The first essay explores the relationship between openness and growth. As, Rodriguez and Rodrik (2000) argue, the relation between openness and growth is still an open question. One of the main problems in the assessment of the effect is the endogeneity of the relation. In order to address this...

Recent literature has argued that conventional measures of external sustainability – the trade balance and current account – are misleading because they omit capital gains on net foreign asset positions. We adjust the definition of the current account to include the capital gains and discuss...