The present study focuses on international trade. The aim is to construct a small econometric model allowing the evaluation of the impact of variability on European trade.The report is organised as follows. Section I offers a conceptual analysis of the impact of exchange rate variability on...

This paper contributes to a current and intense debate among economists on whether real exchange rate undervaluation can boost growth. It focuses on addressing econometric and empirical issues that casts doubt about the validity of such positive impact. It also allows for the possibilities that...

This paper quantifies the effect of a complete liberalization of international migration on the world GDP and its distribution across regions. We build a general equilibrium model endogenizing bilateral migration and wage disparities between and within countries. A dual strategy is developed to...

This paper presents a simple ratchet model. The ratchet effect, and the inability of the government to precommit credibly to given incentive schemes, are related to the fact that the government has monopsony power over managers, as is the case under market socialism where means of production are...

The paper assesses the aggregate impact of exchange rate variability on EU trade. A small econometric model is constructed and estimated for five countries: France, Italy, Germany, the UK and Belgium. The results show that there exists a long-term relationship between trade variables and...

The impact of exchange rate fluctuations on international trade has long been a major concern for policy makers. This is particularly the case in Europe, where countries trade extensively with each other. The crisis that began in the Summer of 1992 generated increased exchange rate fluctuations...

The paper lies at the intersection between the literature on macroeconomics and politics and the literature on coordination. It uses models of political business cycles in an open economy setting to investigate the costs and benefits of forming electoral areas, i.e. regions where countries share...

Current theories of the vertical limits to firm size emphasize the consequences of opportunistic behavior by managers. The authors introduce opportunistic wage setting by labor unions and trace the implications for profit and investment in specific assets. Although subcontracting to an...