While it is widely accepted that there are adjustment costs associated with the reallocation of resources in response to freer trade, in most models these costs are assumed to be very small. However, more recent evidence is casting doubt on this assumption. This paper develops a unique dataset...

The European welfare regimes face two sets of challenges. One internal, specific for the welfare state itself, and the other external, imposed by changing economic, political and economics conditions. The first challenge lies in the growing gap between the rigid welfare state design and flexible...

This paper uses the panel analysis approach to deal with the impact of oil price shocks, unemployment and interest rates on the most fundamental macroeconomic variable, inflation. A data set ranging from 1997 to 2007 is used, separately for the US and the EU economy. In both sets of data,...

Bilateral Free Trade Agreements have been used extensively by Chile to expand its exports and improve its competitive position in the world markets. It is the objective of this paper to analyze the role of trade agreements, price competitiveness, real income, per capita income differences and...

The recent period of sustained high growth in the United States has drawn attention to its financial system and the efficiency with which it seems to be able to channel funds to new productive investment projects, particularly in hi-tech industries. This study examines the role played by the...

This paper examines funding modes of German banks and its implications for lending and profitability over the period 1992-2002. Analysing individual bank data from the Deutsche Bundesbank, we first find that deposits from customers lose ground in relative terms while interbank liabilities...

This paper analyzes whether differences in institutional structures on capital markets contribute to explaining why some OECD-countries, in particular the Anglo-Saxon countries, have been much more successful over the last two decades in producing employment growth and in reducing unemployment...

This paper empirically investigates the differences in the motives for raising privatization proceeds for a panel of 22 OECD countries from 1990 to 2001. We test whether privatizations can be mainly interpreted (a) as a means to foster growth, increase tax income, and relax the fiscal stance,...