Markets and Politicians

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. Economic Policies and Political Motives

   1. Theoretical Perspectives

      1. Economic Policies and Political Competition

         • Heinrich W. Ursprung

         Pages 1-25

      2. Voluntary Collective Action

         • Joel M. Guttman

         Pages 27-41

      3. Factor Income Taxation in a Representative Democracy

         • Wolfgang Mayer, Jun Li

         Pages 43-61

   2. Policy Choices

      1. Macroeconomic Stabilization Policy: Does Politics Matter?

         • Martin Paldam

         Pages 63-91

      2. Accidental Freedom

         • Gordon Tullock

         Pages 93-112

      3. Europe 1992: From the Common to the Single Market

         • Peter Holmes

         Pages 113-135

3. Markets and Socialism

   1. Market Socialism in Eastern Europe

      1. Markets and Ownership in Socialist Countries in Transition

         • Manuel Hinds

         Pages 137-168

      2. Socialism in Less than One Country

         • Adi Schnytzer

         Pages 169-178

   2. Transitionary Policies

      1. Restoring Property Rights

         • Marton Tardos

         Pages 179-188

      2. Liberalization Dilemmas

         • Arye L. Hillman

         Pages 189-207

   3. Economic Change in China

      1. The Failure of Recentralization in China: Interplays among Enterprises, Local Governments and the Center

         • Kang Chen

         Pages 209-229

      2. Market-Oriented Reform and Fiscal Policy

         • Mario I. Blejer, György Szápary

         Pages 231-262

4. International Economic Policy

   1. International Trade

      1. The Political-Economy Perspective on Trade Policy

         • Robert E. Baldwin

         Pages 263-282

      2. The Economics and Political Economy of Managed Trade

         • Wilfred J. Ethier

         Pages 283-306

      3. Changes in Trade-Policy Regimes

         • James H. Cassing

         Pages 307-318

   2. International Monetary Transactions

      1. Foreign-Exchange Markets and Central-Bank Intervention

         • Manfred Gärtner

         Pages 319-338

      2. The Political Economy of the International Debt Crisis

         • Ngo Van Long

         Pages 339-356

      3. Foreign-Exchange Market Liberalization: Anatomy of a Failure

         • Ben-Zion Zilberfarb

         Pages 357-368

Arye L. Hillman There has been much economic theorizing directed at providing the politician with guidance in the design of policies that will amend market outcomes in ways that achieve specified efficiency or equity objectives. It has been common practice in economic models to portray the politician who implements the policy recommendations as a mechanistic individual who behaves as would a benevolent dictator to maximize a prespecified conception of social welfare or the utility of a representative consumer. The self-interest and discretion that is attributed to firms and consumers as optimizing agents is absent from the motives of such a politician. Economic policy choice is thereby depoliticized. How well depoliticized economic theory fares in explaining or predicting economic policy choice depends naturally enough upon how politicized is the economic system in which economic and political agents function. The papers in this volume recognize that politicians may exercise sufficient discretion so as not to behave mechanistically in correcting market inefficiencies or in pursuit of a somehow specified just income distribution. Since politicians are viewed as self-interested optimizing agents, just as are utility-maximizing consumers and profit-maximizing producers, the choice of economic policies is politicized. Coverage is provided of a broad spectrum of economic policy choice where markets and politicians interact. Section I is concerned with policy determination in western market economies, Section II with the introduction of markets into economies in transition from socialism, and Section III with international transactions.

• China
• Eastern Europe
• International Economic Policy
• Intervention
• Policy
• economic policy
• economy
• fiscal policy
• international trade
• political economy
• politics
• socialism
• taxation
• trade policy

• Bar-Ilan University, Israel

  Arye L. Hillman

Policies and ethics