Utilising panel data for 14 East European transition economies, we find support for the hypothesis that a greater degree of export variety relative to the U.S. helps to explain relative per capita GDP levels.The empirical work relies upon some direct measures of product variety calculated from...

This paper analyses the long-run effects of Estonia s 2000 Income Tax Act with a dynamic general equilibrium model.Specifically, we consider the impact of the shift from an imputation system to one where companies only pay taxes on distributed profits.Balanced growth paths, transitional dynamics...

We calculate welfare gains of trade liberalization in the Central and East European transition economies, following the approach of Romer (1994), who emphasized that proper modeling of the impact of trade restrictions on the number of available product varieties is crucial to quantifying the...

Given that the value of China s currency has been hot topic recently, this paper explores the equilibrium levels of China s real and nominal exchange rates.Employing a Johansen cointegration framework, we focus on the behavioral equilibrium exchange rate (BEER) and permanent equilibrium exchange...

The New Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC) posits the dynamics of inflation as forward looking and related to marginal costs.In this paper we examine the empirical relevance of the NKPC for mainland China.The empirical results indicate that an augmented (hybrid) NKPC gives results that are...

This paper uses multivariate GARCH techniques to study volatility spillovers between the Chinese non-deliverable forward market and seven of its Asia-Pacific counterparts over the period January 1998 to March 2005.To account for the time-variability of conditional correlation, a dynamic...

This paper estimates switching autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (SWARCH) time series models for weekly returns of nine Asian forward exchange rates. We find two regimes with different volatility levels, whereby each regime displays considerable persistence. Our analysis provides...

On 21 July 2005 China adopted an undisclosed basket exchange rate regime. We formally assess and envisage the gradual evolution of the renminbi over time. We utilize nonlinear dependencies in the renminbi exchange rate and describe the smooth transition of the renminbi/U.S. dollar (RMB/USD)...

In January 2008, China adopted a new labour contract law. This new law represents the most significant reform to the legislation on employment relations in mainland China in more than a decade. The paper provides a theoretical framework on the inter-linkages between labour market regulation,...