It is argued that if in a dynamic context a central bank wants to signal its commitment to non-inflationary policies an EMS membership makes its task easier by requiring less restrictive policies than if it stays outo Despite this depending on the initial beliefs of the public the central bank...

The impact of asymmetries in trade and industrial policies on the market structure and location of firms and on the pattern of commodity trade are examined using a model in which firms have to take the decisions of other firms into account because of imperfect competition. This approach allows...

The increasing use of recycled fibres in paper production may have large effects on the forest industry and on the structure of aggregate production. One of the most surprising results was reached is that in a Nordic type of economy where forestry is important, recycling requirements may cause...

This paper reports first results from a survey of 404 middle-sized and large manufacturing firms from 40 Russian regions in April-June 2003.We examine the extent of social service and infrastructure provision by the firms and the firms assessment of the quality of public infrastructure and the...

We introduce endogenous time preference via investment in patience (farsightedness) in an overlapping generations growth model to study development traps.There is no investment in patience, if the economy is very poor, while if it is wealthy enough there is always such investment.We explore the...

We examine the choice of economic reforms when policymakers have present-biased preferences and can choose to discard information (maintain confidence) to mitigate distortions from excess discounting.The decisions of policymakers and firms are shown to be interdependent.Confident policymakers...

Russian industrial enterprises inherited from the Soviet era a tradition of producing welfare and infrastructure services within the firm, also for outside users. Despite the massive restructuring of the economy that took place since, many firms are still active in service provision. At the same...