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 report summarises the findings of a study on the growth factors and growth prospects of the business services (BS)industry, applying an internationally comparative perspective. The report untangles factors behind the extraordinary growth of the BS industry during last decade,comparing it...

This report identifies the factors behind structural growth of the business services industry, applying growth decomposition and qualitative analysis.

An important question about social norms is whether they are created to increase welfare; I address it by examining the characteristics of tipped and non-tipped occupations. Tipping prevalence is negatively correlated with worker’s income and consumer’s monitoring ability and positively with...

In most OECD countries, the business services industry has grown much faster than the market sector as a whole. The industry in most cases, however, has displayed stagnating productivity growth, in some periods even a fall in productivity. Does this fast-growing industry with a bad productivity...

The paper discusses several questions related to the economic cycles, from the scientific methodological approach to isolate the economic cycles, to an empirical application using data of the Portuguese industrial sector, passing by the identification of the real economic cycles that modulated...

The business services industry represents a large and fast-growing chunk of the Dutch economy, approaching the size of the total manufacturing industry. The industry, however, has displayed stagnating productivity growth, accompanied in some years by a fall in productivity. Do these stylised...

The paper sketches the basic patterns and facts about service trade, foreign direct investment and regulation in the EU. We conclude that the last decade trade in services has increased substantially, in particular in business services. This is also the case for foreign direct investment (in...

Current monetary policy involves the manipulation of the Central Bank interest rate (the repo rate), with the specific objective of achieving the goal(s) of monetary policy. The latter is normally the inflation rate, although in a number of instances this may include the level of economic...

This paper examines alternative ways to prevent losses from bank insolvencies. It is widely viewed that transparency in reporting bank balance sheets is a key element in reducing such losses. It is, however, unclear just how such transparency would be achieved. Current approaches to avoiding...