The Balassa-Samuelson hypothesis - i.e. that real exchange rates between each pair of countries increase with the tradables sector productivities ratio between these countries, and decrease with their non-tradables sector productivities ratio - has been one of the most prominent frameworks in...

This special issue includes eight papers on a range of topics related to the study of the variety and quality of trade in development and transition based on micro and disaggregated macro data. The authors discuss country and country-group specific trade patterns on firm and/or product level,...

Within a standard gravity framework I explore the impact of country size and trade liberalisation on extensive and intensive margins of imports across broad categories of goods. This allows testing hypotheses from two distinct strands of the trade literature, i.e., vertical integration versus...

The 2004 Presidential election campaign has left a deep effect on the budget process 2004-2005, which came about in three steps: (1) In the course of amending the 2004 budget, privatization receipts were misused to finance higher minimum pension payments, raising net public liabilities in the...

Elements of the institutional framework, i.e., the rules and regulations of the economy and the institutions that enforce them, are the main long-run criteria for private investment decisions. In particular, it is openness to trade and transparency that increase the chances of enhancing domestic...

In spite of an hitherto unprecedented record of external liberalization in Central European economies contributions of exports to real growth have recently been rather unspectacular, especially when compared to the experience of OECD countries lacking a comparable degree of external...

The Balassa-Samuelson hypothesis – i.e. that real exchange rates between each pair of countries increase with the tradables sector productivities ratio between these countries, and decrease with their non-tradables sector productivities ratio – has been one of the most prominent frameworks...