Locational competition is geographic competition, competition between places, between cities, between regions, and between countries. These spatial units compete with each other for the mobile production factors in factor markets, i.e., for mobile capital, for mobile technical know-how, and for...

The paper analyzes the relationship between trade policy and environmental protection. National and global environmental issues are distinguished. In principle, there is no conflict between an institutional order for international trade and national environmental policy. Protectionism against...

Locational competition means that the immobile factors of production in a country compete for internationally mobile capital and technology. Locational competition influences the restraint set of national players and redefines their opportunity costs. Thus, the bargaining position of the trade...

The paper compares the pay-as-you-go system and a capital funded system of old age insurance. The capital funded system has a higher rate of return. Pension income can be obtained at lower costs for the individual. This implies efficiency gains in terms of higher savings and reduced distortion...

Rising income inequality is an anglo Saxon problem. For most of the other OECD countries, earnings dispersion is rather persistent. Vertical mobility is to be taken into account. The paper also looks at the relationship of income inequality, growth and employment. It elaborates the point that...

This paper analyzes some of the elements of the new economy. What is really new is first of all the technological innovation. In economic terms what is new is a new product. The new IT product brought about by the new technology means two different things: a new device to handle data and to...

This paper analyzes institutional arrangements for exchange rate systems and reviews what we know. It looks at the foreign exchange market, different balance of payment situations in which countries find themselves and the necessary exchange rate adjustments. It studies the options that are...