“Race-to-the-bottom” deregulation is to be expected when markets operate across the borders of countries that independently choose and enforce labor policies. Less obviously, in pre-crisis EMU reforms of labor market policies were uneven and related to international imbalances. That pattern...

We show that, in competition between a developed country and a developing country over environmental standards and taxes, the developing country may have a ‘second-mover advantage.' In our model, firms do not unanimously prefer lower environmental-standard levels. We introduce this feature to...

We examine empirically cross-fertilization in the productivity growth of banks between a state and its neighboring and non-neighboring states before (1971-1977) and during (1982-1995) the interstate multibank holding company (IMBHC) deregulations, upon which, cross-border bank M&As, mainly among...

A substantial and diverse literature in economics traces its intellectual roots to Charles Tiebout's 1956 article, “The Pure Theory of Local Expenditure.” Its present recognition, frequently attributed to originating the idea of “voting with your feet,” however, contrasts sharply with...

The forces of the market and systems competition bring about economic and social convergence in Europe, and there is no need for social policies at the EU level. Social harmonization would distort migration flows and slow down the speed of economic convergence. National welfare states will be...

This paper discusses new data on regulatory competition in European company law and the impact of national law reforms, using the example of English company law forms being used by German start-ups. Since 1999, entrepreneurs in the EU have been allowed to select foreign legal forms to govern...

While there are many methods to measure the competitiveness of an economy, most of these concepts do not sufficiently distinguish between how market factors influence competitiveness, and what governments can do to improve their competitive position. Disentangling market-induced and...

"Race-to-the-bottom" deregulation is to be expected when markets operate across the borders of countries that independently choose and enforce labor policies. Less obviously, in pre-crisis EMU reforms of labor market policies were uneven and related to international imbalances. That pattern is...

We present a model where heterogeneous districts choose both whether to experiment and the policies to experiment with. Since districts learn from each other, the first-best requires that policy experiments converge so that innovations are useful also for neighbors. However, the equilibrium...

This article examines the role of law reform in promoting the development of technical standards for the authentication of parties engaged in Internet commerce. Law reforms intended to improve the security of Internet commerce can only succeed if they address business, technical and legal issues...