The growing importance of Japan on the world market has brought with it changes in the international division of labour and a shift in the focus of the expansion in world trade away from the EC and the USA. What factors determine the shares of the EC, the USA and Japan in international trade?...

The sudden shock of the fivefold increase of the price of oil in the autumn of 1973 has been reflected since in the world trade by structural changes in its composition by categories of goods and its regional distribution. How has the international trade coped with this shock, and which more...

The international competitiveness of German industry, so greatly dependent on exports, is in large measure determined by the level of its labour costs in relation to those of its competitors in the world market, as its spokesmen never tire of pointing out. Dr. Salowski undertakes here an...

The empirical relationship between competition intensity and the rate of productivity growth across 30 sectors of the French economy between 1978 and 2015 displays an inverted U-shape. This implies that there exists an optimal level of competition for each sector, defined by the price markup...

The Uruguay Round negotiations are currently passing through a critical phase after four years of strenuous bargaining. The ultimate success of the negotiations largely depends on the attitudes of the USA, the EC and Japan. What are the main contentious issues between these three and how are...

The distinct trends towards regionalisation in the world economy that could be observed in recent years should not be interpreted merely as the formation of economic blocs or "fortresses". This would amount to adopting a biased, backward-looking approach that sees only the sombre experiences of...