Issues in Contemporary Economics

This book is volume 3 of the proceedings of the World Economic Congress held in Athens in August 1989, under the auspices of the International Economic Association. It considers various aspects of economic policy and development faced by countries with different social, cultural and political systems. Part 1 deals with agricultural issues, with an emphasis on public choice theory and aspects of welfare in various countries, including the USA and the European Community. In Part 2, food security and nutrition issues are analyzed, and the problems of achieving sufficient nutrition levels and sex bias are tackled, with case studies ranging from sub-Saharan Africa to Bangladesh. Part 3 is devoted primarily to debt, trade and industrialization issues in developing countries. Five case studies are presented, concentrating on Latin America and Africa, and solutions are proposed to intractable problems. Lastly, in Part 4, development within centrally planned economies is considered. The four papers in this section provide an up-to-date assessment of some of the problems of economic transition from central planning to market economy and the implications for the role of central government.