflows and avoid future outflows of economic benefit.

Although major efforts are under-way around the world to improve business impact on natural resources, these efforts have been unable to satisfactorily help individual businesses elucidate the practical economic and competitive advantages conferred by investment in ecological capital. This work provides a way for businesses to learn about what the impact of changes to ecological assets has on inflows and outflows of economic benefit to their enterprise and how to invest in ecological capital to reduce their enterprise’s material risk and create competitive advantage.

No one has synthesised knowledge and practice across these disciplines into a practical approach. This approach is the first demonstration of how ecological assets can be managed in the same way as built capital by using proven practices of accounting.