South Africa´s trade barriers are still relatively high compared to other emerging market economies, and its industrial policy still preferentially treats certain industries. Based on a static GTAP model, we estimate the economic impact of further trade liberalization on the South African...

In this paper we develop a methodology which is based on two important criteria - sensitivity in delivery time and value-to-weight ratio - to classify products relevant for air transport. Detailed trade data by mode of transport are used to check the loading of an average airplane between South...

Monetary policy rules have been considered as fundamental protection against inflation. However, empirical evidence for a correlation between rules and inflation is relatively weak. In this paper, we first discuss likely causes for this weak link and present the argument that monetary commitment...

Is the activity of volunteering something that benefits the volunteer as well as the recipient of the volunteer's activities? We analyze this relationship and apply matching estimators to the large- scale British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) data set to estimate the causal impact of...

Almost all international environmental agreements include a minimum participation rule. Under such a rule an agreement becomes legally binding if and only if a certain threshold in terms of membership or contribution is reached. We analyze a cartel game with open membership and heterogeneous...

In diesem Beitrag werfen wir einen Blick auf die 'TARGET2-Debatte', die insbesondere durch die Beiträge von Hans-Werner Sinn (exemplarisch: 2011a-d), John Whittaker (2011), und Ende letzten Jahres bereits durch Peter Garber (2010) initiiert worden ist. Die fachliche Auseinandersetzung hat auf...

These days, plenty of cognoscenti in academia and politics share the common concern that the build-up of global macroeconomic imbalances threatens the international economy. While there is broad disagreement on the essence of what an imbalance exactly is, the term is generally associated with...

Die gegenwärtige, seit 2007 Wissenschaft, Wirtschaft und Politik intensiv beschäftigende internationale Finanzmarktkrise hat die Bedeutung von interdisziplinärer Forschung zu konstitutionellen Grundlagen globalisierter Finanzmärkte im Spannungsverhältnis von Stabilität und Wandel deutlich...

The current financial and economic crisis has again raised fears in emerging market economies of capital flight or a sudden stop of capital inflows. Especially the latter is intensively discussed in South Africa. We try to evaluate the danger by focusing on the sustainability of current account...

Savings are an import prerequisite of investment and long term growth in a country and the ability of a country to enter a 'beneficial debt cycle'. The paper analyzes how savings respond to the institutional quality in developing and transition economies. For a panel of about 60 countries over a...