I use parametric and semiparametric methods to test for the order of integration in stock market indexes. The results, which are based on the EOE (Amsterdam), DAX (Frankfurt), Hang Seng (Hong Kong), FTSE100 (London), S&P500 (New York), CAC40 (Paris), Singapore All Shares, and the Japanese Nikkei, show that in almost all of the series the unit root hypothesis cannot be rejected. The Hang Seng an...

We explain why European trucking carriers are much smaller and rely more heavily on owner-operators (as opposed to employee drivers) than their US counterparts. Our analysis begins by ruling out differences in technology as the source of those disparities and confirms that standard hypotheses in organizational economics, which have been shown to explain the choice of organizational form in US i...

This article investigates common economic consequences of population aging and economic integration for agglomeration processes. We introduce demography into the New Economic Geography by generalizing the constructed capital approach to account for changes in the age structure of the population. Interestingly, the level of trade costs triggering catastrophic agglomeration is rather sensitive to...

This paper projects the future of knowledge economy (KE) in SSA and MENA countries using the four components of the World Bank’s Knowledge Economy Index (KEI): economic incentive, education, ICTs and innovation. The empirical evidence provides the speeds of integration as well as the time necessary to achieve full integration. Findings broadly indicate SSA and MENA countries with low levels in ...

We analyze in an incomplete contracts model whether a supplier should be integrated if in addition to his investment level he chooses the degree of relationship specificity. A basic trade-off arises: While non-integration leads to higher investment incentives, potential synergies are foregone. Hence, integration can be optimal even though only the supplier makes an investment decision. This may...

We make use in this article of a testing procedure suggested by Robinson (1994) for testing deterministic seasonality versus seasonal fractional integration. A new test statistic is developed to simultaneously test both, the order of integration of the seasonal component and the need of seasonal dummy variables. Finite-sample critical values of the tests are computed and, an empirical applicati...

Mercosur has achieved important advances like the removal of intrabloc tariff and non-tariff barriers and the establishment of a common external tariff for most products. However, its ambitious plans to deepen the integration process comprising harmonisation of policies in areas like competition policy, government procurement, technical barriers and phytosanitary measures have not been implemen...

Using a simple monopoly model, we examine the effects of economic integration. We show that the number of markets and the shape of marginal revenue curves are crucial to evaluate economic integration when the marginal cost is not constant. The effects of tariff-reductions in a three-country model are in contrast with those in a two-country model. The effects also depend on what trade policy the...

This note examines the stochastic properties of US term spreads with parametric and semiparametric fractional integration techniques. Since the observed data (rather than the estimated residuals from a cointegrating regression) are used for the analysis, standard methods can be applied. The results indicate that US Treasury maturity rates are I(1) in most cases, although the order of integratio...

It is vividly debated how the ongoing process of European integration will a¤ect the need and scope for welfare state activities. To some this process signals that welfare state activities have to be rolled back, while others stress that international integration may increase the need for (explicit or implicit) social insurance arrangements. This paper discusses these issues by first considerin...