The Middle East was once seen as a medieval great globalized force. Nowadays it shows one of the lowest intra-regional trade in the world and therefore it is claimed that the region is poorly integrated. Yet, with the steady flow of workers across national borders of the Middle East is this...

The Middle East was once seen as a medieval great globalized force. Nowadays it shows one of the lowest intra-regional trade in the world and therefore it is claimed that the region is poorly integrated. Yet, with the steady .ow of workers across national borders of the Middle East is this...

In the struggle between the forces of free trade and the restrictive influence of insularism the latter recently seems to have the upper hand. This is illustrated by the referendum of June 23, 2016 where the United Kingdom (UK) voted to leave the Europea+n Union (EU). In this paper we evaluate...

This paper analyses whether the severe demographic change in Germany causes its high current account surpluses. An ageing population both increases the supply and lowers demand of capital in an economy. Due to a longer life span individuals save more. Fewer workers reduce the optimal capital...

Gourinchas and Jeanne (2006) explain that the gains from capital market integration are small because the natural convergence of economies would have "done the work" of integration if it had not occurred. We provide a simple illustration of this standard theoretical argument using the simplest...

Focusing on technology spillover from foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, this paper investigates the welfare implications of financial integration. Calibrations of a neoclassical growth model with international technology diffusion show that when technology catch-up due to FDI inflows is...

We revisit the debate on the benefits of international financial integration. We build a two-country model with an international duopoly to examine how the liberalization of international capital flows, affects the welfare of each country and their joint welfare. Our results show that...

The recent vote by Britain to quit European Union (EU) and the political pressures in some member countries to exit EU necessitates a critical evaluation of the long-run economic benefits of economic integration or union to member countries. Consequently, this paper examines recent empirical...