Understanding how prices and quantities affect investment demand is important in analyzing adjustment policies in many developing countries. Recent literature emphasizes that uncertainty curtails private investment, adding a risk premium - the price of waiting. Several recent empirical studies...

One of the most remarkable developments in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has been the region's opening to foreign direct investment. CEE states saw foreign investment climb from minuscule amounts in 1989 to more than $7 billion in 1992. All CEE states have enacted new laws on foreign...

In the late 1980s, Japan became the biggest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the world. The main beneficiaries of the rapid increase in investment flows were industrial countries, but the developing world (especially East Asia and Latin America) also received substantial inflows. In...

The ad valorem tariff rateson specific products and the ratio of tariff revenue to import value, the collected rate, are only tenuously related, contend the authors. Using tariff and revenue data (at the tariff code line level of detail) for three developing countries, the authors compare the...

The author studies the case for three different approaches to regionalism in East Asia. First, he examines closely the only serious attempt at preferential trading in the region - the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has recently announced plans to form the ASEAN Free Trade...

Regional integration is on the rise again, despite its apparent failure among developing countries in the past. The authors survey the ambiguous economies of customs unions, emphasizing that the traditional dichotomy between"trade creation"and"trade diversion"is not particularly helpful for...

This paper considers the challenges and opportunities facing the Central American countries and explores the choices open to them for fuller integration into the world economy. The paper presents a brief historical account of the origins and evolution of the Central American Common Market...

The author reviews recent literature on capital formation and economic reform and looks at the cycle of private investment that occurs during adjustment. He identifies three phases in the response of private investment to adjustment programs: initial contraction, a long pause, and sustained...

The author argues that trade diversion based on tariff preferences can be welfare-reducing because there is a tradeoff between improved resource allocation and a loss in terms of trade - where the latter loss equals the lost tariff revenue of the importing country. With trade diversion based on...

After lying dormant for two decades, regional integration is on the rise. Recent initiatives suggest that the world trading system may be moving toward three trading blocs clustered around Japan, the European Community, and the United States. Some view this development as a move toward a less...