Emerging Trends in International Macroeconomics: Insights and Challenges

A special issue of Journal of Risk and Financial Management (ISSN 1911-8074). This special issue belongs to the section "Economics and Finance".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 11217

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Economics, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Via Giuseppe Buffi 13, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
Interests: international macroeconomics; monetary economics

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Guest Editor
Department of Economics, University of Fribourg, Boulevard de Pérolles 90, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland
Interests: international macroeconomics; monetary economics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the present Special Issue of the Journal of Risk and Financial Management entitled “Emerging Trends in International Macroeconomics: Insights and Challenges”.

In times of uncertainty due to political and economic instability, as well as recurrent global crises—global GDP growth has dropped below the zero-percent threshold only twice after World War II: in 2009 due to the global financial crisis (−1.4%) and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic (−3.1%)—it is vital to understand the following macroeconomic trends:

  • Redefined global value chains (GVCs) and increased trade restrictions is a trend that the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been monitoring since at least 2020;
  • New, cashless payment methods (including those based on blockchain and cryptographic technology) induced by technical advances and the potential introduction of e-cash (also called “central bank digital currencies” (CBDCs)) issued by central banks;
  • The international monetary order based on a few currencies, of which the US Dollar is the most prominent, (in)directly derived from the Bretton Woods Conference (1944), and the growing pleas for increased inclusion of BRICS countries and their own currencies;
  • Sovereign and corporate bond debt that reached almost USD 100 tn at the end of 2023 (i.e., the size of global GDP) and the increasingly urgent need to stabilize public finances;
  • Renewed consumer-price inflation, which was +8.0% in 2022 at the global level, and the enduring asset-price inflation that eventually led to some of the most notable crisis episodes in the 2000s;
  • The income and wealth distributive effects of recent and current monetary policy decisions across the global economy, particularly in major advanced countries.

The topics of interest for the present Special Issue are not limited to those mentioned above as far as they belong to the field of macroeconomics. We, therefore, invite scholars, researchers, and practitioners to add to the existing economic literature with original and high-quality papers, which will receive full attention and recognition from both Guest Editors and the Editorial Team.

An Article Processing Charge (APC, https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jrfm/apc) of CHF 1400 currently applies to all accepted papers. Limited financial support for publication fees may be available for authors of excellent submissions without any source of institutional funding.

Prof. Dr. Edoardo Beretta
Prof. Dr. Sergio Rossi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Risk and Financial Management is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • CBDCs, cryptocurrencies and the tokenization of assets
  • consumer-price inflation versus asset-price inflation
  • economic and financial crises
  • global value chains
  • (inter)national macroeconomics
  • international monetary order
  • money and payment systems
  • sovereign and corporate debt
  • income and wealth distribution

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 1066 KB  
Article
Revisiting a Post Keynesian Explanation of US Inflation
by Christopher R. Herdelin
J. Risk Financial Manag. 2026, 19(3), 202; https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm19030202 - 9 Mar 2026
Viewed by 931
Abstract
This paper presents an econometric analysis of inflation from a Post Keynesian perspective using quarterly data from 2002 to 2024 for the United States, including the most recent period of inflation after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. I evaluate the continued relevance [...] Read more.
This paper presents an econometric analysis of inflation from a Post Keynesian perspective using quarterly data from 2002 to 2024 for the United States, including the most recent period of inflation after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. I evaluate the continued relevance of the comprehensive Post Keynesian model of inflation using a reduced form equation that incorporates both the aggregate demand–augmented wage-cost markup equation and the wage growth equation which is robust in explaining inflation. The robustness of the model is tested by incorporating different measures of labor market slack, wages, and inflation. The paper finds that the comprehensive model is not robust for the period 2002 to 2024 even when alternative measures for wages, unemployment, and inflation are utilized. This discrepancy arises because the negative relationship between unit labor costs and inflation, observed in the updated model, proved non-robust upon the inclusion of control variables for energy costs and imports. After employing the Prais–Winsten estimation to account for persistent serial correlation, the revised model aligned with the sign conventions of the original Atesoglu wage-cost markup equation. Specifically, while the coefficient for unit labor costs turned positive, it failed to reach statistical significance. Finally, I discuss potential factors for the decrease in the magnitude and significance of the coefficients in the aggregate demand–augmented wage–cost markup model for the period 2002 to 2024 as well as the pass through of wage growth to broader inflation measures. Full article
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33 pages, 1961 KB  
Article
Short-Run Monetary Policy Transmission, Credit Risk, and Bank Portfolio Adjustments: Evidence from the Non-Financial Corporate Sector in an Emerging Economy
by Adil Boutfssi and Tarik Quamar
J. Risk Financial Manag. 2026, 19(3), 178; https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm19030178 - 2 Mar 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 820
Abstract
This paper examines the short-run transmission of monetary policy to bank credit granted to the non-financial corporate sector in Morocco, a bank-based emerging economy. Using monthly macro-financial data over the period of 2014–2024, the study estimates a reduced-form VAR model to analyze the [...] Read more.
This paper examines the short-run transmission of monetary policy to bank credit granted to the non-financial corporate sector in Morocco, a bank-based emerging economy. Using monthly macro-financial data over the period of 2014–2024, the study estimates a reduced-form VAR model to analyze the dynamic interactions between the policy rate, bank credit, banks’ holdings of sovereign securities, credit risk indicators, and short-term market spreads. Impulse response functions and forecast error variance decompositions indicate that a one-standard-deviation monetary policy shock is associated with a small and short-lived response of non-financial corporations bank credit at a monthly horizon, accounting for only a limited share of its forecast error variance, while the same shock is more strongly reflected in market spreads and banks’ balance-sheet reallocations toward sovereign assets, alongside temporary movements in credit risk indicators. Overall, these results are consistent with a reduced-form transmission pattern in which monetary policy appears to affect bank credit primarily through indirect financial channels related to risk perception, portfolio reallocation, and balance-sheet management, rather than through immediate changes in aggregate credit volumes. This interpretation is conditional on the VAR specification and short-run horizon considered, and suggests an attenuation of the interest rate–credit channel in a bank-dominated emerging economy, rather than evidence of a structural breakdown of monetary transmission. Full article
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20 pages, 960 KB  
Article
Together Forever but Better Apart: A Revisit of the Inflation–Growth Nexus with Moderators
by Adeola Oluwakemi Adejayan and Mishelle Doorasamy
J. Risk Financial Manag. 2026, 19(1), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm19010039 - 5 Jan 2026
Viewed by 1037
Abstract
Inflation is an economic phenomenon that affects the growth of many countries around the world, especially African countries. Several studies have endeavored to determine the direction of its effect in developing countries, albeit with inconclusive results. Moreover, there is a paucity of studies [...] Read more.
Inflation is an economic phenomenon that affects the growth of many countries around the world, especially African countries. Several studies have endeavored to determine the direction of its effect in developing countries, albeit with inconclusive results. Moreover, there is a paucity of studies on the moderating roles fiscal policy and monetary policy play in this relationship. This study examines the effect of inflation on Nigerian economic growth and the moderating roles of fiscal and monetary policies from 1986 to 2023. By employing the ARDL bound test, it was discovered that a long-run relationship exists, with a significant negative relationship in the short run. Also, the intervening role of government expenditure significantly worsens the effect, while the money supply insignificantly weakens the influence of inflation on economic growth in the short run. Notably, the moderating role of a coordinated fiscal and monetary policy has a favorable significant effect on the inflation–growth nexus. This study concludes that while inflation poses a serious threat to the Nigerian economy, the intervening roles of coordinated government expenditure and the money supply are significant to reduce the adverse effect. There is a pressing need for monetary authorities to utilize a coordinated fiscal and monetary policy to reduce the inflation rate to single-digit levels. Full article
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30 pages, 2093 KB  
Article
Productivity and Keynes’s 15-Hour Work Week Prediction for 2030: An Alternative, Macroeconomic Analysis for the United States
by Edoardo Beretta, Aurelio F. Bariviera, Marco Desogus, Costanza Naguib and Sergio Rossi
J. Risk Financial Manag. 2024, 17(7), 306; https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm17070306 - 17 Jul 2024
Viewed by 7557
Abstract
This paper analyses Keynes’s 1930 prediction that technical advances would cut people’s working week to 15 h by 2030 and investigates why actual working hours are significantly higher in the United States. Elaborating on Keynes’s forecast to provide a general productivity formula while [...] Read more.
This paper analyses Keynes’s 1930 prediction that technical advances would cut people’s working week to 15 h by 2030 and investigates why actual working hours are significantly higher in the United States. Elaborating on Keynes’s forecast to provide a general productivity formula while keeping its simplicity, we ran tests on macro-data from 1929 to 2019 and on estimates for 2030, demonstrating that productivity is surprisingly still insufficient to allow for a reduction in working hours across the US economy. This finding represents a substantial contribution to the literature, which has mostly explained long working hours by means of new consumer needs. Even by using microdata, we show that consumption does not explain the stickiness of working hours to the bottom. Hence, this paper combines a macroeconomic, logical-analytical approach based on historical time series with rigorously constructed time series at the microeconomic level. Finally, we also provide policies to narrow the productivity differential to Keynes’s prediction for 2030 while fostering work-life balance and sustainable growth. To understand long working hours in the US despite technical advances—this being one of our main findings—productivity remains crucial. Full article
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