Apart from exchange rate objectives which have resulted in reserve accumulation as a side effect, Asian countries have chosen explicitly to build up reserves for precautionary motives. This paper explores the issue of optimal precautionary demand for reserves by a central bank within a context...

The principal goal of integration in Europe in the post-Second World War period has always been the safeguarding of peace through economic integration. The European Union (EU) has overseen splendid economic achievements. A sign of that great success has been the EU’s continuous enlargement....

The aim of this study is to provide a succinct description of the specialisation model of four economies on the southern shores of the Mediterranean (Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia) and its recent evolution, concentrating in particular on the merchandise trade. The analysis shows, according...

A defining feature of globalization is the fragmentation of individual blocks of an integrated production process across countries. This necessitates flows of final goods as well as their parts and components back and forth among the involved nations. A depreciation of a country’s currency...

In this paper the extent of international fragmentation of production in Italian manufacturing industries for the years 1985, 1995 and 2000 is assessed with different indicators. The objective is to determine where fragmentation is most prevalent and to provide a description of the key...

This paper analyzes the demand for manufactures in Greece and estimates the effects from the EU accession. An error correction specification of the Almost Ideal Demand System has been used. This formulation performs well on theoretical grounds, as the restrictions that are imposed by the demand...

Interest in monetary integration of 14 Pacific island countries was aroused in 2003 by an Australian Senate Committee’s suggestion for adoption of the Australian dollar as common currency towards deeper regional integration. A common currency entails a single set of economic, monetary,...

This paper investigates determinants of tariff-cut staging categories that emerged under the recently negotiated U.S.-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). Staging categories are explained in terms of product characteristics, predicted by the Grossman-Helpman (1995)...

The ratio of import duties to total imports is a widely used measure of tariff policy in growth empirics. However, no clear and robust relationship emerges from the statistical analysis linking such an index to growth. This paper argues that this failure may be explained by precise theoretical...

This paper studies the relationship between EMU sustainability and the European Political Union. Following De Grauwe’s suggestions, it is shown that a number of independent economic policies remained in the realm of each member country despite the setting up of EMU could produce shocks putting...