The University of Sheffield
Department of Economics

Macroeconomics, finance and development
A number of people are involved in these areas and there are also many synergies with our other work on health economics, the economics of the firm and labour and education economics.

Staff carrying out research in macro, finance and international economics include: Mustafa Caglayan, Alessandro Flamini, Simona Mateut, Kostas Mouratidis, Jonathan Perraton.

Staff pursuing research on development related themes include: are Paul Mosley, Jonathan Perraton, Gurleen Popli and Abrar Suleiman. The development group (of staff and research students) run a Development Economics Study Group which meets monthly to discuss new and relevant research. The Journal of International Development is edited in the Department by Paul Mosley.

Staff are complemented by an active group of research students and associated researchers and research in these areas has lead to new MSc programmes and attracted several new PhD students to the department.

Research in this area includes:

Macroeconomics, finance and international economics

  • Comparative National Economic Institutions
  • Credit market imperfections
  • Dynamics of long run output growth and economic policy
  • Economic Growth in Open Economies
  • Economic Globalisation and its Policy Consequences
  • Economic growth and labour market institutions
  • Economics of transition, state intervention and development
  • Exchange rates and trade flows
  • Firm investment, cash holdings and macroeconomic uncertainty
  • Household indebtedness
  • Inflation and price dynamics
  • Monetary policy transmission; Credit channel; Trade credit channel

Development economics

  • Inequality and poverty
  • Labour markets
  • Globalization
  • Foreign aid
  • Microfinance
  • Health and development

Current and recent projects include:
Title People Description Funder / Sponsor
Research and development and uncertainty Mustafa Caglayan and Christopher F. Baum (Boston College) This work investigates the impact of macroeconomic uncertainty on firms’ R&D activities  
Trade credit and financial firictions Mustafa Caglayan and Simona Mateut This work investigates the use of trade credit for firms that face financial constraints  
Exchange rate uncertainty and south-north trad Mustafa Caglayan with Firat Demir (U. Oklahoma) and Omar S. Dahi (Hampshire College) This work investigates the impact of exchange rate uncertainty between and across developed and newly developed economies  
Central Bank Preferences, Distribution Forecasts and Economic Stability in a Small Open-economy Alessandro Flamini This paper investigates stability, forecast accuracy and the choice of a target inflation index in a small open economy.  
Agents’ behaviour and interest rate smoothing Alessandro Flamini and Andrea Fracasso (University of Trento) We show that household's preferences can play an important role in determining optimal interest rate inertia. Importantly, this can occur even when the central bank has negligible preferences for smoothing the interest rate.  
Real-time Optimal Monetary Policy with Undistinguishable Model Parameters and Shock Processes Uncertainty Alessandro Flamini and Costas Milas (Keele University and Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis) We study optimal real-time monetary policy when the central bank takes the volatility of the output gap and inflation as proxy of the undistinguishable uncertainty on the exogenous disturbances and the parameters of its model.  
Transmission lags and optimal monetary policy Alessandro Flamini This paper presents a New-Keynesian model where long and variable transmission lags are endogenously determined and investigates the optimal monetary policy.  
Uncertain Transmission Lags and Monetary Policy Action Alessandro Flamini This work studies of uncertain transmission lags affect the optimal monetary policy.  
Realistic monetary policy transmission mechanism and empirical fit of the NKGE models Alessandro Flamini and Damjan Pfajfar (University of Tilburg) We study the impact of a realistic monetary policy transmission mechanism on the empirical fit of the New Keynesian DSGE model.  
The political economy of pro-poor policy Paul Mosley Seeks to identify macro and expenditure policies in developing countries which will be pro-poor and politically feasible: thus brings together the literatures on anti-poverty policy, political feasibility and conflict. ESRC (World Economy and Finance Programme)
Community development finance institutions; an assessment of social impact Paul Mosley, Pam Lenton, K.Dayson(Salford) Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Barclays Bank and Dept of Trade and Industry  
Microfinance under crisis conditions Paul Mosley Taking Bolivia as an illustration, the project examines possible coping strategies both for microfinance institutions afflicted by economic and political crisis and for their clients. Being sought from Centro AFIN, Bolivia
Governance and aid effectiveness Paul Mosley (with R. Wilkinson, University of Manchester and J. Hudson, University of Bath) Examines whether short-term effectiveness of aid in terms of growth is being undermined by negative effects on governance. Application in to DFID/ESRC scheme (Sept 09)
Roots of rural poverty in Africa P. Mosley (with S. Bowden, University of York) Assesses the historical link between poverty policy in six African countries; examines the link between current achievements in anti-poverty policy and structures of policy established in colonial times. Currently unfunded
Higher education sector strategies for poverty reduction P. Lenton and P. Mosley Examines channels through which higher education sector policies in Africa impact on poverty and makes proposals for reform Application in to DFID/ESRC scheme (Sept 09)

Work ongoing, joint paper being submitted Jan. 2010
Neo-developmentalism in Latin America P.Mosley and J. Grugel (Politics) Examines whether neodevelopmentalist policies, which return to 50s protectionism in a modified form, can deliver in terms of long-term economic and political results. Application in to DFID/ESRC scheme (Sept 09)
Political business cycle in Africa P. Mosley and B. Chiripanhura Examines evidence for the existence of a ‘political business cycle’ in Africa, and whether this undermines governance quality Currently unfunded
South Africa´s Real Exchange Rate and the Commodities Boom Kostas Mouraditis and Bassam Fattouh and Laurence Harris South Africa´s Real Exchange Rate and the Commodities Boom  
Estimating Monetary Policy Preferences of the European Central Bank Kostas Mouraditis and Philip Arestis (University of Cambridge) and Michael Karoglou (University of Newcastle) Estimating Monetary Policy Preferences of the European Central Bank  
A Multivariate Markov Switching Model to evaluate currency Crises Kostas Mouraditis and D. Kainourgios (University of Athens), A. Samitas (University of the Aegean) and D. Vougas(Swansea University) A Multivariate Markov Switching Model to evaluate currency Crises  
Evaluating City and Non-city Forecasters Kirby, S., Mitchell, J. (NIESR) and K. Mouratidis Evaluating City and Non-city Forecasters  
Liberalizaton and Income distribution G. Popli Examines the impact of trade liberalization on inequality and poverty in both formal and informal sectors of the economy.


  • “Trade Liberalization and the Self-Employed in Mexico,” (G Popli). Forthcoming World Development
  • “Minimum Wages and Wage Structure in Mexico,” (D. Fairris, G. Popli and E. Zepeda). Review of Social Economy, 2008, vol. LXVI, no.2, June, pp. 181-208.
  • “The Rising Wage Inequality in Mexico, 1984-2000: A Distributional Analysis,” (G. Popli). Journal of Income Distribution, 2007, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 49-67.
  
Gender and Labour markets G. Popli Investigates the effects of free trade on the labour market outcomes for women in developing countries.


  • ‘Gender and Wage Discrimination in Mexico: A Distributional Approach’. Mimeo 2007.
  
Skill formation in early childhood G. Popli Explores the role of parental investment in skill formation in very young children.  
Gender, agriculture and poverty A.Suleiman Using rural household surveys from Ethiopia, this research investigates gender-differentials in agricultural productivity and its impact on poverty.  
Aid, agricultural growth and poverty reduction A.Suleiman, Paul Mosley Both at a macro and micro level, this research seeks to investigate the impact of foreign finance on agricultural growth and poverty reduction.


  • “Aid, agriculture and poverty in developing countries.” Review of Development Economics 11(1): 139-158, February 2007.
  
Agricultural Strategies for Chronic Poverty Reduction A.Suleiman, Paul Mosley, Blessing Chiripanhura Using both quantitative and qualitative data, this project investigates the role of agricultural policy in reducing poverty in three African countries (Ethiopia, Uganda and Zimbabwe). It consists of three CPRC commissioned background papers for the second Chronic Poverty Report 2008-09. http://www.chronicpoverty.org/page/report-2008-09 ODA/USAID
Changes in Developed Countries’ Economic Systems Since the 1980s J. Perraton Economy and the Society, 2009  
Evaluating Marxian Contributions to Development Economics J. Perraton Journal of Economic Methodology (2007)  
The Puzzle of Muslim Advantage in Child Survival in India Christine Valente (with Sonia Bhalotra, University of Bristol and Arthur van Soest, University of Tilburg) The socioeconomic status of Indian Muslims is, on average, considerably lower than that of upper-caste Hindus. Muslims nevertheless exhibit substantially higher child survival rates, and have done for decades. This research analyses this seeming puzzle.

Forthcoming in Journal of Health Economics. Available as IZA Discussion Paper No. 4009.		 ESRC/DFID
Improved Access to Abortion, Neonatal Mortality, and Gender Bias: Evidence from Nepal Christine Valente This research looks into the impact of improved access to abortion on neonatal mortality and sex-selective abortion in Nepal. ESRC
Foetal and Child Health amidst Violent Conflict Christine Valente This paper analyses the health consequences of exposure to civil conflict, from the womb to age 5, using data from Nepal.  
The Impact of Macroeconomic Shocks on Education Christine Valente (with Sonia Bhalotra, University of Bristol) This research analyses the effect of exposure to macroeconomic shocks on educational attainment for a large number of developing countries.  
The Cognitive Gender Gap in Africa Christine Valente (with Paul Atherton, Institute of Education) This research shows that girls perform significantly worse than boys in standardised tests in primary schools in Africa, and explores underlying mechanisms.  
Household Returns to Land Transfers in South Africa: A Q-squared analysis Christine Valente This paper explores the costs and benefits from participation in the South African land redistribution programme.

Forthcoming in Journal of Development Studies.
  
The Food (In)Security Impact of Land Redistribution in South Africa: Microeconometric evidence from national data Christine Valente This paper estimates the effect of South African land transfers on food insecurity at the household level.

Published in World Development 37(9),pp. 1540-1553 (2009)