Not only transition countries but also a large number of developing (and developed) countries have established free economic zones (FEZs) with the aim of attracting foreign capital by providing tax incentives, creating employment opportunities and promoting exports as well as regional...

In the conventional literature related to investment decisions, less attention has been paid to the length of maturity when investment is debt-financed. In such a case a firm pays the creditor not only the sum of annual interest (initial investment cost multiplied by real interest rate) for the...

This paper synthesises the state of knowledge on the economic effects of density. We consider 15 outcome categories and 209 estimates of density elasticities from 103 studies. More than 50% of these estimates have not been previously published and have been provided by authors on request or...

Asia, particularly its major economies has witnessed slower growth in recent years. To make Asia more economically sustainable and resilient against external shocks to recover from the falling growth, most regional economies need to rebalance their export-oriented (mostly to advanced economies)...

In the course of the EU enlargement process, the participation of accession countries in the European Monetary Union might lead to a significant redistribution of seigniorage wealth if current regulations prevail. In general, accession countries will be winners from this redistribution, for...

In this paper we study the evolution of central banks' balance sheets in 12 advanced economies since 1900. We find that balance sheet size in most developed countries has fluctuated within rather clearly defined bands relative to output. Historically, clusters of big expansions and contractions...

We examine "Forward Guidance Contracts", which make central bankers' utility contingent on the precision of interest-rate forecasts for some time. Such Forward Guidance Contracts are a exible commitment device and can improve economic performance when the economy is stuck in a liquidity trap....

Theory and evidence suggest that in an environment of well-anchored expectations, temporary news or shocks to economic variables, should not affect agents ́expectations of inflation in the long term. Our estimated structural VARs show that both long- and short-term inflation expectations are...

There has been a remarkable rise in the transparency of monetary policy during the last two decades. This paper provides an overview of the ways in which central banks have been providing more information about their monetary policymaking. Furthermore, it reviews the theoretical literature on...

The debate about Canadian-U.S. monetary integration is surveyed. The choice is among overall monetary orders,rather than exchange rate regimes and questions of policy credibility and political accountability are crucial. Canada's recent economic performance under inflation targets, and arguments...