Ineffective institutions increase transaction costs and reduce trade. This paper shows that differences in the effectiveness of institutions offer an explanation for the tendency of OECD countries to trade disproportionately with each other, and with non-OECD countries.

This paper studies the effect of institutions on trade flows, using a gravity modelapproach. We start from a standard gravity equation that incorporates geographical proximity,language, trade policy and common history. These factors reflect the costs of trade acrossgeographical and cultural...

Formal trade barriers and transport costs explain only part of the resistance to international trade. Search costs on the international market and insecurity of property rights and contract enforcement have recently been emphasized as important intangible barriers to trade. This paper proposes...

This paper exploits micro firm level data to examine the impact of spatial clustering and links to foreign buyer networks on firm performance in the wood furniture industry in Central Java, Indonesia. The analysis is based on an annual manufacturing survey. We identify the impact of...

This paper explores the determinants of regional differences in interest rates based on a simple theoretical model of loan pricing. The model demonstrates how risks, costs, market concentration and scale economies jointly determine the bank's interest rates. Using recent data of the Indonesian...

This discussion paper led to an article in <I>Growth and Change</I> (2014). Volume 45, issue 2, pages 240-262.<P> This paper employs Vector Autoregression (VAR) models to measure the impact of monetary policy shocks on regional output in Indonesia. Having incorporated a possible structural break following...</p></i>

This paper analyzes the impact of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 and the Nias earthquake in 2005 on population dynamic across regions in Aceh and North Sumatera. We find no evidence that the disasters affected the regularity of size-distribution of the regions. The estimates of a population...

This paper investigates the influence of perception of natural disaster risks on the probability of local people to participate in a hypothetical disaster microinsurance. We use household data for a specific disaster risk of the Mount Merapi in Java. We find that respondent's perception of...

We investigate the impact of the Krakatau eruption in August 1883 on the spatial distribution of population across residencies in Java. The analysis is based on historical data of the indigenous population at residency level covering the period from 1880 to 1928. Based on our empirical analysis...

This paper studies the effect of institutions on trade flows, using a gravity model approach. We start from a standard gravity equation that incorporates geographical proximity, language, trade policy and common history. These factors reflect the costs of trade across geographical and cultural...