This paper analyses distributive policy-making in Japan using a natural experimental situation from August 1993 to March 1995. During this period, the partisan makeup of the ruling coalition in the Lower House dramatically changed without dissolution of the House. By comparing FY1994 and FY1995...

This article compares features of Japan's banking crisis with the experiences of other industrial economies. Using a probit statistical prediction model, we find that Japan's banking crisis follows a pattern found in many other industrial countries, i.e. formal tests do not distinguish Japan as...

Among other things, the 1997–98 East Asian financial crisis has led to questioning within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) about whether the region needs a common currency. This paper aims to discuss the underlying economic issues and prospects, from both a theoretical and a...

The East Asian crisis was the result of interactions between massive capital flows and weak domestic institutions. This paper examines the weaknesses in the financial and corporate sectors that were at the heart of the crisis, reviews the economic consequences of these weaknesses and outlines...

This paper addresses the question of whether the difficult issues associated with services trade and investment liberalisation are more likely to be tackled effectively in the bilateral or the multilateral context. It provides a first examination of the services trade and investment outcomes in...

Requiring developing countries to adopt competition laws has become a standard element in Free Trade Agreements between those countries and developed countries, and in the ‘check list’ of measures sought by the World Bank and other multilateral institutions. However, there is little reason...

When positive and negative income are treated asymmetrically under a corporate income tax (CIT) without allowance for group taxation, a group of affi liated corporations may engage in tax avoidance by shifting income from profi table to unprofi table subsidiaries for the sole purpose of...