In this paper, we aim at investigating from a game theory perspective whether trade liberalization can promote a collusive intra-industry trade and whether such a collusive trade is always socially desirable compared to the autarchy solution. We show that, under Cournot competition, economic integration is anti-competitive if collusive trade is a possible outcome of the repeated game; under pri...

It is well known that the performance of foreign firms compared to domestic companies is superior with respect to employment, wages, and productivity. In this paper we detail the export behaviour of foreign affiliates in the United Kingdom relative to indigenous firms. Our findings show that foreign firms are more likely to export, and when they do so they are more export intensive and overall ...

This paper introduces the concept of a steepest ascent tariff reform for a small open economy. By construction, it is locally optimal in that it yields the highest gain in utility of any feasible tariff reform vector of the same length. Accordingly, it provides a convenient benchmark for the evaluation of the welfare effectiveness of other tariff reform proposals. We develop the properties of t...

How does nancial integration impact capital accumulation, current-account dynamics, and cross-country inequality? This paper investigates this question within a two-country, generalequilibrium, incomplete-markets model that focuses on the importance of idiosyncratic entrepreneurial risk a risk that introduces, not only a precautionary motive for saving, but also a wedge between the interest rat...

This paper examines the implications of tax evasion for "scal competition and tax harmonization policies in an economic union. First, for symmetric countries, it proves that the equilibrium values of the tax and audit rates are less than optimal. Tax harmonization alone will also lead to a less than optimal audit rate. Second, for asymmetric countries, the paper shows that integration may turn ...

Using data from the US commodity flow surveys, we show that the historical UnionConfederacy border lowers contemporaneous trade between US states by about 16 percent relative to trade flows within the former alliances. Amongst one million placebos, there is no other constellation of state grouping that would yield a larger border effect. The finding is robust over different econometric models, ...

This paper analyses the determinants of trade patterns between the CEECs and the OECD countries since the latter began their processes of transition and opening-up within the framework of the Association Agreements with the EU, with the ultimate aim of helping to anticipate the trade impact of their accession to the EU. To this end, we estimate an empirical model for a set of countries formed b...

Regionalization is a part of globalization and a dynamic process of marching towards globalization. The so-called NADEs (Northeast Asia’s Dynamic Economies) including Japan, Korea and China are expected to lead economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region. This paper analyzes the trade and investment relationships among the three countries, points out the necessity for their technological coopera...

A two-country, game-theoretic framework focuses on the nexus between human capital formation and international migration in an enlarged framework where distinctive brain drain and/or gain effects can arise from the option to study either at home, or abroad. Heterogeneous individuals choose between alternative university systems based, among other considerations, on their innate abilities, the q...

In this paper, we focus on how European economic integration has affected the synchronization and the magnitude of business cycles among participating countries. We measure, based on bandpass filtered data, the characteristics of European business cycles analyzing to what extent they have become more similar over time. We also consider the role of other factors such as differences in fiscal and...