The Post-Crisis Sequencing of Economic Integration in Asia: Trade as a Complement to a Monetary Future

Bilateral and regional cooperation initiatives in Asia have been growing in importance over the last five years. These accords span the real and financial sectors; rather than following the more typical pattern of Òtrade first, money laterÓ, recent policy initiatives involve the simultaneous implementation of trade and monetary/financial accords. Given this sequence, is there a case for monetary union in East Asia? Is there a case for expanded free-trade areas (FTAs) in the region? This paper attempts to answer these questions using a variety of empirical techniques, including a Computational General Equilibrium (CGE) model, to evaluate the economics of monetary/financial integration and various configurations of FTAs in Asia. We conclude that, at present, the post-sequencing of economic integration in Asia is developing such that trade agreements will ultimately complement the movement toward financial and monetary integration. While the political constraint on monetary union is real, it is argued that FTAs should help relax this constraint, adding a political complement to the trade complement.

Stability of Curvature Measures

We address the problem of curvature estimation from sampled compact sets. The main contribution is a stability result: we show that the gaussian, mean or anisotropic curvature measures of the offset of a compact set K with positive $\mu$-reach can be estimated by the same curvature measures of the offset of a compact set K' close to K in the Hausdorff sense. We show how these curvature measures can be computed for finite unions of balls. The curvature measures of the offset of a compact set with positive $\mu$-reach can thus be approximated by the curvature measures of the offset of a point-cloud sample. These results can also be interpreted as a framework for an effective and robust notion of curvature

European Integration, Productivity Growth and Real Convergence

This paper derives a stochastic endogenous growth model that investigates the impact of European Union integration on convergence and productivity growth. We deviate from the general strand of literature by not only deriving a theoretical model for the effects of integration on the rate of economic growth, but also by using more appropriate estimation techniques. The outcome of a series of panel and structural break tests examining the accession process of five recent members to the Union generally show improved rates of productivity growth and convergence to EU standards. We then draw from the experience of these recent members to derive implications for the first-round EU candidate countries. Subsequent tests on the first-round candidate countries find a high level of heterogeneity in growth rates, and a fast-paced convergence to EU standards.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40043/3/wp657.pd

Higher Sobolev Regularity of Convex Integration Solutions in Elasticity: The Dirichlet Problem with Affine Data in int(Klc)\text{int}(K^{lc})

In this article we continue our study of higher Sobolev regularity of flexible convex integration solutions to differential inclusions arising from applications in materials sciences. We present a general framework yielding higher Sobolev regularity for Dirichlet problems with affine data in $\text{int}(K^{lc})$. This allows us to simultaneously deal with linear and nonlinear differential inclusion problems. We show that the derived higher integrability and differentiability exponent has a lower bound, which is independent of the position of the Dirichlet boundary data in $\text{int}(K^{lc})$. As applications we discuss the regularity of weak isometric immersions in two and three dimensions as well as the differential inclusion problem for the geometrically linear hexagonal-to-rhombic and the cubic-to-orthorhombic phase transformations occurring in shape memory alloys.Comment: 50 pages, 13 figure

Making the EU Citizens' Agenda Work. CEPS Policy Brief, No. 122, 9 February 2007

[From the Introduction]. It is both an honour and a pleasure to submit comments to this inquiry into the Commission’s Communication on the legislative and work programme 2007. It is vital that the work of the Commission is subject to oversight by the European Parliament and national parliaments in order to ensure proper democratic participation in the priorities and legislative programme of the Commission. In our view, the inquiries carried out by the House of Lords Committee on these issues are of fundamental importance to the operation of the EU. We would encourage other national parliaments to take the same active interest in carrying out scrutiny of activity by the Commission and other EU level actors to ensure that democratic voices from across the Union are heard. This submission addresses six areas of the Work Programme 2007 which are related to our work in the area of freedom, security and justice: 1) the ‘big agendas’, 2) strategic objectives regarding security, 3) the EU’s voice in the world, 4) managing migration flows, 5) managing the acquis and 6) connecting Europe to its citizens. We will not comment on proposals in fields beyond this sphere except to the extent that they have consequences for the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ)