The economic performance of European countries was in general disappointing in the nineties. However, country difference increased, as it was that in some European countries economic growth and productivity accelerated or could match US rates. This paper uses a broad set of performance...

Inflexible labour markets combined with high welfare costs are often thought to be the main cause of low growth in Europe. This paper uses OECD data to assess the relative impact of regulation on differences in economic performance across countries since 1990. The impact of regulation is...

We study the association between resource rents and political stability, highlighting the importance of the distribution of political power as a mediating factor. We present a simple theoretical model showing that increased rents are likely to be positively associated with the stability of a...

A windfall of natural resource revenue (or foreign aid) faces government with choices of how to manage public debt, investment, and the distribution of funds for consumption, particularly if the windfall is both anticipated and temporary. We show that the permanent income hypothesis prescription...

A growing body of recent macroeconomic evidence suggests that volatility is detrimental to economic growth. The channels through which volatility affects growth, however, are less clear; substantive evidence based on disaggregate data is almost non-existent. This paper offers a framework in...

Elaborating on Pasinetti (1998), the 'Geometry of Debt Sustainability' - GDS - represents a simple analytical tool for the analysis of the long-run sustainability of foreign debt. GDS provides a simple analysis of three aspects of debt sustainability. It points up how the 'structural' aspect -...

There is a consensus that within the European Union, Germany is presently the country lagging farthest behind in terms of economic dynamics. Most researchers blame rising wages, welfare costs, and overregulated labour markets for this poor position. Some add that as a result of membership in the...

This paper investigates the short run as well the long run relationships between money supply, inflation, government expenditure and economic growth by employing the Error Correction Mechanism (ECM) and Johansen co-integration test respectively for the case of Cyprus using annual data from 1980...

The recent admission of Slovakia into the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) stands in sharp contrast with the considerable difficulties faced by Hungary with the fulfillment of the Maastricht criteria. This is a puzzling development for two reasons: first, during the early phase of the...