This paper forms part of an OECD project which addressed the issue of the structure and change in the distribution systems of seven OECD countries. This paper gives an overview of the structure, policy and performance of the French distribution system for the period 1970-90. This analysis is...

By increasing the costs of imports, minimum unit import reference prices not only generate the usual distortions one expects from tariff protection but add new ones that a pure tariff system would not generate. Reference prices substantially reduce the price gap between imports with prices above...

This paper examines how aversion to risk and aversion to intertemporal substitution determine the strength of the precautionary saving motive in a two-period model with Selden/Kreps-Porteus preferences. For small risks, we derive a measure of the strength of the precautionary saving motive which...