Microeconomic flexibility, by facilitating the process of creative-destruction, is at the core of economic growth in modern market economies. The main reason for why this process is not infinitely fast is the presence of adjustment costs, some of them technological, others institutional. Chief...

We characterize the degree of microeconomic inflexibility in several Latin American economies and find that Brazil, Chile and Colombia are more flexible than Mexico and Venezuela. The difference in flexibility among these economies is mainly explained by the behavior of large establishments,...

This dissertation contributes to the theoretical understanding of the determinants and consequences of productive government activity for the economic performance of a country’s economy. Chapter 2 gives a comprehensive survey of the recent theoretical literature on the link between productive...

Trade liberalization in Latin America has substantially altered business opportunities andeconomic development in the region. As barriers to competing inputs have come down andforeign investment in the region has gone up, small, domestic firms have struggled to stayafloat. Many small businesses...

This study investigates the interaction between corruption and foreign direct investment inflows in 23 emerging market economies during the period 2002-2014 by employing Westerlund-Durbin-Hausman (2008) cointegration test. We found that control of corruption and rule of law had no statistically...

Recent developments in intra-industry trade (IIT) literature focus on the relationships between IIT and adjustment costs associated with changes in trade pattern. The effects of trade liberalisation depend, inter alia, on whether trade is of an inter-industry or intra-industry nature. The belief...

Horticultural firms are dependent on energy to produce, while policy makers focus on reducingthe use of energy and investment in energy-saving technologies. The paper aimed to assesDutch greenhouse farmers‘ responses to policies that would affect prices of different energyinputs. The...

The paper analyses the efficiency and the distributional effects of eliminating a tariff in a protected sector, in a Heckscher-Ohlin model of trade with costs of adjustment. The tariff can be eliminated at the onset or after a while. In case of postponing it the government may pre-announce the...

Farmland and capital are an important and rapidly expanding component of the agriculturaleconomy, and empirical evidence suggests that these assets are quasi-fixed in that adjustment costs are incurred when holdings are altered. Increased interest in the rate of return for investing in farmland...

The paper analyzes investment behavior of industrial enterprises in the period immediately following price and foreign trade liberalization in the Czech Republic. It also focuses on the effect of "soft" macroeconomic environment on the microeconomic decisions. A dynamic investment function with...