This paper analyses the main forms of government intervention used in the UK to protect the national artistic patrimony. It examines the two most common policy measures used in the art market: export regulation and tax incentives and reports their use over an 8 year period from 1990 to 1998. It...

A further round of negotiations on agricultural trade liberalisation began in the WTO in March 2000. This paper discusses the interests of developing countries in these negotiations. Compared to the developed countries, developing countries have relatively few 'rights' to agricultural support...

We explore some empirical properties of gross international investment positions. In a cross-section of countries, we find that more open countries with larger domestic financial markets tend to hold greater quantities of foreign assets and liabilities.

We analyse the conduct of monetary policy in a currency union in the face of asymmetric shocks. In particular, we compare the stabilization properties of a currency union versus exchange rate arrangements and show how the relative performance of a currency union depends on the extent of economic...

Since the 1995 publication of Obsteld and Rogoff's Redux model, there has been an outpouring of research on open-economy dynamic general equilibrium models that incorporate imperfect competition and nominal rigidities. This paper offers an interim survey of this recent literature.

The newly-launched euro is bound to attract some "trackers"- that is, countries that attempt to maintain exchange rate stability against the euro. In this paper, we ask whether the existence of trackers should be a matter of concern for the European Union. To gain some insight, we review the...

This paper examines fragmentation and globalisation in the context of the electronics industry in Ireland. Fragmentation refers to the breaking-up of vertically integrated production processes into various components. We find empirical evidence of fragmentation in a number of data sources. Data...

Using plant level data from the Irish manufacturing sector, we explore the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth in Ireland. The central question explored in this paper is whether the tangible contribution of MNC plants which undertake R&D investment in Ireland...