This Paper presents a survey of the literature on trade liberalization and globalization. The questions are why trade liberalization occurred, why trade liberalization took the form of reciprocity combined with multilateralism, why the liberalization allows for protectionist policies, and why...

This Paper surveys the ways in which departures from free trade have been treated in economic analysis. Normative theories linked to classical arguments have shown how departure from free trade can enhance efficiency and increase social welfare. Positive perspectives with links to...

Central bank transparency has become the topic of a lively public and academic debate on monetary policy. Unfortunately, it has been complicated by the fact that transparency is a qualitative concept that is hard to measure. This Paper proposes a comprehensive index for central bank transparency...

The literature argues that the benefits of an independent Central Bank accrue at no cost to the real side. In this paper, we argue that the lack of correlation between monetary autonomy and output variability is due to the proactive role of fiscal policy when faced with rigid monetary...