China’s economic strategy is facing new challenges arising from the changes in the world economy as well as in its domestic conditions. Given the sluggish global economy and the rise of protectionist policies, China cannot expect external demand to contribute to its economic growth as much as...

This study investigates the productivity of Brazilian manufacturing industries, particularly addressing the influence of liberalization on productivity. We first calculate total factor productivity (TFP) by estimating the stochastic frontier production function and the inefficiency determination...

This study tries to give new evidence on the relationship between human capital and output per capita in the former centrally-planned economies. Educational attainment of the labor force is used as a proxy for the human capital stock in Bulgaria. The empirical models are based on the extended...

In this paper, we examine and compare the two important production hubs in Asia: China and Greater China and India and South Asia. We show that in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, manufacturing trade has continued to be highly relevant, with trade in parts and components growing in importance. In...

In this paper we extend the Solow model to take account for: (1) the existence of a delay in the process of recruitment in the labor force, due to the age structure of the population (2) the existence of impulsive effects on the capital-labor ratio when external factors influence it. We...

This paper analyses the trends of cost efficiency and its components across Indian public sector banks (PSBs) during the post-deregulation period spanning from 1992/1993 to 2007/2008. The study also examines the issue of convergence in cost, technical and allocative efficiency levels of Indian...

The recent slowdown in the Chinese economy is interpreted in two dimensions: a long-run, structural shift toward a moderation in China’s earlier high growth pace, and a short-run, mainly cyclical, adjustment to the earlier economic overheating. Main causes of the long-run shift are export...

What determines public health care expenditures at the national level is an important policy question. Since the pioneering work of Newhouse (J Hum Resour 12(1):115–125, <CitationRef CitationID="CR47">1977</CitationRef>) on the relationship between health expenditures and national income, this area of economic inquiry has received much...</citationref>

This article estimates the effects of a hypothetical enlargement of the Mercado Común del Sur (MERCOSUR), depicted by granting MERCOSUR associate member countries a full membership status, on trade in primary agricultural commodities. The empirical investigation is implemented through the...

The paper concentrates on the issue of currency convertibility in the context of Chinese strategy of the RMB internationalization. It argues that the motive for that strategy was ignited by China’s dissatisfaction with the long lasting unstable international monetary system. Recent global...