We study the desirability of interventionist harmonization of legal standards across multiple, mutually interdependent jurisdictions which strive to adapt law to their local conditions as well as to synchronize it with other jurisdictions. In a setting where jurisdictions are privately informed...

Spätestens seit der Tagung des Europäischen Rates 1982 in Kopenhagen gehören der Ausbau und die Vollendung des Binnenmarktes zu den wichtigsten Programmpunkten der europäischen Integration. Damals erteilten die Staats- und Regierungschefs den zuständigen Ministern - dem Rat - die Weisung,...

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) provided for a number of transition periods allowing countries to engage in a phased implementation of their TRIPS obligations. More specifically, transition periods targeted the patenting of pharmaceutical...

With the adoption of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), Argentina had to adapt to the new international rules on patent law. One of the main points of the Agreement is the possibility of establishing different forms of compulsory licenses and...

The international political economy literature often expects that states end up in regulatory races to the bottom while competing for the most mobile segments of capital. While multilateralism argues that states are able to overcome prisoner dilemma situations by converging on international...

Drawing on a new analytical framework provided by the economic theory of optimal legal areas, this paper identifies the factors determining the optimal size of the European Union. It applies this theory to the question of how enlargement affects the welfare of the current and the new members of...

OECD accounting regimes have significantly changed over the last three decades. Financial reporting rules for (public) companies have become more similar, and the ways in which accounting rules are set and enforced have converged. This paper explores to what extent (financial) globalisation...

By combining new data on bilateral asset holdings with data on securities regulation in an empirical gravity model, it is found that bilateral differences in securities regulation lead to decreased portfolio holdings. Hence, regulatory harmonization can foster financial integration. The results...

The empirical analysis of the determinants of institutional development in transition countries as well as the qualitative country studies summarized in this publication allow for some optimism concerning a potential impact of the EU on institution building and governance quality in CIS...

The U.S. has been under pressure to abandon the unique first-to-invent feature of its patent law for awarding patents. The opposition to reform however argues that switch to a first-to-file rule, the international norm, will undermine innovation. We evaluate this argument in a dynamic stochastic...