Imperfect Information and Investor Heterogeneity in the Bond Market
Imperfect Information and Investor Heterogeneity in the Bond Market

Author: Frank Riedel

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 119

ISBN-13: 364257663X

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Real world investors differ in their tastes and attitudes and they do not have, in general, perfect information about the future prospects of the economy. Most theoretical models, however, assume to the contrary that investors are homogeneous and perfectly informed about the market. In this book, an attempt is made to overcome these shortcomings. In three different case studies, the effect of heterogeneous time preferences, heterogeneous beliefs and imperfect information about the economy's growth on the term structure of interest rates are studied. The initial chapter gives an introduction to the theory of financial markets in continuous time under imperfect information and establishes the existence of an equilibrium with complete markets.

The Role of Financial Markets in the Transition Process
The Role of Financial Markets in the Transition Process

Author: Emilio Colombo

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 364257372X

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Financial Markets play an important role in economic development, channeling saving to investments and facilitating growth. In Eastern Europe financial markets were initially much underdeveloped, and lacked the skills and infrastructure they needed to be efficient, having not acquired them in the pre-transition era. The book offers a both theoretical and empirical analysis of financial markets in transitional economies. It investigates financial markets in Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland, and their role in the developments in the 1990s.

Cooperation and Competition in a Common Market
Cooperation and Competition in a Common Market

Author: Jaime Behar

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 3642576508

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The essays included in this book are the result ofseven years ofresearch spanning the 1990-1997 period. Most of them have been published in scientific magazines or as chapters of books. To the end of this edition, and in order to avoid repetitions, the original texts have been modified, particularly with regard to the titles and introductions ofthe chapters. Chapter two reproduces the article "Economic Integration and Intra-Industry Trade: The Case of the Argentine-Brazilian Free Trade Agreement", published in the Journal of Common Markets (vol XXIX, No 5, pp. 527-552, sept. 1991). Chapter three originates from an empirical study prepared for UNIDO, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. The analytical framework and the preliminary conclusions of that work appeared in a working paper "The MERCOSUR Pattern of Intra-Industry Trade" (RP No 75, Stockholm: LAIS, 1997). Chapter four was published with the title "Plant-size Effects ofTrade: The Case of MERCOSUR Countries" as a chapter of the book Growth Trade and Integration in Latin America (W. Karlsson and A. Malaki (eds. ), Stockholm: LAIS, pp. 297-319, 1996). Chapter five in tum corresponds to the article entitled "Measuring the Effects of Economic Integration for the Southern Cone Countries: Industry Simulations of Trade Liberalization" as published in The Developing Economies (Vol. XXXIII, No 1, pp. 1-31, mars 1995). Finally, chapter six is the revised and updated version of the paper presented at the First European Congress ofLatinamericanists, which took place at Salamanca, Spain in June 1996.

Struggling for Leadership: Antwerp-Rotterdam Port Competition between 1870 –2000
Struggling for Leadership: Antwerp-Rotterdam Port Competition between 1870 –2000

Author: Reginald Loyen

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 3642574858

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The present volume contains the proceedings of an international conference on the economic history of the seaports of Antwerp and Rotterdam (1870-2000). This venue was held at Antwerp on 10-11 May 2001 and was hosted by the Antwerp Port Authority. This international conference aimed at confronting the development of both ports. In the course of the last century and a half, economic growth in the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam has been staggering. Maritime economic historians, economists and geographers alike have investigated the development of both ports extensively, but separately. So far, only a limited number of attempts have been made to analyse Rotterdam-Antwerp port history from a comparative perspective. The papers presented at the conference provide a challenging starting point to - certain how and why both ports reacted differently to virtually the same economic and political stimuli. By bringing together both historians, economists and lawyers with different fields of interest, we have attempted to put the history of the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam in a broader international and comparative perspective.

Systemic Transformation, Trade and Economic Growth
Systemic Transformation, Trade and Economic Growth

Author: Natalja von Westernhagen

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 3642574831

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Since the late 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) have been involved in the transition process. This book compares the progress of some of these economies in transition and analyses their growth potential. The focus lies on the special role that foreign trade liberalisation and foreign direct investment plays in economic growth. Since foreign trade and foreign direct investment are important channels of technology transfer they can substantially contribute to a higher level of economic growth. Based on the gravity model this book investigates potential in foreign trade and foreign direct investment for selected CIS and CEECs with developed OECD economies. Policy options for some of these countries are discussed including issues of foreign trade, foreign direct investment, structural adjustment, and economic growth.

Econometric Modelling of European Money Demand
Econometric Modelling of European Money Demand

Author: Engelbert Plassmann

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 3642573363

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The introduction of a single European currency constitutes a remarkable instance of internationalization of monetary policy. Whether a concomitant internationalization can be detected also in the econometric foundations of monetary policy is the topic dealt with in this book. The basic theoretical ingredients comprise a data-driven approach to econometric modelling and a generalized approach to cross-sectional aggregation. The empirical result is a data-consistent structural money demand function isolated within a properly identified, dynamic macroeconomic system for Europe. The book itself evolved from a research project within the former Son derforschungsbereich SFB 178 "Internationalization of the Economy" at the University of Konstanz. Its finalization entails a due amount of gratitude to be extended into several directions: I am personally indebted, first of all, to my academic supervisor, Professor Dr. Nikolaus Laufer, for originally inspiring this work and for meticulously perusing its eventual result. Professor Dr. Win fried Pohlmeier, as a second supervisor, provided valuable confidence bounds around an earlier draft. The comments of both supervisors contributed substantially to the present shape of the book. I am institutionally indebted to the University of Konstanz, notably its Faculty of Economics and Statistics, for continuous provision of an excellent research environment, and to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in Bonn for generous sponsorship of the former SFB, whose financial support dur ing that period is gratefully acknowledged. I am also indebted to Dresdner Bank AG Frankfurt, Risk Methodology Trading, for benign tolerance of all distractions associated with the preparation of the final manuscript.

Business Cycles in the Contemporary World
Business Cycles in the Contemporary World

Author: Bernd Süssmuth

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 167

ISBN-13: 3790827185

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The book provides a thorough and sophisticated descriptive analysis of business cycles in a historical perspective. The study is based on the latest available time series as well as latest techniques from the frequency domain. A combined univariate and bivariate analysis is conducted on the national as well as supranational (G7- and Euro-Area wide) level. Issues of stability, volatility, and cyclicality are investigated jointly. An extensive analysis of US manufacturing investment series on the fairly disaggregated four-digit level highlights the limits of linear models to capture the sectoral aggregation process. Synchronization is modelled by a mode-locking mechanism of industrial investment cycles induced by informational externalities. The model in its stochastic version is numerically simulated to assess an agreement between model and data.

Financial Intermediation and Deregulation
Financial Intermediation and Deregulation

Author: Tobias Miarka

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 165

ISBN-13: 3642524257

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The author develops a model of bank-firm relationships on the basis of the following general idea: Banks want to prevent moral hazard on the side of their customers. In particular they want to prevent their business customers to use bank credit for purposes different from those that have been negotiated thus damaging the bank's interest. The idea of this model is relatively simple. Banks do not extend a loan if the project for which the money is intended will probably be un profitable. They extend the loan if the success of the project is highly probable and if the revenues from that project are greater than the expenses of the bank for monitoring the customer. Assuming as Miarka does that the results from a successful project are certain, this model is an equivalent to minimizing moni toring costs. In fact, this is the outcome of the model. The banks are known to monitor their loans. They thereby signal to the capital market that they have tested the project. Therefore, the buyer of bonds of the company on the capital market may rest assured that the project is financially sound. The buyers of bonds thus avoid monitoring costs and can grant better credit conditions than the banks. Pur chasers of bor. . ds are free riders on the monitoring of the banks. Miarka tests his model econometrically. The results are amazingly supportive of the model.

East European Transition and EU Enlargement
East European Transition and EU Enlargement

Author: Wojciech W. Charemza

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 3642574971

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In March 1998 the European Union formally launched the accession process that will lead to a significant enlargement of the Union. So far ten countries from Central Europe: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia have submitted their applications for EU membership. This unique process immediately attracted attention of economists and policy makers. Nevertheless, it can be noticed that among numerous results already published, there is a distinctive shortage of books and papers in which quantitative research methods are applied. This is to a large extent justified by the fact that the transition and accession processes are new to the economic sciences, their methodology is not wellresearched, statistical data for the Central and East European countries are scarce and not always reliable and, generally, quantitative approach seems to be a risky and uncertain business. All these all problems can also be seen as a challenge rather than an obstacle. With this on mind, we have decided to clarify the status quo by organising a research seminar which focused on the methodology and quantitative analysis of the Central and East European transition and pre-accession processes. The seminar, East European Transition and EU Enlargement: a Quantitative Approach organised by Macroeconomic and Financial Data Centre (University of Gdansk and University ofLeicester) took place in Gdansk in June 2001. Our edited volume contains papers developed from this seminar.