Prior literature on the diversification discount and the relative efficiency of internal versus external capital markets provides decidedly mixed results. We argue that transactions cost economics are useful in understanding this puzzle. According to transactions cost economics, diversified...

We examine the extent to which markets enable the provision of housing finance across a wide range of countries. Housing is a major purchase requiring a long-term financing, and the factors that are associated with well functioning housing finance systems are those that enable the provision of...

Technological change was unskilled-labor-biased during the early Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but is skill-biased today. This fact is not embedded in extant unified growth models. We develop a model of the transition to sustained economic growth...

We provide a brief review and analysis of recent trends in international financial integration. In particular, we highlight the asymmetric nature of financial globalization, with the scale of cross-border positions among the advanced economies growing more quickly than for emerging market...

Analysis of 21 emerging European economies reveals a substantial role for domestic financial reforms in attracting net capital flows. Controlling for standard determinants of capital flows, we find in particular banking sector reforms to be consistent with larger current account deficits and net...

The introduction of the Euro has considerably affected the de facto monetary policy autonomy – defined as statistical independence from monetary policy in the key currency areas – in countries outside the European Currency Union. Using a standard open economy framework we argue that de facto...

Recently, there have been numerous advances in modelling optimal international portfolio allocations in macroeconomic models. A major focus of this literature has been on the role of currency movements in determining portfolio returns that may hedge various macroeconomic shocks. However, there...

This paper assesses the determinants of trade in services using a gravity model, with particular attention given to the role of barriers to services trade. Initially, the application of the gravity equation to services trade is examined. A variety of econometric estimators are tested and the...

This paper seeks to identify the causal effect of foreign acquisitions on wages of skilled and unskilled workers, using difference-in-differences propensity score matching estimators. Our results suggest that there is substantial heterogeneity in the post-acquisition wage effect depending on the...

We analyze the sources of divergent national inflation rates among EMU member countries. At one level, we review the Irish ‘outlier’ experience; at another, we estimate panel regressions for the 1999-2001 period. We highlight the role played by differential exposure to euro exchange rate...