Most FDI takes place between the developed countries, which suggests that the market-seeking motive is important for understanding FDI. However, given the stylized fact that trade barriers (e.g. transportation costs and financial barriers) have declined over the past 20 years, models that aim to...

In Bulgaria and other transition economies, liquidity constraints and hence access to external funds must be seen in the context of soft budget constraints and the financial system's failure to enforce the efficient allocation of funds. Liquidity constraints in Bulgaria may be seen as a sign of...

The Berle-Means problem - information and incentive asymmetries disrupting relations between knowledgeable managers and remote investors - has remained a durable issue engaging researchers since the 1930's. However, the Berle-Means paradigm - widely-dispersed, helpless investors facing strong,...

This paper analyses the impact of share ownership, creditorship and networking by financial institutions on the performance of 94 Dutch non-financial firms in the period 1992-1996. We find a nonlinear relationship between firm performance and ownership by banks. Because of various defense...

In this paper we want to shed some light on the empirical relevance of the new economic geography. Using one of the central features of the core new economic geography models, namely that wages have the tendency to fall the further one moves away from centres of economic activity, we investigate...

The transition phase to EMU has been accompanied by considerable monetary and fiscal consolidation efforts in the EU. This paper analyses this consolidation process and its effects on economic activity in the EU. It is tested to what extent fiscal retrenchment efforts have depressed or...

[eng] This paper analyzes how monetary and fiscal policy rules can achieve macroeconomic stabilization in a two-country model of an economic and monetary union. Three specific factors play a role in absorbing the effects of macroeconomic shocks : (i) the degree of flexibility of economic-policy...