This volume was prepared by Sebastian Benz while he was working at the Ifo Institute. It was completed in December 2013 and accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Department of Economics at the University of Munich. It includes five self-contained chapters. All chapters discuss different...

The role of regulatory quality as one of the so-called deep determinants of growth has emerged as an important issue in economic research in the past 20 years. The positive or negative growth effects of a countryś regulatory framework are amplified by economic integration, which makes factors...

This volume was prepared by Sebastian Benz while he was working at the Ifo Institute. It was completed in December 2013 and accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Department of Economics at the University of Munich. It includes five self-contained chapters. All chapters discuss different...

Sino-European trade relations have been controversially discussed mainly, if not only, because of the increasing European Union's bilateral trade deficit with China. As from the European perspective trade with China becomes more important, the structural adjustment process of the Chinese economy...

Trade liberalization is often met with sharp opposition. Recent examples include the so-called Bolkestein directive, which allows service providers from a given EU member to temporarily work in another member country. One way to view such a reform is that it simply widens the range of goods that...

This paper investigates the nature and pattern of export specialization in Lithuania. The aim of this paper is to estimate the nature and pattern of Lithuanian export specialization under existing conditions. Seeking to define the nature and pattern of export specialization, the basic methods of...

Sino‐European trade relations have been controversially discussed mainly, if not only, because of the increasing European Union’s bilateral trade deficit with China. As from the European perspective trade with China becomes more important, the structural adjustment process of the Chinese...

This paper examines the extent of stability, specialisation and divergence in manufacturing industries' export patterns for EU15 countries at both industry and country level, distinguishing between intra and extra EU15 exports as well as different technological categories. Both countrywide and...

The concept of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) stands as a major pillar in empirical trade literature. Yet there is no absolute preference among the suggested RCA measures. Given that these are volume-based indices, results of any relevant empirical analysis would be heavily influenced by...

The structure of production and trade that exists in an economy can be taken to 'reveal' the current or recent past in terms of trends in comparative advantage. Traditionally the HO model characterizes the US as being rich in human capital which gives it a comparative advantage in services....