The volume and commodity structure of EU trade with the transition countries in central and eastern Europe (CEECs) is estimated on the assumption that it will follow the pattern of trade among market economies. A gravity-type approach at the level of product groups is used, combining geography...

Using a gravity-type explanation of international trade flows at the industry level, it is shown that the pattern of comparative advantage in terms of sectoral export/import ratios in bilateral trade can be explained by relative income and relative per capita income. Total income of a country is...

In October 2003, the European Union introduced a Directive which widens the scope of the EU?s minimum taxation system from mineral oils to all energy products including coal, natu-ral gas and electricity. It aims at reducing distortions that currently exist between Member States as well as...

This study suggests another explanation of the missing globalization puzzle typically observed in the empirical gravity models. In contrast to the previous research that focused on aggregated trade flows, we employ the trade flows in manufacturing products broken down by 25 three-digit ISIC...

This study compares two alternative approaches to estimate parameters in gravity equations. We compare the traditional OLS approach applied to the log-linear form of the gravity model with the Poisson Quasi Maximum Likelihood (PQML) estimation procedure applied to the non-linear multiplicative...

The increasing integration of international financial markets means that credit defaults in one country have to be covered by creditors in other countries. If the principle of creditor liability were applied systematically, the financial losses incurred by the financial institution that provided...

The discussion on an increase of development aid is overshadowed by uneasiness about job opportunities at home. Against the demands for a sizeable increase of development aid funds it is often argued that such aid draws purchasing power away from the internal market if it is not tied to...

The opposition to a liberal stance on imports of manufactures from developing countries is growing as certain specific groups of products made in these countries prove increasingly competitive and the industrialized countries suffer from persistent high unemployment. Model computations for the...

Protectionism in international trade, in particular with regard to imports from developing countries, has increased rapidly since the beginning of the 1970s. Dieter Schumacher analyses the reasons for this development and makes some proposals for a liberalization of trade which take the...

The controversy about the pros and cons of state interference in the economy has become much more heated in recent years. In the industrialised countries this can be gauged from the debate about deregulation and privatisation. The proposition that the more market-oriented the economy the more...