Tariffs no longer represent the most serious impediment to international trade. As the importance of tariffs in restricting free trade has been declining, non-tariff barriers are becoming increasingly important. The use of selected non-tariff barriers is analyzed, focusing on anti-dumping...

Some observers regard the Internet as the driving force of the recent economic upswing. So far, each innovation has first been used to substitute for old technologies. Only over time people have started to find new applications for a specific innovation. Only gradually they did take full...

An overlapping generations model is set up in this paper to analyze social security policy in a representative democracy with asymmetric information. The model considers not only redistribution between generations but also redistribution within generations according to individual labor incomes....

By combining two large data sets (on international trade flows and on mergers and acquisitions – M&As), we are able to test two implications of Neary's (2003, 2004a) recent theoretical work. Analyzing M&As in a General Oligopolistic Equilibrium (GOLE) model incorporating strategic interaction...

Using a detailed and large data set on cross-border merger and acquisitions we discuss the relationship between theory and observed empirical characteristics: (i) most FDI is in the form of M&As, (ii) firms engaged in M&As seem to be marketseeking', (iii) M&As come in waves (the most recent wave...

Most FDI takes place between the developed countries, which suggests that the market-seeking motive is important for understanding FDI. However, given the stylized fact that trade barriers (e.g. transportation costs and financial barriers) have declined over the past 20 years, models that aim to...

The majority of theoretical and empirical studies on the relationship between decentralization and corruption argues that the devolution of power might be a feasible instrument to keep corruption at bay. We argue that this result crucially depends on the effectiveness of monitoring bureaucrat's...

High oil prices are normally expected to stimulate exploration and the development of new oil and gas fields. But over the last few years, financial analysts have focused strongly on shortterm accounting return (RoACE) for benchmarking and valuation, and this has led to high capital discipline...