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Business and Economics > Public Finance

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 56 items for :

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Cover IMF Staff Papers
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 57, No. 1
International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
Do highly indebted countries suffer from a debt overhang? Can debt relief foster their growth rates? To answer these important questions, this article looks at how the debt-growth relation varies with indebtedness levels, as well as with the quality of policies and institutions, in a panel of developing countries. The main findings are that, in countries with good policies and institutions, there is evidence of debt overhang when the net present value of debt rises above 20–25 percent of GDP; however, debt becomes irrelevant above 70–80 percent. In countries with bad policies and institutions, thresholds appear to be lower, but the evidence of debt overhang is weaker and we cannot rule out that debt is always irrelevant. Indeed, in such countries, as well as in countries with high indebtedness levels, investment does not depend on debt levels. The analysis suggests that not all countries are likely to profit from debt relief, and thus that a one-size-fits-all debt relief approach might not be the most appropriate one.
Keywords:
SP; growth country; capital flow; resource revenue; asterisked country; sub-Saharan Africa country; Domestic debt; Capital flows; Consumption; Debt burden; Private capital flows; Sub-Saharan Africa; Africa; Global; East Asia; Europe
Cover IMF Staff Papers
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 55, No. 1
International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
In this issue, a team of economists look at approaches to modeling the use of IMF resources in order to gauge whether the recent decline in credit outstanding is a temporary or permanent phenomenon. Era Dabla-Norris and Gabriela Inchauste examine what drives the growth of firms, with a focus on informality and regulations. Evan Tanner and Issouf Samake use a vector autoregression approach to examine the probabilistic sustainability of public debt in Brazil. Mexico, and Turkey. And Rachel Glennerster and Yongseok Shin ask whether transparency pays?that is, does the frequency and accuracy of macroeconomic information released to the public lead to lower borrowing costs in sovereign debt markets?
Keywords:
SP; debt ratio; price; informal firm; wage bill; firm growth; article IV report; export price; Financial statements; Credit; Credit risk; Export prices; Global; Africa; Central Asia; Central and Eastern Europe; Europe
Cover IMF Staff Papers
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 54, No. 1
International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
This is the first issue of IMF Staff Papers published under a special partnership between the IMF and Palgrave Macmillan. Very little will change with regard to the journal's visual appearance, though significant service quality enhancements (e.g., an on-line interactive edition) will rollout before the end of 2007. For more information and regular updates, please access http://www.palgrave-journals.com/imfsp/index.html.
Keywords:
SP; forecast error; distance coefficient; commodity price shock; core inflation measure; adjustment effort; Commodity price shocks; Inflation; Employment; Commodity price fluctuations; Employment rate; Central and Eastern Europe; Western Hemisphere; Middle East; Africa; Asia and Pacific
Cover IMF Staff Papers
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 54, No. 3
International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
This issue features a timely paper by Vladimir Klyuev and Paul Mills on the role of personal wealth and home equity withdrawal in the decline in the U.S. saving rate. Lusine Lusinyan and Leo Bonato explain how work absence in 18 European countries affects labor supply and demand. And a paper by Paolo Manasse (University of Bologna) entitled "Deficit Limits and Fiscal Rules for Dummies" examines fiscal frameworks.
Keywords:
SP; central bank; sickness absence; saving rate; balance sheet; deficit limit; reaction function; deficit-output ratio; Commodity markets; Employment; Income inequality; Labor market regulations; Housing; Europe; Middle East; Sub-Saharan Africa; Global
Cover IMF Staff Papers
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 53, No. 3
International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
This is the final issue for 2006 (Volume 53), and contains another paper in the occasional Special Data Section that seeks to measure financial development in the Middle East and North Africa by utilizing a new database. The issue also contains a comment from Jacques J. Polak on parity reversion in real exchange rates.
Keywords:
SP; government; IMF country economists' desk; equilibrium rate; trading friction; demand and supply factor; PPP reversal; Financial sector development; Fiscal stance; Consumption; Fiscal stabilization; Commercial banks; Africa; North Africa; Middle East; East Africa; Global; Subnational government borrowing; position of the IMF
Cover IMF Staff Papers
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 53, No. 1
International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
This first issue for 2006 is anchored by two papers on Russia. The opening paper discusses Russia and the World Trade Organization, and the concluding paper, by John Odling-Smee (former Director of the IMF's European II Department), presents a comprehensive and authoritative history of the IMF's relations with Russia during the 1990s. Other articles in this issue cover rent-seeking behavior, estimations of government net capital stocks, and three papers cover different aspects of exchange rates.
Keywords:
SP; rent seeking; net exporter; rent seeker; exchange rate shock; capital stock estimate; economic policy; Real exchange rates; Exchange rates; Exchange rate arrangements; Stocks; Purchasing power parity; Western Hemisphere; Global; Baltics; Middle East; Eastern Europe
Cover IMF Staff Papers
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 52, No. 3
International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
This last issue for 2005 comprises seven new papers, including a contribution to the journal's occasional Special Data Section about domestic debt markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, and also an in-depth look at the internal job market for entry-level economists at the IMF. The remaining articles cover toics as diverse as: modeling of asset markets, exchange rates in developing countries, international bank claims on Latin America, the effectiveness of "early warning" systems, and the use (by emerging market countries) of the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS).
Keywords:
SP; eps; preference matrix; bank claim; Policy credibility; Bank of Japan's financial structure; international economics; SDDS subscription; Foreign banks; Early warning systems; Domestic debt; Real exchange rates; Foreign currency exposure; Africa; Asia and Pacific; Sub-Saharan Africa; Global; Central and Eastern Europe
Cover IMF Staff Papers
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 52, No. 2
International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
This paper examines contractionary currency crashes in developing countries. It explores the causes of India’s productivity surge around 1980, more than a decade before serious economic reforms were initiated. The paper finds evidence that the trigger may have been an attitudinal shift by the government in the early 1980s that, unlike the reforms of the 1990s, was pro-business rather than pro-market in character, favoring the interests of existing businesses rather than new entrants or consumers. A relatively small shift elicited a large productivity response, because India was far away from its income possibility frontier.
Keywords:
SP; central bank; inflation objective; balance of payments crisis; economic growth rate; central bank profitability; central bank recapitalization; household investment; Fiscal stance; Consumption; Financial statements; International reserves; Capital adequacy requirements; East Asia; Middle East; Sub-Saharan Africa; Australia and New Zealand; Global
Cover IMF Staff Papers
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 50, No. 3
Mr. Robert P Flood
This paper analyzes the issue of purchasing power parity using real effective exchange rate (REER) data for 20 industrial countries in the post-Bretton Woods period. The serial correlation-robust median-unbiased estimator yields a cross-country average of half-lives of deviations from parity of about eight years, with the REER of several countries displaying permanent deviations from parity. The paper analyzes integration of Africa into world trade. The high-yield spread as a predictor of real economic activity is also examined.
Keywords:
SP; quota license; trade; stabilization policy; quota price; cost allocation; government cost; Real exchange rates; Purchasing power parity; Currency crises; Real effective exchange rates; Privatization; Africa; East Asia; Global; Sub-Saharan Africa; Europe
Cover IMF Staff Papers
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 48, Special Issue, Transition Economies, How Much Progress?
Mr. Richard D Haas
,
Mr. Oleh Havrylyshyn
, and
Ms. Ratna Sahay
This chapter is the collection of eight papers on different aspects of the first 10 years of economic transition. Transition issues have appeared initially quite controversial. There have been controversies on the speed of reforms, privatization methods, the role and organization of government, the kind of financial system needed, etc. Although these controversies often have been ideological, they also reflect to a large extent the initial ignorance and unpreparedness of the economics profession with respect to the large. Resident representatives in transforming economies have had a unique opportunity to witness and participate in one of the most interesting and challenging events of the economics profession in the past 50 years: the transformation of centrally planned economies into market-based systems. The job is intellectually fascinating, frequently extremely rewarding, occasionally frustrating, however, never boring. The decline in cash revenue in Russia has been the key macroeconomic policy failure of the transition. This paper argues that the fall in cash compliance emerged when money printing was replaced with a method of budget financing that did not, in the short run, compromise the government's goals of low inflation, a stable exchange rate, and low interest rates, but which ultimately has led the government into a low cash revenue trap.
Keywords:
SP; market economy; firm; transition economy; investment; CIS country; state firm; cash revenue; Foreign direct investment; Privatization; Portfolio investment; Currencies; Inflation; Europe; Central and Eastern Europe; Baltics; East Asia; Central Asia and the Caucasus