A bilateral search model of the commodity market is formulated to study the effects of liberalizing prices in a reforming socialist economy. The main result is that if the competitive structure of the economy is not quickly modified to eliminate supply rents, price liberalization may be...

This paper discusses the role of a country’s fiscal stance in weakening the financial underpinnings of an open economy with a quasi-fixed nominal exchange rate, even where the overall fiscal deficit remains unchanged, or even narrows. The paper cites the role of expanding government operations...

The paper concludes that world copper prices play an important role in short-term fluctuations and probably influence long-term growth of the Chilean economy. While many mechanisms may be at work, investment seems to play a major role. In a copper price boom, the higher copper price and...

Many developing and emerging countries do not fully pass-through increases in international fuel prices to domestic retail prices, with adverse consequences for fuel tax revenues and tax volatility. The adoption of an automatic fuel pricing mechanism can help to address this problem, and the...

Carbon markets are a central instrument to decarbonise our economies and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Within the European Union, carbon pricing to date has primarily targeted electricity generation and greenhouse gas-intensive industries, and regulatory focus has typically been...

This paper uses a unique data set of Latin American paintings auctioned by Sotheby's between 1995 and 2002 to investigate several puzzles from the recent auctions literature. Our results suggest that: (1) the reputation of an artist and the provenance of the artwork, omitted variables in most...