The common belief based on accumulated evidence from the US and Japan is that most price-relevant information originates while financial markets are in operation. In this paper, we present evidence from the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) that contradicts this view. We find that a larger...

The fundamental theorem of welfare economics asserts that under conditions of perfect competition Pareto efficiency will obtain. This has provided the conceptual basis for the market failure approach to regulation, which focuses on failure to satisfy the conditions for perfect competition as...

Asymmetric information is at the heart of situations involving trust. In the case of B2C Internet commerce, the information asymmetry typically relates to the difficulty that consumers have of distinguishing between "trustworthy" and "untrustworthy" Web merchants. The impasse can be resolved by...

This paper examines the process of innovation within SMEs, focusing on a sample of firms in New South Wales, Australia. The trend of the last several decades towards increased integration of global markets, or globalization, has meant that many firms are experiencing continuously increasing...

We review the policy arguments in favour of assisting SMEs in various areas of their operations. Our review suggests that many of the arguments put forward for subsidising SME activities (as distinct from some activities of firms regardless of size) are not economically justified. Nonetheless,...

This authoritative Handbook provides a thorough account and analysis of the important issues relating to the globalization of the international economy.

We consider the economic record of the 1997–2010 Labour government in the UK. Following a brief review of the government’s inheritance from its predecessor, we review the assessments made in the other papers in this issue of the <italic>Oxford Review of Economic Policy</italic>: the change in the...