Financial integration challenges in ASEAN beyond 2015 can be grouped into two broad classes. The first classes of challenges are the regulatory and infrastructure challenges of financial market integration itself. The second pertains to monetary and fiscal policy regimes and how they are...

Five years after its inception, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) single market is malfunctioning in a litany of ways: there remain restrictions on the movement of goods, capital and labor across political boundaries. This paper describes the GCC single market’s malfunctions. We also propose...

Theory tells us that weak rule of law and institutions deter cross-border integration, deter investment relative to trade, and inhibit trade finance. Drawing on a survey of more than 300 Chinese enterprises that are doing or have done business in North Korea, we consider how informal...

This paper reviews selected aspects of economic relations between the EU and Russia, focusing on the impact that the last two waves of EU enlargement have had on Russia, as well as the role of the euro in Russia. The analysis suggests that if EU enlargement has had any diversion effects on trade...

This paper examines capital controls in two ways. First, it assesses whether capital controls have an economic justification within the context of an economyâÂÂs and, in particular, its financial sectorâÂÂs stage of development. It concludes that capital controls can be justified in...

We study whether financial openness facilitates the economic integration of formerly centrally planned economies with the EU-15. Two dimensions of economic integration are considered: cross-country convergence of per-capita incomes and bilateral trade in goods and services. We find that more...

This paper analyses the smoothing of asymmetric shocks to output for a sample of OECD countries. The research finds no evidence of large differences in the patterns of risk sharing for the 19 OECD countries, the EU-15 or euro-area countries, for the period 1970-1999. However, there were shown to...

Since the end of the Second World War, economic integration has been regarded as being one of the most important global economic policies. Its relevance has not diminished and most countries, especially those that are developing, consider it to be a long-term strategy. Integration is present in...

Purpose - A major lesson of the EMU crisis is that serious disequilibria result from regional monetary arrangements not designed to be robust to a variety of shocks. The purpose of this paper is to assess these disequilibria within the CEMAC, UEMOA and CFA zones. Design/methodology/approach - In...