This paper demonstrates the bullwhip effect in a simple framework and tests its predictions using US industry level import data. I show that after final goods suffer a demand shock, upstream suppliers face a greater volatility of sales than their downstream counterparts and might even lose sales...

The failure of trade economists to anticipate the extreme drop in trade post-Lehman Brothers bankruptcy suggests that the behaviour of trade in exceptional circumstances may still be poorly understood. In this paper we explore whether uncertainty shocks have explanatory power for movements in...

We examine the correlation between the generosity of clinicians – as measured in a laboratory experiment – and the quality of care in their normal practices under three different intrinsic incentive schemes. Specifically, we observe clinicians in their normal work environment, when a peer...

After Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, cross-border bank lending contracted sharply. To explain the severity and variation in this contraction, we analyse detailed data on cross-border syndicated lending by 75 banks to 59 countries. We find that banks that had to write...

Entrepreneurial activity is a key contributor to economic growth, innovation and the development of a market economy in transition countries. Data from the Life in Transition Survey reveal that financial sector development and access to credit are the most important drivers of entrepreneurship....

This paper uses monthly data to examine the links between consumer confidence and real economic variables in Croatia, and it tests whether movements in the former contain predictive power for the latter. The results suggest that changes in consumer confidence help to explain retail turnover and...

We use a new dataset of de jure measures of trade, capital account, product market and domestic financial regulation for 91 countries from 1973 to 2005 to test Rajan and Zingales’s (2003) interest group theory of financial development. In line with the theory, we find strong evidence that...

This study is the first to explore the short-run impact of armed conflict on firms’ performance and their perceptions of the business environment. We focus on the August 2008 conflict between Georgia and Russia and use the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey data before and...

We use data on 1,294 banks in emerging Europe to analyse how bank ownership and the Vienna Initiative affected credit growth during the 2008-09 crisis. As part of the Vienna Initiative western European banks signed country-specific commitment letters in which they pledged to maintain exposures...

With two very large mining projects expected to reach full production this decade, Mongolia is entering a commodity boom. History teaches us that commodity revenues offer unique opportunities for development but can also depress long-term economic prospects by increasing macroeconomic...