Various indicators have been developed to assess the sustainability of countries. However, whether it is possible to include institutions as an element of the sustainability index remains theoretically and practically unclear. One of the main challenges is the substantial missing data problem....

This paper investigates the effect of real exchange rate misalignment and volatility on Malaysian import flows during 1991:Q1 to 2003:Q4. A measure of the quantitative proxy of the real exchange rate misalignment is constructed using the Natural Real Exchange Rate (NATREX) equilibrium model,...

This paper examines the relative importance of the global and regional markets for financial markets in developing countries, particularly during the US financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis. We examine the way in which the degree of regional (seven African markets combined),...

Financial freedom is generally understood as state to do anything whenever you want. Financial well being brings lot of direct benefits like mental peace and capability to help others financially. Gender equality is new development of last few decades and one sees women in various roles,...

This paper analyses the intraday co-movements between returns on several commodity markets and on the stock market in the United States over the 1997-2011 period. By exploiting a new high frequency database, we compute various rolling correlations at (i) 1-hour, (ii) 5-minute, (iii) 10-second,...

In this paper, we propose a matching and search model with adjustment costs in the form of labor disruption charges that can generate counter-cyclical real wages. Empirically, we use a measure of wage cyclicality based on the generalized impulse response function of real wages to a shock in a...

This paper provides my unique perspective as the economist on the team responsible for preparing the Liberal Party of Canada party platform for the 1993 election. This so-called 1993 Red Book was one of the first “contract with the public” political platforms. While not all the promises in...

Adopting a long term perspective, we evaluate the trade performance of less developed African countries. Besides some general trade indicators, we apply a constant market share analysis in order to decompose export performance into several components with specific economic interpretation. Our...

This paper surveys the literature that examines the effect of education on economic growth. Specifically, we apply meta-regression analysis to 56 studies with 979 estimates and show that there is substantial publication selection bias towards a positive impact of education on growth. Once we...

This paper investigates welfare gains and channels of risk sharing among 14 Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries, including the oil-rich Gulf region and the resource-scarce economies such as Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. The results show that, for the 1992--2009 period, the overall...