This paper highlights key macroeconomic issues related to VAT harmonization. A model is developed which emphasizes the effects of changes in the time profile of various taxes on international behavior. Dynamic simulations reveal that the macroeconomic and welfare implications of VAT...

This paper deals with the early stages of transformation of centrally-planned economies (CPEs) into market economies during which expectations play a key role. It focuses on the transitional phase during which the economy is not any more a CPE but has not yet become a market economy. During this...

Since the five largest industrial democracies concluded the Plaza Agreement in 1985, the theory and practice of international economic policy coordination has become the subject of spirited academic and public-policy debate. While some view policy coordination as crucial for the construction of...

The fiftieth anniversary of the Bretton Woods Conference served as an opportunity to reappraise the desirability of strengthening the IMF's oversight of the functioning of the international monetary system. Whatever the design of an exchange rate system and the arrangements for the provision of...

During his distinguished career at the IMF, Jacques J. Polak served as both Director of Research and, subsequently as a member of the IMF Executive Board. His distinct contribution to the discipline of international financial policy is highlighted in this book edited by Jacob A. Frenkel and...

This paper discusses key issues relating to the design and implementation of monetary policy in an emerging European economic and monetary union. Specific institutional proposals for transition to EMU are neither endorsed nor dismissed. In examining the goals of monetary policy, the paper...

This is a review essay that discuss the behavior of the Economy of Puerto Rico. It centered in the transformation of the economy after World War II.

This paper makes an empirical analysis to the functional form derived from the demand function for gasoline in Puerto Rico. According to the structure of the gas market in Puerto Rico and the international context, we studied the consumption of gasoline based on an exercise of constrained...

In this article, an approach to the ecological footprint becomes from a microeconomic perspective, speci¯cally from the consumer traditional theory. It is revealed how the consumption of goods and services redound in the consumption of natural resources and provoke a decrease in the wellbeing...

Building on the work of Noriega (1994), this paper demonstrates how you get an excess demand for money alternative, relating the total value of production and consumption. However, unlike this paper, we use the dynamic programming method to assess consumer behavior and production function are...