This book addresses the macroeconomic implications of a country's transition to a monetary union. By using a dynamic multi-country simulation model, it is possible to pinpoint a monetary union, and repercussions produced by fiscal retrenchment policies. Interest and exchange rate effects could only be captured once a new approach including innovations in the solution methodology had been developed. Not only can we draw lessons for newly joining members to the EMU or to any other monetary union, but the analysis also implicitly offers a new explanation for the weak Euro in the first...

This book analyses the economic implications of the most important regional integration agreement in Latin America, the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR). Accordingly empirical evidence and theoretical arguments on the costs and benefits of MERCOSUR are provided and the effects of the elimination of custom barriers to intra-regional trade on trade patterns, product differentiation and cost efficiency are quantified. Other issues considered are the obstacles to policy coordination, in particular national divergences in income levels and growth rates. As an up-to-date and comprehensive study of...

The basic question of this book is what we can learn from empirical as well as theoretical analysis of financial systems, differing cross-sectional and changing structually over time, with respect to the issue of stability of financial systems. Part I of the book deals with stability issues in a globalizing financial world and addresses topics of convergence, domestic policy, financial bubbles, crises and international coordination. Part II is on banking systems. Country specific adoption and restructuring of (universal but also separation) banking systems are key problems for the...

Within the broad frame of regional research in an international perspective, the contributions of this volume present new theoretical, methodological and empirical results as well as political strategies for the following topics:
- ecomomic integration in the Baltic rim,
- innovation and regional growth,
- economic integration, trade and migration,
- transport infrastructure and the regions.
Most of the topics deal with the long-term integration process in Europe, with a particular focus on the North European and Baltic Sea integration.

Since the 1980s many developing countries have implemented macro-economic policy reforms to curb inflation, reduce fiscal deficits and control foreign debt. The policy instruments used, such as exchange rate adjustment, budget cuts, trade policy reforms, public expenditure reviews and privatisation, have different and sometimes opposite consequences for agricultural land use. During the same period awareness was growing that deteriorating soil quality could become a limiting factor to increase or even sustain agricultural production. As a result, food availability and even accessibility for...

Innovation networks are a source for acquiring information and knowledge, and supporting innovation processes. Some questions this book attempts to answer are: How can networks, if they do not emerge by their own, be initiated? and, how can fragmentation in innovation systems be overcome?

Under what conditions does the use of modern information technology in procurement relationships lead to more dynamics, e.g. in the form of using (electronic) marketplaces; under what conditions are long-term partnerships predominant? This book analyzes the impact of advances in information technology on procurement decisions in organizations. On the methodological basis of transaction cost theory and search theory a formal model is developed to represent decisions on supplier selection and the use of information technology. General statements are made in respect of the effect of progress in...

In the forthcoming decades the industrialized countries will experience a demographic transition that is unprecedented in history. While the transition's impact on public pension schemes has extensively been examined, its implication for private intergenerational transfers has gone almost unnoticed by the literature. This study attempts to make up for that gap in the literature. It gives a comprehensive overview of private transfer patterns in Germany, extends the methodology of generational accounting to include private intergenerational transfers, and presents a computable general...

This book is different from the first edition. There are three entirely new chapters: 2,6 and 9. I have also included new sections in chapters 1,4 and 8. Moreover, the remaining chapters, 3, 5 and 7, have been revised and updated. In chapters 2 and 6 I felt it was necessary to include the main alternative theories ofconsumer and company behaviour along with the neo-classical models. The book contains four chapters oftheory - 1, 2, 5 and 6 - and four chapters with theoretical and empirical applications - 3, 4, 7 and 8. Finally, chapter nine looks at choices made under conditions ofuncertainty....

The book presents a comprehensive analysis of the process of high-tech firms clustering from a theoretical and empirical perspective. The theoretical analysis shows the effects of geographical and agglomeration factors on firms' location decisions and demonstrates that critical mass and carrying capacity are crucial phenomena in the "life cycle" of the cluster. The empirical analysis, based on an original database of four OECD countries, measures the effects of scale versus agglomeration economies and of inter-industrie synergy versus inter-cluster competition on the growth path of the...