The paper investigates one aspect of the external trade impact of the 1992 `Internal Market' programme, that is, VERs on third countries. The paper rejects the frequently-made claim that the proposed abolition in 1992 of Article 115 of the Treaty of Rome (which prevents free intra-EC circulation...

A key feature of Soviet-type economies is the excessive concentration of production and the skewed size distribution of enterprises. This is the root cause of the `soft budget constraint' and a natural outcome of the political economy of these countries. Given entrenched political support for a...