Comecon: A “Trade-Destroying” Customs Union?

In traditional theory the nations forming a customs union reduce barriers among themselves but maintain tariffs against nonmembers at the pre-customs-union level. This leads to trade creation and/or trade diversion. It is argued here that the formation of Comecon led to trade destruction and that this resulted because the members of Comecon were poorly suited to trade with each other and increased significantly barriers to trade with nonmembers. Thus trade with nonmembers that could not be replaced at low-enough cost at home or by member trading partners was eliminated.     

Asymptotic least-squares estimation efficiency considerations and applications

This paper is concerned with the large sample efficiency of the asymptotic least-squares (ALS) estimators introduced by Gouriéroux, Monfort, and Trognon (1982, 1985) and Chamberlain (1982, 1984). We show how the efficiency of these estimators is affected when additional information is incorporated into the estimation procedure. The relationship between ALS and maximum likelihood is discussed. It is shown that ALS can be used to obtain asymptotically efficient estimates for a large range of econometric models. Many results from the literature on estimation are special cases of the framework adopted in this paper. An application of ALS to a dynamic rational expections factor demand model in the manufacturing sector in The Netherlands demonstrates the potential of the method in the estimation of the parameters in models which are subject to nonlinear cross-equation restrictions.     

Gibbsian and non-Gibbsian states at Eurandom

We review some of the work on non-Gibbsian states of the last 10 years, emphasizing the developments in which Eurandom played a role.