The EAC is on the verge of establishing a customs union. But this is accompanied by fears that the Customs Union would lead to trade imbalances among the Partner States, which would create serious problems for the proper functioning of the Customs Union itself. To mitigate these problems the...

The main focus of this paper is the question if the success of regional integration organisation in developing countries is, in fact, dependent on factors like similarity of their economic structure, market size or lack of commitment. It is shown that there are also other more important...

The European Union is currently negotiating free trade agreements, called Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), with African countries as part of the Cotonou Agreement between the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. The paper empirically assesses the impact of the EPAs...

Can process conditionality really enhance poverty reduction in developing countries? This question is addressed in the framework of a politico-economic model considering political distortions both on the recipient and on the donor side. It turns out that process conditionality is a very useful...

This paper takes stock with the results of utility privatization in Bolivia. This paper deals with the process of structural reforms in this country and the specific results that have to date been accomplished in the electricity industry. It is mostly interested in exploring whether the...

In this paper, we investigate internationalization strategies of German manufacturing firms in the European Union. We give reasons for the hypothesis that traditional market strategies had been replaced by border-crossing production networking based on the comparative advantage of host countries...

Japan and Korea are close countries in terms of economic interaction as well as geography. To quantify the impact of changes in the yen-dollar exchange rate on the Korean economy before and after the crisis in 1997, the sample period has been divided into two sub-periods and the causal...

Does official aid pave the road for private foreign investment or does it suffocate private initiative by diverting resources towards unproductive activities? In this paper we explore this question using data for a large number of developing and emerging economies. Controlling for countries'...