In this paper, we use firm-level panel data for the manufacturing sector in four African countries to estimate the effect of exporting on efficiency. Estimating simultaneously a production function and an export regression that control for unobserved firm effects, we find both significant...

This paper attempts to shed light on the efficiency/effectiveness issues of informal financial markets and the pattern of portfolio allocation shift in response to change in interest rate, in the process of financial liberalization. The two issues have been both controversial and hotly debated...

It is a well-known problem that macroeconomic indicators calculated for different countries are not directly comparable if the original statistical data are expressed in different prices. The artificial prices, computable from input-output models, can provide quite a solid ground for the...

Recent contributions in economic geography reflect renewed interest in issues of location and spatial concentration of economic activities, yet there are still few empirical studies of developing countries, particularly in Africa. This paper aims to contribute to this body of knowledge by (i)...

The purpose of this article is to outline the core principles of Integrative Improvement (II) in comparison with current development approaches, describe key features of II and briefly comment on II in relation to the Sustainable Livelihoods (SL) approach of the United Kingdom Department for...

Dollarization is becoming a viable option for a number of countries, but the loss of seigniorage is a major obstacle. The paper looks at the major seigniorage sharing arrangements available and issues that arise in the design of the new arrangements.

This paper supplements prior analysis on ‘patterns and prospects’ (Stephan, 2003) in which prospects for the speed of future productivity growth were assessed by looking at the specialisation patterns in domestic production. This analysis adds the foreign trade sphere to the results...

Building on the three-sector-hypothesis, the New Theory of Trade, and the New Economic Geography, we investigate the development of economic structures of European countries over the last three decades using employment data. We test for structural convergence which we analyze on the aggregate...

The paper examines the theoretical basis of fair trade as justice. Grounded largely in the work of Amartya Sen, it looks at the origins, motivations, and elements of fair trade. Fair trade is examined as a potentially transformational form of justice. The intellectual merit of this paper is to...

The regional policy represents the expression of the European Union’s solidarity with less developed countries and regions, aiming at reducing the significant economic, social and territorial disparities that still exist between Europe’s regions. Being an investment policy, EU regional...