This Policy Brief proposes the establishment of an agreement on conformity assessment between the EU and the US that covers machinery and electrical equipment. The initiative aims to increase the number of European and US conformity assessment bodies authorized to test and certify EU and US...

The United States' large and sustained trade deficit with Asia raises concerns in the United States about its competitiveness in the region. The purpose of this paper is to examine the patterns of U.S. trade relationships with China and India, and the factors that are influencing their...

Die politischen und wirtschaftlichen Reformen im ost- und mitteleuropäischen Raum haben auch das Verhältnis der Länder des Rates für Gegenseitige Wirtschaftshilfe (RGW) zu den Europäischen Gemeinschaften (EG) grundlegend verändert. Vor dem Abschluß der Verträge von Rom hatte die...

We analyse trade between countries of the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance in Eastern Europe between 1950 and 1990. Despite central planning and political motivation of the CMEA, we show that trade could be explained by standard demand factors surprisingly well. Moreover, we document that...

I construct a theory of foreign interventions in which the preferences of the foreign country over alternative local groups are determined by each group's international economic ties. In equilibrium, the foreign country supports the group with which it has the strongest ties, since this is most...

The war in Ukraine has not only dramatically changed Western perceptions of geopolitics, but also influenced risk assess-ments of economic interdependencies between Western economies and China. China has gradually emerged as an important, and in some cases indispensable, supplier to Western...

In this paper the author attempts an analysis of the current financial/economic crisis that is wider ranging and more fundamental than he has been able to find. For this purpose he reviews some social science literature that views the current crisis as an episode in the secular decline of the...

In this paper the author attempts an analysis of the current financial/economic crisis that is wider ranging and more fundamental than he has been able to find. He discusses alternatives to the financial bailouts and shows how the crisis could have been dealt with more efficiently and at little...