Portfolio flows channeled via institutional investors were the most dynamic capital flows to emerging markets in the 1990s. We use an asymmetric information framework to derive five propositions, to integrate empirical evidence and to suggest policy implications. Opaque information in emerging...

Die Gesundheitssysteme stehen weltweit zur Diskussion. Kann internationales Benchmarking ganzer Gesundheitssysteme dazu beitragen, Lösungen für deren Probleme zu finden? Diese Arbeit stellt drei aktuelle Ansätze solcher Vergleiche vor. Hierbei werden die Erkenntnisse ebenso erläutert wie die...

Steigende Kosten in den meisten Gesundheitssystemen und die damit verbundenen Finanzierungsprobleme stehen im Focus von vielen empirischen Untersuchungen. Wissenschaftler sind der Meinung, dass falsch gesetzte Anreize einer der Hauptgründe hierfür darstellen. Die vorliegende Arbeit umreißt...

Recent research on the International Monetary Fund has focused on the adoption, implementation and impact of their lending programs and their political dimensions. This paper evaluates this literature and suggests promising areas of future work. The first area to be surveyed deals with the...

In this paper we study worldwide antidumping (AD) case filing patterns in order to determine the extent to which economic versus strategic incentives explain the behavior of countries employing AD actions. We compare four main hypotheses. Two are motivated by the Bagwell- Staiger (1990) model of...

This paper takes a critical look at the trends in worldwide antidumping (AD) case filings during the last two decades. We examine the motives for AD filings by countries in an attempt to identify whether economic or strategic concerns are driving the recent upsurge in AD use. We begin by...

Economists are often skeptical concerning the economic effects of various forms of human rights: it has been argued that basic human rights can make the legal system less efficient but also that extensive social rights are incompatible with market economies. It is argued here that basic human...

Judicial independence is not only a necessary condition for the impartiality of judges, it can also endanger it: judges that are independent could have incentives to remain uninformed, become lazy or even corrupt. It is therefore often argued that judicial independence and judicial...

This paper analyzes whether nation-state governments can increase their credibility by becoming members of international organizations. Credibility is an important asset because it determines the real interest rate and is expected to have an important impact on investment and growth. It is...

We provide insights into determinants of the rating level of 371 issuers which defaulted in the years 1999 to 2003, and into the leader-follower relationship between Moody's and S&P. The evidence for the rating level suggests that Moody's assigns lower ratings than S&P for all observed periods...