The paper examines the policies pursued by the Philippines in response to the increasing economic integration and interdependence of nations and regions around the world, focusing in particular on the country's multi-track approach to trade and investment liberalization. The country's experience...

For the Philippines, quantitative policy analysis should incorporate regional differences in welfare and economic structure, which arise partly from geographic constraints. However, existing CGE models offer limited analysis of regional effects or national impacts of region-specific...

Trade liberalization is no Pareto-improvement - there are winners (high-skilled) and losers (low-skilled). To compensate the losers the government is assumed to introduce unemployment benefits (UB). These benefits are financed by either a wage tax, a payroll tax, or a profit tax. Using a...

In a framework of a unionised international Bertrand duopoly with differentiated products, this paper analyses national labour market interdependencies and the consequences of trade liberalisation for union wages. The analysis suggests that national wages are likely to be strategic complements...

The current debate on trade liberalization is accompanied by an increased concern about environmental and food safety issues leading to frictions of different country groups under the World Trade Organization (WTO). This discussion paper aims at shedding more light on some of the issues in the...

Eine zentrale vertretende These der Ökonomie lautet: Die Aufhebung von Beschränkungen im Handel und Kapitalverkehr weltweit vermehrt die Wohlfahrt. Internationale Abkommen und Zollunionen verfolgen das Ziel des Freihandels. Auch das europäische Integrationsprojekt basiert mit dem...

Enhancing the competitiveness of German firms on foreign markets and preserving the attractiveness of Germany as a business location to foreign investors are the twin objectives of foreign economic policy (FEP) in Germany. Its scope extends far beyond conventional ?border? measures to encompass...

Development economists' disfavour with services as a viable engine of growth has been expressed both through theoretical and empirical analysis. One of the stylized facts of development economics is that share of services in employment increases only with the rise in per capita incomes. The...