This paper explores quantitatively the nexus between GDP growth and the two components of total exports, focusing particularly on the role of services exports in developing and transition countries. The Introduction exposes some of the shortcomings and methodological problems affecting BOP...

This paper investigates empirically the extent to which the ten new EU countries are ready to join the European Monetary Union (EMU). Using France and Germany as a benchmark, we assess the prospects of successful EMU participation based on common trends analysis of the nominal convergence...

on detailed plant-level data, is used to contrast the impacts of the Morocco-EU free trade area (FTA) to multilateral trade liberalization on Morocco’s economy. Simulation results show that the FTA agreement is likely to have adverse effects on Morocco due to: (a) deteriorating terms of trade,...

This paper presents a two-country two-industry monetary model, with intermediate inputs and transport costs, which builds a bridge between the New Open Economy Macroeconomics and the New Economic Geography literatures. Endogenously asymmetric shocks arise in this model when the exchange rate...

Recent literature has emphasized the importance of transaction costs and infrastructure in explaining trade, access to markets, and regional cooperation under globalization. For most Asian countries, transaction costs are a greater barrier to trade integration than import tariffs. By estimating...

In this paper, I reexamine the empirical relationship between trade openness and urban concentration. Using a panel data set of more than 110 countries for the period from 1970 through 2000, I find that previous results of a negative association between trade openness and the size of a country's...

Since the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, there has been an intensive discussion whether the convergence criteria incorporated into the contract were appropriate to prepare the EU-member-countries for European Monetary Union. We argue that at least inflationary convergence was not a necessary...

In many countries the difference in labor market performance for skilled and unskilled workers has increased over the past decades. While an extended literature exists on the employment effects of trade, less is known about the effects of factor mobility. Based on the “labor market flow...

Eastward enlargement of the Eurozone will result in transition economies sharing a currency with well-established market economies. We compare the suitability of the candidates relative to current members at a similar time before joining, as well as their readiness to comply with Maastricht...

In this paper, we investigate how market integration affects firms’ technology choices. Although market integration encourages cost-reducing research and development (R&D) investments in many cases, it may discourage it in two cases: (1) when market sizes are quite different and the effects of...