Economic theory predicts that the integration of financial markets lowers the volatility of consumption. In this paper, we study long-term trends in the consumption volatility of the G7 countries. Using different measures of financial openness, we find that greater financial openness has been...

Theoretical research on the determinants of business-cycle fluctuations implies that the degree of international financial integration can have important implications for the propagation of, e.g., macroeconomic policy shocks in an open economy. An important assumption underlying this research is...

Unlike in Asia, the manufacturing sector has not (yet) become a driver of structural change in Africa. One common explanation is that the natural resource-focus of many African economies leads to Dutch disease effects. To test this argument for the case of newly found oil in Ghana we develop a...

In this paper, we present a standard quality ladders endogenous growth model with one significant new assumption, that it takes time for firms to learn how to export. We show that this model without Melitz-type assumptions can account for all the evidence that the Melitz (2003) model was...

Estonia is widely regarded as a paramount example for a successful transformation of a socialist economic system to a functioning market economy. Against the backdrop of this positive image which contrasts strongly with the crisis scenarios in Southern Europe the remaining problems of Estonia...

In this paper the authors conduct a meta-analysis to examine the link between R&D spending and economic growth in the EU and other regions. The results suggest that the growth-enhancing effect of R&D in the EU15 countries does not differ from that in other countries in general, but it is less...

The integration of the central and eastern European countries into the international capital markets has been and will be determined by the process of European Union (EU) integration. Our analysis shows that southern and eastern European countries already appear to be surprisingly similar...

In this paper I discuss the general statistical relationships between beta- and sigmaconvergence (for a definition see section 2) and the implications of the Solow-Swan and Ramsey-Cass model for an OLS-estimation of beta- and sigma-convergence of the log of per capita GDP over a cross section of...

Politicians in Asia and some economists contend that developing countries are at the mercy of the rapidly changing winds blowing from international capital markets. We are indeed witnessing another episode of volatility in capital flows, with foreign investors suddenly fleeing emerging markets...

This paper analyzes China's economic performance in the last 25 years and discusses its prospect for growth in the future. China has enjoyed high annual GDP growth rates of about ten percent in the last 25 years. Exports and investment were the two driving forces of the growth process. FDI plays...