Public debt has surged during the current global economic crisis and is expected to increase further. This development has raised concerns whether public debt is starting to hit levels where it might negatively affect economic growth. Does such a tipping point in public debt exist? How severe...

The transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have become important exporters of many types of services to Western Europe. We identify the sources of CEE's advantages over competing exporters, such as India, China and Brazil, using disaggregated data on service exports and a novel...

<heading format="display" id="h1" implicit="yes" level="1">Abstract</heading> Sovereign wealth funds have rapidly become significant international institutions. The performance of funds varies substantially across countries, but comprehensive and systematic analyses of funds have been hampered by the lack of transparency of most funds. The relative transparency...

[eng] The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund (SWF) is widely acknowledged to be one of the most transparent funds of its type. It has performed like a balanced mutual fund whose investments have been no more disruptive to financial markets than those of other institutional investors. There is a...