In our society today, money's value is measured by what it can buy—its purchasing power—not by its material worth, but it hasn't always been so. · My previous papers Impact of agriculture output on exchange rates and Currency competition-Survival of the fittest dealt with issues surrounding...

Using a two-sector-two-country model with aggregate scale economies and unionisation, we show that optimal welfare state policy entails positive levels of unemployment benefits under free-trade and capital mobility. In this setting, economic integration does not reduce the revenue raising...

Economic theory suggests that liberalization of trade between countries with differing levels of environmental protection could lead pollution- intensive industry to concentrate in the nations where regulations are lax. This effect, often referred to as the “pollution haven” hypothesis, is...

There is a consensus among scholars that overvalued exchange rates result in currency crises. This paper estimates the equilibrium real exchange rate for Turkey and finds that the lira was indeed overvalued before the crises in 1994 and 2001. However, the actual real exchange rate is at present...

The movement of illegal goods and illegal migrants also points to the importance of Mexico. Ignoring Mexico leaves a large hole in the U.S. security perimeter. If it is so easy for goods and people to move across the border, how does the United States plan to improve security without Mexican...

Agriculture accounts for USD 547 billion (approximately) of international trade, which means 9.1% of world merchandise trade and it constitutes 40.9% of world exports in primary products.In the coming decades the agricultural sector faces many challenges stemming from growing global populations,...

This study compares transition processes in countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union (FSU) and sub-Saharan Africa. By widening the scope from most- to least-developed transition economies, the study establishes the importance of a strong state with evolved institutional...

European policy makers have repeatedly suggested that fiscal- policy coordination and fiscal federalism will play key roles in Europe's monetary union. This paper warns that this hope is misplaced. Fiscal federalism will not be available to offset recessionary shocks for the foreseeable future....

DOMESTIC MARKETS AND INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS This paper develops a theoretical and empirical model to analyze the effects of the size and nature of domestic markets on the international competitiveness of national industries. We validate our theory using data on the more than 20,000 plants...

This paper is concerned with two issues. First, it discusses some of the main problems and inferences the methodological approach of critical realism raises for empirical work in economics, while considering an approach adopted to try to overcome these problems. Second, it provides a concrete...