For decades society venerated advanced information and communications technologies (ICTs) as a source of economic rejuvenation and uplift. The financial crisis of 2007-08 shook such ideas. ...Originating in the United States, the driver of digital systems and services, the prolonged economic slump precipitated a perplexing historical outcome: a technological revolution wrapped inside an economic collapse. Dan Schiller analyzes the crisis tendencies of capitalism to root out the sources of this digital depression. From there he traces the economic re-composition wrought by ICTs, seeing them as a leading economic growth pole akin to the 1930s consumer industries that came out of the Great Depression. Finally, he lays out the present-day battles to capture and control digital technology and its growth. Demonstrating digital technology's central role in the global political economy and connecting it to the rise of worldwide financial, production and military networks, Schiller sets the digital communication industry in the context of intensifying geopolitical conflicts over the Internet. As he shows, the forces at the core of capitalism--exploitation, commodification, and inequality--are ongoing and accelerating within the networked political economy. Timely and wide ranging, Digital Depression blazes new ground in illuminating the role of information and communications within the political economy's developmental processes.
Cet article examine dans quelle mesure les variations des termes de l’échange conduisent à des fluctuations conjoncturelles et affectent la trajectoire du PIB en Amérique latine, et plus ...particulièrement dans les sept plus grandes économies de la région. Nous montrons que les chocs affectant les termes de l’échange sont un élément explicatif important des fluctuations conjoncturelles et qu’ils les expliquent en moyenne à hauteur de 30 % dans les pays de notre échantillon. Nous mettons également en évidence une relation de long terme entre les termes de l’échange et le PIB qui affecte aussi dans la plupart des pays concernés la dynamique à court terme de la croissance. Les résultats varient selon les pays, ce qui suggère une hétérogénéité de l’exposition aux chocs externes et aux politiques économiques nationales.Classification JEL : E32, F14, O54.
I decenni che precedettero la terribile epidemia di “Peste Nera” del 1348 in Europa sono stati a lungo presentati univocamente come un periodo di gravi difficoltà, dovute all’instabilità politica e, ...soprattutto, all’eccessiva crescita della popolazione rispetto alle risorse agricole, il cui aumento era frenato dalle scarse tecnologie disponibili. Questa ricostruzione è stata oggetto negli ultimi anni di una profonda revisione, con una rinnovata attenzione allo sviluppo della commercializzazione, anche a lungo raggio, dei prodotti alimentari e agli investimenti nelle campagne, rivelatisi tutt’altro che ininfluenti. Rispetto alle grandi panoramiche finora dominanti nel dibattito, questo volume presenta una serrata analisi di una realtà regionale – la Lombardia dalla fine del XIII secolo alla metà del XIV – considerata sotto molteplici punti di vista, dalla storia rurale a quella delle manifatture, dei prestiti e dei commerci, dagli aspetti fiscali e monetari a quelli militari e dell’assistenza. Ne esce un ritratto articolato, che senza negare gli elementi di difficoltà, mette in luce la sostanziale “tenuta” del sistema produttivo e sociale lombardo prima delle grandi epidemie del 1348 e del 1361.
Yrkesdeltakingen varierer med konjunktursvingningene i mange land. En forklaring på dette er at personer som normalt ville ha søkt arbeid under bedre konjunkturer, blir motløse og lar være å søke ...arbeid når konjunkturene er dårlige og sjansen for å finne en akseptabel jobb er liten. Ved å benytte en modell for hvordan yrkesdeltakingen varierer med konjunkturene tallfester vi motløs arbeidereffekten for gifte/samboende kvinner som enten har innvandret til Norge fra ikke-vestlige land eller som er født i Norge. Analysen viser bl.a. at motløs arbeidereffekten er betydelig høyere for noen grupper innvandrerkvinner sammenliknet med kvinner født i Norge.
Using plant-level data from Chile and the U.S., we show that investment spikes are highly pro-cyclical, so much so that changes in the number of establishments undergoing investment spikes (the ...“extensive margin”) account for the bulk of variation in aggregate investment. The number of establishments undergoing investment spikes also has independent predictive power for aggregate investment, even controlling for past investment and sales. We re-calibrate the Thomas 2002. Is lumpy investment relevant for the business cycle. Journal of Political Economy, CX 508–534 model (that includes fixed costs of investing) so that it assigns a prominent role to extensive adjustment. The recalibrated model has different properties than the standard RBC model for some shocks.
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