Economic adjustment and reform programs, including those supported by international financial institutions (IFIs), must cope with informational asymmetries and special interest politics. This presents a particularly serious issue when IFIs make structural economic reforms a condition for...

The magnitude of trade flows between a country and each of its trading partners varies a great deal, even if the latter are of similar size and possess similar production and consumption characteristics. The objective of this paper is to provide an explanation of what determines the identity of...