Andreas Freytag

China’s exchange-rate policy has been under attack in the last years, especially in the United States. Now the critique of Beijing’s policy is coming from Europe as well, and Chinese authorities are accused of boosting its own export, at others expense, by keeping its currency below its real value. At the centre of the European criticism has been the link between China’s allegedly undervalued currency European Union’s soaring bilateral trade deficit with...

In March, 2007, the Treaty of Rome celebrates its 50th anniversary. The chief lesson from this remarkable period of European cooperation is the contribution to growth and prosperity from economic integration. The common commercial policy that emerged from this treaty has had a significant impact on European economic development. Equally important, regional liberalisation in Europe spurred multilateral trade liberalisation under the auspices of the GATT and the...

Germany’s G-8 Presidency occurs in a formative period for German foreign economic policy. It is about to step out of the post-Cold War order, but has not yet found a comprehensive strategy for global engagement. Hitherto Germany has had a flexible approach to its G-8 Presidency and neglected to form a decisive agenda that fits the G-8 structure of a limited membership. Furthermore, Germany has not been inclined to use its Presidency to link its foreign...

In this paper we empirically discuss the question whether or not debt relief in the past fifteen years has been economically rational. Analysing the determinants of debt relief our results suggest that governance quality did not play a role in the decision of creditor countries to forgive debt in the 1990s. Furthermore, even the actual debt burden of highly indebted poor countries had not been crucial for the decision whether or not debt forgiveness was granted....