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Introduction to the EEFS conference papers
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Journal of Policy Modeling 31 (2009) 131–132
Editorial
Introduction to the EEFS conference papers
This special section includes three selected papers presented at the sixth annual conference of the European Economics and Finance Society (EEFS), held in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 31 May to 3 June 2007. The EEFS is an international association of academic and professional economists working in a large spectrum of research areas with an emphasis on the latter’s international aspects. Among others, these include international macroeconomics, economic growth, international trade, international finance, labour markets and corporate finance. The Society aims to promote scientific research and scholarly work; encourage communication among economists working in related fields; facilitate a wide dissemination of research through its conferences; and foster the development of young economists. The topic of the sixth EEFS conference, European and Global Integration: Underlying Causes, Issues Arising and Formulating Economic Policies, reflects the Society’s keen interest in the dominant economic phenomenon of recent years, namely economic and financial globalisation. The continued process of dismantling barriers to cross-borders movements of goods, services, production factors and financial investment has resulted in a fast-increasing interdependence among national economies where firms, investors and policy makers determine optimal courses of action under a significantly enlarged number of constraints and potential outcomes. Within this context, the importance of research enriching the information set available to economic agents has never been greater. The papers included in this section approach aspects of the new globalised economic environment from a variety of angles. Gregoriou, Hunter and Wu focus on the world’s largest national financial market, the United States, where they model excess equity returns on macroeconomic variables. They find that short-run returns follow monetary innovations, whereas long-run returns are driven by output growth. They argue that active monetary management is an essential part of the optimal policy response to large, unpredicted economic fluctuations, a prediction validated by the major money-market intervention undertaken by the Federal Reserve in the wake of the recent credit-crunch crisis. Agliardi and Agliardi employ a real options’ methodology to study corporate liquidation policy under different taxation regimes. In their model a flat tax-rate regime is shown not to interfere with firms’ liquidation policy while progressive tax-rates can speed-up or slow-down firms’ closures. Their theoretical results imply that tax-rates and other parameters of the tax system can be used by policy makers to achieve efficient economic outcomes or policy objectives determined by the authorities’ preferences. Finally, Asteriou examines the effects of
0161-8938/$ – see front matter © 2008 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Society for Policy Modeling. doi:10.1016/j.jpolmod.2008.04.009
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Editorial / Journal of Policy Modeling 31 (2009) 131–132
foreign aid on economic growth within a panel of five emerging South-East Asian economies. His long-run analysis accounts for heterogeneous short-run dynamics across countries and, unlike previous studies in this area, provides robust evidence of a positive impact of foreign aid on economic growth. This highlights the importance of economic-aid initiatives pursued by major international economic organisations. All the above three papers have strong policy implications regarding the role of monetary management, the implications of different taxation regimes and the impact of foreign aid on economic growth. Last, but not least, the Society’s Executive Committee and the guest editors sincerely thank the Journal of Policy Modeling for their valuable contribution towards meeting the Society’s aims through the publication of this special section. Michael G. Arghyrou Cardiff Business School, United Kingdom George M. Agiomirgianakis ∗ The Hellenic Open University, Greece ∗ Corresponding
author. E-mail address: [email protected] (G.M. Agiomirgianakis) 1 April 2008 Available online 6 June 2008
Journal of Policy Modeling 31 (2009) 131–132
Editorial
Introduction to the EEFS conference papers
This special section includes three selected papers presented at the sixth annual conference of the European Economics and Finance Society (EEFS), held in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 31 May to 3 June 2007. The EEFS is an international association of academic and professional economists working in a large spectrum of research areas with an emphasis on the latter’s international aspects. Among others, these include international macroeconomics, economic growth, international trade, international finance, labour markets and corporate finance. The Society aims to promote scientific research and scholarly work; encourage communication among economists working in related fields; facilitate a wide dissemination of research through its conferences; and foster the development of young economists. The topic of the sixth EEFS conference, European and Global Integration: Underlying Causes, Issues Arising and Formulating Economic Policies, reflects the Society’s keen interest in the dominant economic phenomenon of recent years, namely economic and financial globalisation. The continued process of dismantling barriers to cross-borders movements of goods, services, production factors and financial investment has resulted in a fast-increasing interdependence among national economies where firms, investors and policy makers determine optimal courses of action under a significantly enlarged number of constraints and potential outcomes. Within this context, the importance of research enriching the information set available to economic agents has never been greater. The papers included in this section approach aspects of the new globalised economic environment from a variety of angles. Gregoriou, Hunter and Wu focus on the world’s largest national financial market, the United States, where they model excess equity returns on macroeconomic variables. They find that short-run returns follow monetary innovations, whereas long-run returns are driven by output growth. They argue that active monetary management is an essential part of the optimal policy response to large, unpredicted economic fluctuations, a prediction validated by the major money-market intervention undertaken by the Federal Reserve in the wake of the recent credit-crunch crisis. Agliardi and Agliardi employ a real options’ methodology to study corporate liquidation policy under different taxation regimes. In their model a flat tax-rate regime is shown not to interfere with firms’ liquidation policy while progressive tax-rates can speed-up or slow-down firms’ closures. Their theoretical results imply that tax-rates and other parameters of the tax system can be used by policy makers to achieve efficient economic outcomes or policy objectives determined by the authorities’ preferences. Finally, Asteriou examines the effects of
0161-8938/$ – see front matter © 2008 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Society for Policy Modeling. doi:10.1016/j.jpolmod.2008.04.009
132
Editorial / Journal of Policy Modeling 31 (2009) 131–132
foreign aid on economic growth within a panel of five emerging South-East Asian economies. His long-run analysis accounts for heterogeneous short-run dynamics across countries and, unlike previous studies in this area, provides robust evidence of a positive impact of foreign aid on economic growth. This highlights the importance of economic-aid initiatives pursued by major international economic organisations. All the above three papers have strong policy implications regarding the role of monetary management, the implications of different taxation regimes and the impact of foreign aid on economic growth. Last, but not least, the Society’s Executive Committee and the guest editors sincerely thank the Journal of Policy Modeling for their valuable contribution towards meeting the Society’s aims through the publication of this special section. Michael G. Arghyrou Cardiff Business School, United Kingdom George M. Agiomirgianakis ∗ The Hellenic Open University, Greece ∗ Corresponding
author. E-mail address: [email protected] (G.M. Agiomirgianakis) 1 April 2008 Available online 6 June 2008