A recent study argues that the contraction in total trade that occurred during the crisis was mainly driven by the fall in high quality goods, which should have higher income elasticity owing to a non-linear Engel curve. Our aims are, on the one hand, to test the quality Engel curve assumption...

Using annual bilateral data over the period 1988-2011 for a panel of 24 industrialised and emerging economies, we analyse in a time-varying framework the determinants of output synchronisation in EMU (European Monetary Union) distinguishing between core and peripheral member states. The results...

The neoclassical and OCA theories predict that higher capital market openness, providing better risk sharing opportunities, should enable catching up and convergence among countries. However, starting from ‘90s, Current Account (CA) dispersions within European Union (EU) member States have...