This paper presents a critical survey of the literature on trade openness. In the first part we start by analyzing distributive domestic issues that arise following changing trade patterns. We identify the sources of the problems, and assess the technical and political feasibility of measures...

This paper reviews the most significant recent developments in the theory of trade agreements. The paper offers an integrated approach to evaluating trade agreements, and uses the approach to present results on preferential and multilateral trade agreements. The paper identifies also several...

The activities of multinational enterprises drive the economic globalization process to a very large degree. This paper lists some facts about their dominant role in all channels of globalization. Therefore, the importance of multinational enterprises in foreign direct investment and production...

This paper discusses the recent regional trade agreements that China has concluded rapidly following accession to the WTO in 2002. Agreements are in place with Hong Kong, Macao, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand, and are either in negotiation or under discussion with South Africa, Chile, India,...

The analyses carried out both at the centre (Brussels) and at the destination (member states) (ab)use of the principle that in public expenditure terms “spent money means well-spent money” and consider that absorption capacity equals economic performance (equated quite disputably with...

Following the new position of Romania as a member state of the EU, I consider it imperiously necessary knowing and approaching the problem of the nowadays phenomena the world trade and the world economy are confronting, EU according to today statistics being in the top of world exporters and on...

On the cusp of the millennium and as the century that was supposed to belong to Canada draws to a close, we find ourselves as a medium-sized nation exercising an influence out of all proportion to our size. This special issue on Canada in the Global Economy gives us a chance to sum up where we...

A stable international monetary system has emerged since the early 1990s. A large number of industrial and a growing number of developing countries now have domestic inflation targets administered by independent and transparent central banks. These countries place few restrictions on capital...

The Theory of the Second Best implies that any country with less-than-ideal resources can lose from international trade. Recently it has been suggested this means the South (poor countries) are better off suppressing trade with the North, especially trade in natural resource products, since the...

The present paper investigates, empirically, whether global economic integration can lead to national social disintegration, as proclaimed by Rodrik. One can perhaps conjecture that a drop in the generalized trust in a country may signal a rise in social disintegration. Using the survey data on...