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Business and Economics > Public Finance

You are looking at 1 - 5 of 5 items for :

  • Type: Journal Issue x
  • International Economics: General x
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Cover IMF Working Papers
E-Commerce During COVID in Spain: One “Click” Does Not Fit All
Prachi Mishra
,
Alvaro Ortiz
,
Tomasa Rodrigo
,
Antonio Spilimbergo
, and
Sirenia Vazquez
The share of e-commerce in total credit-card spending boomed during Covid in Spain. In particular, women, youth, and urban consumers used e-commerce proportionally more during the pandemic, especially for services. Using a unique proprietary dataset on credit card transactions, we test conjectures about consumers’ behavior (based on fear, hoarding, or learning) during Covid. Overall, e-commerce share reverted to its pre-Covid trend as the pandemic waned. However, some consumers with lower pre-Covid e-commerce usage tend to permanently use more e-commerce, supporting the conjecture of “learning by locking” for these individuals.
Keywords:
e-commerce; Covid; learning; e-commerce share; aggregate consumption e-commerce; Covid trend; share of e-commerce; Covid e-commerce usage; COVID-19; Consumption; Total expenditures; Europe
Cover IMF Working Papers
E-commerce During Covid: Stylized Facts from 47 Economies
Alberto Cavallo
,
Ms. Prachi Mishra
, and
Mr. Antonio Spilimbergo
We study e-commerce across 47 economies and 26 industries during the COVID-19 pandemic using aggregated and anonymized transaction-level data from Mastercard, scaled to represent total consumer spending. The share of online transactions in total consumption increased more in economies with higher pre-pandemic e-commerce shares, exacerbating the digital divide across economies. Overall, the latest data suggest that these spikes in online spending shares are dissipating at the aggregate level, though there is variation across industries. In particular, the share of online spending in professional services and recreation has fallen below its pre-pandemic trend, but we observe a longer-lasting shift to digital in retail and restaurants.
Keywords:
COVID-19; Technological Change; consumption; digitalization; e-commerce; IMF working paper research Department; e-commerce share; COVID trend; data from Mastercard; spending share; COVID-19; Consumer credit; Consumption; Tourism; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Measuring Social Unrest Using Media Reports
Mr. Philip Barrett
,
Maximiliano Appendino
,
Kate Nguyen
, and
Jorge de Leon Miranda
We present a new index of social unrest based on counts of relevant media reports. The index consists of individual monthly time series for 130 countries, available with almost no lag, and can be easily and transparently replicated. Spikes in the index identify major events, which correspond very closely to event timelines from external sources for four major regional waves of social unrest. We show that the cross-sectional distribution of the index can be simply and precisely characterized, and that social unrest is associated with a 3 percentage point increase in the frequency of social unrest domestically and a 1 percent increase in neighbors in the next six months. Despite this, social unrest is not a better predictor of future social unrest than the country average rate.
Keywords:
WP; Arabic language; appendix E; political science; Social Unrest; Protest; Media; unrest events; RSUI event coding; terms OR; RSUI index; country-horizon pair; statistical analysis; RSUI data; Public expenditure review; Middle East; North Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa; South America
Cover IMF Working Papers
Assessing IMF Lending: a Model of Sample Selection
Nicolas Mäder
,
Jean-Guillaume Poulain
, and
Julien Reynaud
Extending previous work on the determinants of IMF lending in an interconnected world, we introduce a model of sample selection in which both selection and size dimensions of individual IMF arrangements are presented within a unified econometric framework. We allow for unobserved heterogeneity to create an additional channel for sample selection at the country level. The results suggest that higher external financing needs, larger exchange rate depreciation, lower GDP growth, as well as deteriorated global financial conditions, are associated with larger individual IMF arrangement sizes. Using the estimated parameters, Monte Carlo simulation of a wide spectrum of global shock scenarios suggest that the distribution of potential aggregate IMF lending exhibits a substantial right tail. Our approach may provide an insightful input to broader policy discussions on the adequacy of the IMF resources.
Keywords:
WP; IMF lending
Cover IMF Working Papers
Working Paper Summaries (WP/94/77 - WP/94/147)
International Monetary Fund
Authors of Working Papers are normally staff members of the Fund or consultants, although on occasion outside authors may collaborate with a staff member in writing a paper. The views expressed in the Working Papers or their summaries are, however, those of the authors and should not necessarily be interpreted as representing the views of the Fund. Copies of individual Working Papers and information on subscriptions to the annual series of Working Papers may be obtained from IMF Publication Services, International Monetary Fund, 700 19th Street, Washington, D.C. 20431. Telephone: (202) 623-7430 Telefax: (202) 623-7201 This compilation of summaries of Working Papers released during July-December 1994 is being issued as a part of the Working Paper series. It is designed to provide the reader with an overview of the research work performed by the staff during the period.
Keywords:
WP; country; capital; market; economy; reform; panel data base; environment tax; GDP ratio; training-supply externality; industry trade; Real exchange rates; Human capital; Inflation; Asset prices; Stock markets; Europe; Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa; Central and Eastern Europe; Eastern Europe