In this paper I test the hypothesis that trade policies leading to higher prices for capital goods have a negative influence on the steady state level and transitional growth rate of per capita GDP. I derive this hypothesis from a modified version of a Solow-Swan model, in which capital variety...

In recent years after the beginning of the transition process, firms in Central and Eastern European countries have been trying hard to find access to international markets and production chains. Rapidly changing institutional, technological and demand conditions together with decades of...

If firms were animals rather than economic entities, a behavioral scientist trying to describe their traits would observe that firms tend to be found in herds and usually migrate towards the biggest watering holes. This paper surveys the literature on the questions why firms grow stronger with...

A situation is analysed in which two countries negotiate the financing of the incremental costs which accrue if one of them switches from a non-sustainable onto a sustainable development path. The other country's incentive to pay arises as it benefits from the developing country's environmental...

The long road from capitalism to capitalism the Eastern European economies have made has been paved with many economic problems, but the transition from a command economy into a market economy is likely to become a bumpy ride as well. Apart from the major real economic reforms that have to take...

In the last decades, foreign direct investment (FDI) has increased strongly among industrialised countries. U.S. companies were the first to set up foreign affiliates followed later by companies from smaller industrialised countries. This paper develops a general equilibrium model of...

This paper is a preliminary appraisal ofthe stylised facts and the major open questions - both methodological and Substantive - that have emerged in the empirical literature on international per-capita income and productivity convergence. On basis of various distinctivc lines of reasoning, it is...

This paper discusses the issue of competitiveness and environmental regulation in a dynamic framework. It presents an example and a general model. It is shown that the dynamic framework cannot lend general support to the hypothesis that strict environmental policies result in an increase in...