The disparate banana import policies currently operating in member states of the European Community (EC) are inconsistent with the Community's objective of full economic integration in 1992. Under separate national legislation, widely varying banana prices apply across different member states,...

Contrary to common perceptions, higher environmental standards in industrial countries have not tended to lower their international competitiveness, the author contends. There has been little systematic relationship between higher environmental standards and competitiveness in environmentally...

The genesis of the model MEXAGMKTS was the perception that agricultural policies in Mexico (and many other countries) are often second-best responses to the negative side effects of broad macroeconomic and international trade policies. MEXAGMKTS was designed to allow analysis of the relationship...

In centrally planned economies, domestic prices do not respond flexibly to market forces, so economic disequilibria - including repressed inflation - persist. The authors assess the extent of repressed inflation in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Romania between 1980 and 1990. First, they develop a...

In 1995 the Mexican government initiated structural reform of the natural gas sector-reform that permitted private investment in transportation, storage, distribution, trade and marketing while maintaining a State monopoly in production. It prepared a detailed regulatory framework to implement...

Evidence to support or deny expectations of future scarcity or abundance of crude oil must show whether crude oil supply functions are shifting and, if so, in what direction. The authors estimate oil supply functions for 41 countries for which suitable data are available. Because of the poor...

In Uzbekistan state enterprises are being changed into shareholding companies, and private enterprises account for 45 percent of all registered firms. But business decisions to set prices, output, and investment are often not market-based, nor wholly within the purview of businesses, especially...

Despite belonging to a monetary union with a common currency and pooled foreign reserves, the countries of Africa's franc zone (CFA) experience substantially different inflation rates, especially in the short run. The authors develop a model of inflation differentials for the franc zone...

The authors discuss developing country interests in including competition law disciplines in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Developing countries have a great interest in pursuing active domestic competition policy, they conclude, but should do so independent of the WTO. Given the...

New land tenure arrangements in the USSR require that agricultural producers pay for land use. The current distorted pricing system and the absence of functioning land markets complicate land valuation, and slow the adoption of new property relations. In a market economy that functions well,...