The Economics of International Transfers

Description

Since the famous debate between Keynes and Ohlin on German reparation payments after World War I, international transfers have attracted the attention of economists. Today the subject is of even greater importance with billions of dollars flowing between nations as unilateral transfers. However the emphasis has shifted from balance-of-payments issues to the welfare consequences following a transfer and in particular the welfare issues arising from aid to developing countries. In The Economics of International Transfers, first published in 1998, Professors Brakman and van Marrewijk present an overview of transfers (including the history of transfers and current transfer flows) and their own unified framework in which they present important and original research. Subjects considered include welfare effects, distortions, third parties, rent-seeking, the 'trade or aid' discussion, multi-lateral agencies, tied aid and imperfect competition.

Charles van Marrewijk is Professor of International Macroeconomics at Utrecht University School of Economics (since 2008) and Director of the Tjalling Charles Koopmans Institute (since 2009). He studied horticulture and worked as a grower before studying economics in Holland at Erasmus University Rotterdam (1981-5, B.A. and M.A.) and in the United States at Purdue University (1985-8, M.Sc. and Ph.D). He worked at the University of Groningen (1987-90) and at Erasmus University Rotterdam (1990-2008), where he was also Academic Director of the Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies (2007-8). His research focuses on international economics, geographical economics, economic growth, development economics, and urban economics. He is currently the European editor of The Journal of International Trade and Economic Development and associate editor of the Journal of Regional Science. He has organized several international conferences and served as a guest editor for various special issues of the above two journals. His research output is widely cited and has appeared in many top (field) journals, including the Journal of International Economics, the Journal of Development Economics, the Journal of Economic Geography, the International Economic Review, the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Oxford Economic Papers, Economica, the International Journal of Industrial Organization, the Journal of Population Economics, and the Journal of Regional Science. He has also (co-)authored ten books, of which two were translated into Chinese.