Price and income elasticities estimated from a country's export demand function are used both to predict and to prescribe effective export strategies. But the focus on elasticities has led to the neglect of an important empirical regularity: a strong persistencein the growth rate of a country's...

In recent years, the role of investment funds has increased in most commodity markets. Investment funds, which traditionally deal with financial markets, have been shifting between financial markets and commodity futures markets, as well as among commodity futures markets. The popularity of...

The authors empirically explore the inflationary process in Hungary. Using monthly data, they provide econometric estimates of the determinants of inflation for 1990-92. Empirical estimates of price equations - both consumer price index (CPI) and producer price index (PPI) - show the exchange...

The current and potential benefits of the East-West gas trade are enormous for all participants. Realizing those benefits requires significant upfront investments. But the new, more complex structure of the gas transit system that has emerged following changes in Eastern Europe and the former...

Contrary to common perceptions, higher environmental standards in industrial countries have not tended to lower their international competitiveness, the author contends. There has been little systematic relationship between higher environmental standards and competitiveness in environmentally...

The authors explore options for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) governments to make competition law enforcement more sensitive to trade and investment policy, thereby supporting liberal trade policy. The competition laws of these countries tend to resemble European Union (EU) competition...

Commodity prices have historically been among the most volatile of international prices. Measured volatility (the standard deviation of price changes) has not been below 15 percent and at times has been more than 50 percent. Often the volatility of commodity prices has exceeded that of exchange...

Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa remain dependent on a few primary commodities -- coffee, cocoa, cotton, sugar, tea, and tobacco -- for a large share of export earnings. Because demand for these commodities is price-inelastic, production and export expansion can depress world prices and...

Commodities are often stored during periods in which storage returns a negative price. Further, during periods of"backwardation,"the expected revenue from holding inventories will be negative. Since the 1930s, the negative price of storage has been attributed to an offsetting"convenience...

The author assesses the Czechoslovak mass privatization program for speed, equity, and corporate governance. The program transferred claims on assets in 1,491 enterprises - assets worth about $10.7 billion - to the 8.5 million citizens who participated in the scheme. The entire cycle of project...