Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

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  Neoliberalisation, fast policy transfer and the management of labor market services

  Nunn, Alex; University of Derby (Taylor & Francis, 2019-06-27)

  Neoliberalism has been a core concern for IPE for several decades, but is often ill-defined. Research offering greater definitional clarity stresses the role of contingent and local level factors in diverse processes of neoliberalisation. This paper contributes to that literature, addressing a surprising gap in critical IPE knowledge; the management practices by which pressures to activate the unemployed and to make them more competitive, are implemented. The paper suggests that performance management, is significant as both a depoliticising policy coordination mechanism and a highly politicised policy implementation practice. The paper invokes a scalar-relational approach which sees the pressure to innovate and compete at lower scales as driven by the political economy of competitiveness at the system scale. The paper reports on research undertaken within the empirical frame of EU meta-governance, showing how performance management is part of lower-scale attempts to adapt to system-scale pressures. It is neoliberalising in both form and content. It concludes by showing that while performance management may be a significant component of neoliberalisation there is scope for engagement and contestation motivated by egalitarian ideals. Critical IPE scholars interested in contesting neoliberalisation should therefore engage with the political economy of management practice as well as policy design.
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  Does more complex language in FOMC decisions impact financial markets?

  Smales, Lee; Apergis, Nicholas; Curtin University; University of Piraeus (Elsevier, 2017-10-10)

  This paper is built around a simple premise that is based on the theoretical models of Harris and Raviv (1993) and Kandel and Pearson (1995). Complex statements are more difficult to interpret and may be construed in different ways by different agents. This creates heterogeneity of beliefs among market participants that manifests in increased market activity. We introduce novel measures of linguistic complexity (readability and word count) for the FOMC statements that accompany monetary policy decisions. The empirical evidence shows that monetary policy surprises have a significant impact on financial markets, and clearly demonstrates that more complex language significantly increases the trading volume, and volatility of returns, in stock, bond, and currency markets. We also establish that financial markets are more responsive to monetary policy decisions (and the language of those statements) during recession.
• The influence of FOMC member characteristics on the monetary policy decision-making process.

  Apergis, Nicholas; Smales, Lee; University of Piraeus; Curtin University (Elsevier., 2015-12-22)

  This paper provides new empirical evidence on a monetary policy committee with heterogeneous members whose decisions affect the efficacy of monetary policy. It thereby provides a link between the literature on monetary policy committees and central bank monetary policy implementation through monetary rules. Using a novel dataset of the idiosyncratic characteristics of FOMC members, over the period from August 1979 to February 2014, the empirical findings show that characteristics such as education, age, and, to a lesser extent, work experience are not important in understanding the FOMC decision-making process. Instead, the results point to the importance of time spent within the Federal Reserve System, tenure on the FOMC itself, and the influence of the Chair in shaping the decision-making process. The results are expected to have implications for the capacity of economic agents, as well as various markets in the economy, to more readily interpret public (monetary policy) information that reaches them. This makes the monetary policy decision process less noisy and thus enhances the capability of agents and markets to attach the correct weight to this information.