In order to assess the costs of a European Monetary Union, we use a structural VAR approach based on the long-run identifying scheme pioneered by Blanchard and Quah and extended by others. We then apply the approach to as many EU members as data limitations permit: namely, Germany, Spain,...

In this paper, we develop a model of North-South trade to analyze the impact of a label certifying the absence of child labour in the export production of the South. When most eligible producers in the South can obtain the label, its impact is considerably reduced by a displacement effect...

This Paper focuses on policies facilitating firm adjustment to globalization. We briefly review the effects of trade and investment liberalization on firms, focusing on within- industry effects. We postulate that governments’ role in supporting the process is to: (i) ensure that firms face...

As each new round of multilateral trade negotiations approaches, there is a demand for a negotiating rule that would give credit for autonomous liberalization. This Paper shows that the desirability and feasibility of such a rule depends on when it is instituted. A credit rule established at the...

The literature on the benefits and costs of financial globalization for developing countries has exploded in recent years, but along many disparate channels with a variety of apparently conflicting results. We attempt to provide a unified conceptual framework for organizing this vast and growing...

Public opinion in Europe seems worried about the effect of lower-wage country competition. In both newspaper articles and in policy debates, the term ‘social dumping’ is becoming more and more popular. In many countries, trade unions worried by the effect of what they call ‘unfair...

This paper classifies the relationship between the developed and developing countries into three categories: strong dependency, weak dependency and independence of the developing country on the developed world (G-7). A country is characterized as strongly (weakly) dependent when it has a...

DEVELOPMENT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT CHALLENGE FACING THE HUMAN RACE BUT THE PROCESSES DRIVING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ARE BY NO MEANS FULLY UNDERSTOOD. HOWEVER, THE CORE CHALLENGE FOR DEVELOPMENT IS TO ENSURE PRODUCTIVE WORK AND A BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE FOR ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD. THIS CHALLENGE...

The paper shows that the current view of globalization as an automatic and benign force is flawed: it focuses on only one, positive, face of globalization while entirely neglecting a malignant one. The two key historical episodes that are adduced by the supporters of the “globalization as it...

The policy approach, that is at the basis of this study, realistically assumes that the following determinants will be of the utmost importance for the success or failure of the project of European integration and European unity: (i) Europe is characterised by the typical 'mix' of countries that...