Government agencies that procure goods from abroad typically face various risks, particularly uncertainty over future real prices. Interestingly, the agencies can use a counter-trade transaction to solve the real price problem. Because both sides of a counter-trade deal are real goods, not...

Main description: In 2004, Spain's Banco Santander purchased Britain's Abbey National Bank in a deal valued at fifteen billion dollars--an acquisition that made Santander one of the ten largest financial institutions in the world. Here, Mauro Guillén and Adrian Tschoegl tackle the question of...