Since 1978 China has been experiencing a strong monetary growth. However annual inflation has not exceeded 20%. One of the outcomes has been a high level of seigniorage. This paper looks for the factors that have enabled to collect this quasi-inflation-free revenue and asks the question of...

The author analyzes the relationship between growth and financial intermediation at the sub-national level within China. Does the quality of the banking sector in a province affect its rate of growth? Do state and non-state banking sectors perform differently? Does the structure of the local...

The relationship between the current account and the macroeconomic development remains an important issue in an open economy. Recently, global current account imbalances, and more specifically the large deficit in the United States and the surplus in China and other Asian economies, continue to...

This paper uses a gravity model to assess ex-post regional trade agreements. The model includes 130 countries and is estimated with panel data over the period 1962-1996. The introduction of the correct number of dummy variables allows for identification of Vinerian trade creation and trade...

It has been widely argued that, with the decline in trade costs, the importance of distance has declined over time. On the other hand, most gravity models find that the importance of distance has increased over time. This puzzle has not been satisfactorily explained and is examined here. The...