Why Do Countries Peg the Way They Peg? The Determinants of Anchor Currency Choice

Conditional on choosing a pegged exchange rate regime, what determines the currency to which countries peg or “anchor” their exchange rate? This paper aims to answer this question using a panel multinomial logit framework, covering more than 100 countries for the period 1980-1998. We find that trade network externalities are a key determinant of anchor currency choice, implying that there are multiple steady states for the distribution of anchor currencies in the international monetary system. Other factors found to be related to anchor currency choice include the symmetry of output co-movement, the currency denomination of debt, and legal or colonial origins

Why Do Countries Peg the Way They Peg? The Determinants of Anchor Currency Choice

Conditional on choosing a pegged exchange rate regime, what determines the currency to which countries peg or “anchor” their exchange rate? This paper aims to answer this question using a panel multinomial logit framework, covering more than 100 countries for the period 1980-1998. We find that trade network externalities are a key determinant of anchor currency choice, implying that there are multiple steady states for the distribution of anchor currencies in the international monetary system. Other factors found to be related to anchor currency choice include the symmetry of output co-movement, the currency denomination of debt, and legal or colonial origins.

Perceived outcomes of public libraries in Finland, Norway and the Netherlands

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the perceived benefits of public libraries and their structure in the major areas of life between Finland, Norway and the Netherlands. Design/methodology/approach – The data were based on representative samples of Finnish, Norwegian and Dutch adult library users. In Finland a mail survey was used and in Norway and the Netherlands web surveys were used for data collection. The distribution of the proportion of those benefiting from the library in various areas of life at least sometimes was compared across countries. The structure of benefits was compared across countries by factor analysis. Findings – The results showed that the level of the nineteen benefits observed was considerably higher, and the range of benefits remarkably broader in Finland compared to Norway and the Netherlands. It is likely that the greater supply of library services in Finland compared to the other two countries explains the differences in benefits derived from the public library. The study validated the measurement instrument for the perceived overall outcomes of public libraries. Research limitations/implications – Comparing only three countries is too limited for producing valid results on the relations between the supply of library services and their use and the benefits derived from that use. Analyzing these associations in a larger sample of countries would create reliable results also for policy making. Practical implications – The policy implications of these findings are discussed. Originality/value – This is the first across-country comparison observing perceived benefits of public libraries across major areas of life

Dutch Export Opportunities in Asia: is the Netherlands Lagging Behind?

Dutch firms could potentially export more to Asia. There are potentially underexplored export opportunities in in certain agro-food sectors (including vegetables, meat, and flowers), certain high-tech machinery sectors, and medicaments. These are sectors in which the Netherlands has a comparative advantage worldwide, but for which exports to Asia are relatively low, thereby constituting a potential ‘opportunity’ to be explored.This study identifies the comparative advantages of the Dutch export sectors. Based on value added export data, we find that the Netherlands has the strongest comparative advantages in transport, trade, finance, agro-food, and petroleum products. Detailed gross export data revealed additional comparative advantages in certain high tech machinery sectors, such as office machines, machinery for specialised industries, and telecom equipment.Currently, Dutch exports of goods to Asia still lag behind those of other countries in Western Europe. In 2015, 2.5% of Dutch total gross exports of goods went to China and Hong Kong, compared with around 8% for the UK, 6.5% for Germany and 3.5% for Denmark. Similarly, Dutch gross exports to India in 2015 constituted 0.5% of total Dutch gross exports, compared with 2.2% for Belgium and just over 1% for the UK.Where the Netherlands does well is in exports of services to Asia, particularly in the areas of transport (logistics), trade, and financial services. Other Dutch export successes in Asia are in certain types of high tech machinery and some agro-food products. In these sectors there are however additional potential export opportunities, which are further elaborated upon in two case studies

Reforming economic institutions in transition economies: what determines the speed of reform?

This paper studies institutional divergence among two types of transition economies: (1) the former socialist economies of Central and Eastern Europe, which have gradually been converging to European levels of institutional quality, and (2) the countries of the Former Soviet Union, which have, on average, made much less progress with institutional reform. We aim to explain these differences in the speed of institutional reform, which we measure as improvements in four Worldwide Governance Indicators: government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law (including property rights), and control of corruption. We find that the most robust factors explaining institutional divergence are cultural/religious roots (Huntington’s definition of "civilization"), the number of years under a socialist regime, and the presence of natural resource rents. Less significant factors are imperial history (whether a country used to be a member of the Russian empire) and the prospect of EU membership (as proxied by the distance to Brussels in order to avoid endogeneity problems). An interesting finding is that, when political institutions are controlled for, the impact of natural resources is no longer significant. This suggests that the influence of natural resource rents on institutional quality operates through their impact on political institutions