Recent years have seen a substantial increase in the volatility of exchange rates. This trend has prompted economists and finance analysts to question if the observed behavior of exchange rates is consistent with a rational model. Does that volatility, further, hinder trade? Professors Sercu and Uppal examine these issues in the context of dynamic general equilibrium models, explicitly considering the role of financial markets while allowing for commodity markets to be segmented across countries. They show that the implications of the theoretical model for exchange rates in this context are...

Despite the successes achieved in liberalizing trade by multilateral trade negotiations sponsored by the World Trade Organization (WTO), numerous countries have separately negotiated preferential trade treaties with one another. Representing a significant departure from the WTO's central principle of non-discrimination among member countries, preferential trade blocs are the subject of an intense academic and policy debate. The first section of this 2005 book presents a rudimentary and intuitive introduction to the economics of preferential trade agreements. The following chapters present the...

This book examines the origins of modern corporate finance systems during the rapid industrialization period leading up to World War I. The study leads to three sets of conclusions. First, modern financial systems are rooted in the past, are idiosyncratic to specific countries, and are highly path-dependent. Therefore, to understand current financial institutions, we must take stock of the forces at play in the near and distant past: political and regulatory intervention, natural resource endowments, educational institutions, and social and religious beliefs. Second, financial institutions...