Does exposure to international trade have a pro-competitive effect on domestic pricing? This paper attends to this question in two stages: first, by developing a simple methodology to test the above proposition by linking domestic pricing behaviour to external competition via a simple mark-up...

This paper makes three principal claims with respect to the economic performance of 14 Forum Island Countries (FICs) over the decade to 2005. First, the FICs (as a group) have performed below their potential. Second, it is the poor policy-choices rather than the handicaps of smallness and...

This paper presents a simple model that is able to account for three stylised facts about international trade. First, splicing of value-adding promotes trade in the abundant factor of an economy. Second, trade in intermediate inputs rises as costs of such trade fall but that free trade is not...

If capital for corporate finance was available from a common global pool and at zero transaction cost, then does after-tax arbitrage require harmonisation of income tax rates across jurisdictions? This paper shows that the answer is in the negative. When a corporation has the choice in deciding...

The resolution of problems with lease renewals in Fiji, particularly in the sugarcane districts, has ramifications for private investment and growth in the entire economy. The impending withdrawal of subsidies to sugar as world trade is liberalised has increased the urgency of finding solutions...

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This paper investigates the relationship between tariff and growth in the Australian economy over the period from 1871 to 2002. The study is motivated by the debate on the apparent 'tariff-growth paradox', a sign switch in the link between tariff rate and growth between the first and second...

This, the first book in the Global Development Network series, brings together the views of researchers from the developing and developed world and provides models of successful research conducted in developing and transition countries.

This study investigates the effects of spatial interactions on local wages based on a panel data from 31 Chinese provinces between 2001 and 2010. Using the Global Moran's I statistic, we provide empirical evidence for the presence of spatial dependencies in provincial wages. Then, we estimate...

Does land tenure form affect farm-level productivity? The answer, from farm-level data for an oil palm project in Papua New Guinea, is in the affirmative. Analysis of farm-level output, controlling for all measured inputs, shows systematic differences in productivity across three land tenure...