Views of a Nepali Economist

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I had written a paper with a friend, Andrew Mueller, during our MA in University of Cincinnati for a course in Japanese Economy. The paper looked at whether Japan followed proper monetary policies or not during the period from 1980 to 2008 by observing whether "monetary neutrality" held true in the Japanese economy or not during that period.

After coming back to Nepal, I wanted to do the same thing, and wrote a paper to observe monetary neutrality in Nepal during the period 1975-2008. Both the studies used the same methodology--the VAR estimate.

The direct Nepal Rastra Bank's link is now available. Click here if you are interested.

Labels: central bank of nepal, monetary economics, monetary neutrality, NRB

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1. Recessions are always and everywhere a monetary phenomena

2. How do you know who is truly poor? Ask the neighbors---concludes an MIT study conducted in Indonesia

...based on fieldwork conducted in 640 Indonesian villages

There are two striking results...First, when citizens are asked to make collective judgments about the relative wealth of their neighbors, the outcomes are very close to those produced by objective measures. Second, citizens are far more satisfied by the results when they are consulted than when they are left out of the process.

...the researchers found no evidence of “elite capture,” the attempt by local leaders to manipulate the rankings for the benefit of their own relatives or political allies.

3. How accurate are policy expectations? Evidence from the US

4. Apples, wheat, and haircuts: output and demand

Actual investment equals actual saving in all three economies all the time. As it must. But the three economies are different. The output of apples takes forever to adjust to bring desired investment equal to desired saving. The output of wheat adjusts in one year. The output of haircuts adjusts instantly.

All three economies are, of course, ideal types. The real world is a mixture of all three, and a lot more complex, with different firms operating in different stages of the production process, so that goods-in-process (intermediate goods) must also be bought and sold.

But, is the real world moving slowly towards a haircut economy? Or is it moving the other way, towards an apple economy?

5. Is Economic inequality linked to biased self-perception?

Labels: demand, expectations, Indonesia, inequality, monetary economics, output, poverty, recession