We analyse, both theoretically and empirically, the growth effects associated with two components of volatile foreign financial assistance: 'directly productive' (or 'tied') aid and 'pure' aid. We find that scenarios in which aid can hurt the recipient's growth rate emerge only in cases where...

We examine business cycle synchronizations between the euro area and the recently acceded EU and currently negotiating countries. Strong evidence is uncovered of time-variation in the degree of co-movement between the cyclical components of monthly industrial production indicators for each of...