In this paper, the evolution of thought regarding protectionist trade policies in developed and in developing countries is examined and contrasted. In the developing countries distrust of markets and a belief in the infant industry argument led to highly protectionist trade regimes. The...

This paper analyzes the role of investment policies in regimes undergoing trade liberalization with policy makers of uncertain credibility. We consider an economy producing exportable and importable goods. The economy is liberalized, and tariffs are eliminated. The public views the reform...

This paper studies the cross-country variation of the fiscal stimulus and the exchange rate adjustment propagated by the global crisis of 2008-9, identifying the role of economic structure in accounting for the heterogeneity of response. We find that greater de facto fiscal space prior to the...

This paper investigates the association between commercial and financial openness of developing countries. The data suggest that, controlling for GDP/Capita changes and allowing for country specific effects, increase in a developing country's (exports + imports)/GDP is associated with a highly...

The purpose of this paper is to assess how restrictions on capital mobility affect adjustment to a tariff liberalization policy. This is done by comparing the adlustment process under free and restricted convertibility of foreign assets in a regime where the commercial exchange rate is pegged....

The purpose of this paper is to offer an explanation of why a developing country may adopt a partial reform under which foreign direct investments are controlled. We consider a country where the ruling elite [referred to as State capital] prevents the entry of Foreign capital and taxes the...

This paper studies the endogenous determination of financial and trade openness. First, we outline a theoretical framework leading to two-way feedbacks between the different modes of openness; next, we identify these feedbacks empirically. We find that one standard deviation increase in...

This paper studies the impact of aid volatility in a two-period model where production may occur with either a traditional or a modern technology. Public spending is productive and quot;time to buildquot; requires expenditure in both periods for the modern technology to be used. The possibility...

This paper analyzes the role of relative prices in the conduct of wage indexation and monetary policy in a small economy producing traded and non-traded goods under a flexible exchange rate regime. It is shown that the beneficial effect of using relative prices in addition to aggregate prices as...

The purpose of this paper is to study the role of policies in the presence of country risk with overdiscounting by the policy maker. Overdiscounting may reflect political uncertainty, which makes the effective planning horizon of the centralized government shorter than that of the private...