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This paper examines the global imbalances in two eras of globalization. The main focus is on the medium-run factors that determine the current account balances. The results suggest that relatively rich countries with developed financial markets, high quality institutions and high proportion of dependent persons tend to run current account deficits (or lower surpluses) in both periods. On the other hand, the high initial level of net foreign assets increases the current account balance. This holds especially in the prewar period. The government budget balance has a positive effect on the current account balance in some instances. In the prewar period, the government budget balance plays the role only in the short-run, suggesting the importance of the short-run fluctuations in the current account balance. The twin deficits hypothesis plays a more important role in the second era of the globalization. However, it holds only for developing countries. These results suggest that the twin deficit hypothesis and the global savings glut hypothesis are not mutually exclusive.

"This paper examines the global imbalances in two eras of globalization. The main focus is on the medium-run factors that determine the current account balances. The results suggest that relatively rich countries with developed financial markets, high quality institutions and high proportion of dependent persons tend to run current account deficits (or lower surpluses) in both periods. On the other hand, the high initial level of net foreign assets increases the current account balance. This holds especially in the prewar period. The government budget balance has a positive effect on the current account balance in some instances. In the prewar period, the government budget balance plays the role only in the short-run, suggesting the importance of the short-run fluctuations in the current account balance. The twin deficits hypothesis plays a more important role in the second era of the globalization. However, it holds only for developing countries. These results suggest that the twin deficit hypothesis and the global savings glut hypothesis are not mutually exclusive." (author's abstract)

"This paper investigates the major sources of changes in the trade balance of seven European countries - Denmark, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Sweden - before the World War I using the structural vector autoregression analysis. The results suggest that the transitory shocks to income are the main source of variation in the trade balance, whereas the permanent shocks to income determine the changes in the income." (author's abstract)

In this article we use concentration of electoral support for individual candidates and divergence between party and electorate preferences for candidates to test hypotheses about the party-electorate relationship. We test these using data from preferential voting in Slovak general elections between 1998 and 2010. Our results suggest that low concentration is associated with parties based on ideology and high concentration with parties based on leadership. Age of the party fails to predict the concentration or the divergence. For coalitions, type of coalition matters in regard to divergence. Furthermore, we document that divergence increases with the size of the electoral support, though this seems to be true only for larger parties. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright holder.]

In this article we use concentration of electoral support for individual candidates and divergence between party and electorate preferences for candidates to test hypotheses about the party–electorate relationship. We test these using data from preferential voting in Slovak general elections between 1998 and 2010. Our results suggest that low concentration is associated with parties based on ideology and high concentration with parties based on leadership. Age of the party fails to predict the concentration or the divergence. For coalitions, type of coalition matters in regard to divergence. Furthermore, we document that divergence increases with the size of the electoral support, though this seems to be true only for larger parties.

An expanding literature on money and identity is built around the assumption that political elites deliberately use currency design to foster national identities. However, the empirical evidence in favor of this assumption has been fragmentary. Drawing on detailed primary sources we demonstrate nationalist intentions of political elites involved in currency design. We also examine how political elites use banknotes as official pronouncements on who is and who is not part of the nation and what the official attitude toward foreigners is. By tracing changes in the inclusive and exclusive messages directed at an intra-state or international audience we document that there is no connection between ingroup (national) love and outgroup (foreigners, minorities, opposition) hate. The amount of exclusive messages to outgroups culminated in conditions of perceived threat when political leaders tried to mobilize pre-existing identities to secure or maintain political power. In contrast, the officials deliberately tried to broaden ingroup boundaries in order to build international communities. Finally, we document that in the case of limited support for the new conception of identity, officials tried to depict the old and the new identity as complementary, embedding the new identity in existing discourses.