While international capital flows are rising, the role of banks in the economy is changing and stock markets in OECD and eastern European countries play an increasing role for financing investment and innovation. Economic catching up of eastern Europe, European Monetary Union and problems of...

Theoretical models of growth reveal that either exogenous or endogenous, technology is the main driving force behind the long-run economic growth. Furthermore, in the endogenous growth framework, diffusion of technology is the basic mechanism of per capita income convergence among countries....