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Business and Economics > Production and Operations Management

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 20 items for :

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  • Financial Institutions and Services: General x
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Cover IMF Working Papers
The Lack of Convergence of Latin-America Compared with CESEE: Is Low Investment to Blame?
Mr. Bas B. Bakker
,
Mr. Manuk Ghazanchyan
,
Alex Ho
, and
Vibha Nanda
In the last few decades there has been little convergence of income levels in Latin America with those in the United States, in sharp contrast with both emerging Asia and emerging Europe. This paper argues that lack of convergence was not the result of low investment. Latin America is poorer because of lower human capital levels and lower TFP—not because of a lower capital-output ratio. Cross-country differences of TFP in turn are associated with differences in human capital, governance and business climate indicators. We demonstrate that once levels of human capital and governance are taken into account, there is strong conditional cross-country convergence. Poor countries with high levels of human capital, governance or business climate indicators converge rapidly. Poor countries without those attributes do not. We show that low investment is the result of low TFP and thus GDP growth—not the cause.
Keywords:
WP; capital deepening; Economic Convergence; Growth; TFP; human capital; TFP growth; capital input; ratio rise; output indicator; Human capital; Total factor productivity; Capital productivity; Personal income; Business environment; Western Europe; South America; Global; East Asia; Southeast Asia; TFP difference; TFP level; levels in CESEE
Cover IMF Working Papers
Macro-Structural Obstacles to Firm Performance: Evidence from 2,640 Firms in Nigeria
Amr Hosny
A recent World Bank enterprise survey identified access to finance as the top constraint to Doing Business in Nigeria. In this context, the objective of this paper is two-fold: (i) study firm characteristics associated with more access to finance and export diversification; and (ii) quantify the impact of these structural obstacles on firm performance. Results suggest that (i) larger and export-oriented firms are about 40 percentage points less likely to report access to finance as a business obstacle, while firms perceiving access to finance as a constraint are, on average, about 10-40 percentage points less likely to be export-oriented diversified firms; and (ii) better access to finance and export diversification can help firm employment —as much as 80 percent higher— and capacity utilization. Results are largely robust to different specifications and estimation methods.
Keywords:
WP; firm; firm performance; export; enterprise surveys; access to credit; export diversification; Nigeria; Nigeria enterprise survey question; export orientation; survey response; firm level; Exports; Credit; Capacity utilization; Employment; Global; Sub-Saharan Africa; Business environment
Cover IMF Working Papers
Private Sector Job Creation in MENA: Prioritizing the Reform Agenda
Mr. Benedicte Baduel
,
Carolin Geginat
, and
Ms. Gaelle Pierre
This paper examines the extent to which firms in selected MENA countries reported being constrained by the business environment around the time of the Arab Spring and the extent to which these constraints affected their employment performance. The results suggest that small firms in MENA faced more structural constraints than similar firms in other regions. We also find that MENA firms’ weaker job creation can be explained in great part by the macroeconomic environment and structural constraints. Low GDP growth, falling external competitiveness, corruption, lack of access to finance and poor access to electricity are found to explain a significant part of the lack of employment growth in MENA firms compared to their peers.
Keywords:
WP; employment growth; World Bank enterprises survey; enterprise survey; firms' characteristic; credit constraint; employment performance; firm exit; firms in Mena; medium-sized firm; SMEs; MENA; Arab Countries in Transition; private sector; employment; employment creation; World Bank enterprise survey; micro firm; Job creation; Business environment; Labor productivity; Electricity; Central and Eastern Europe
Cover IMF Working Papers
Structural Reforms and Firms’ Productivity: Evidence from Developing Countries
Wilfried A. Kouamé
and
Mr. Sampawende J Tapsoba
This paper assesses the effects of structural reforms on firm-level productivity for 37 developing countries from 2006 to 2014 period. It takes advantage of the IMF Monitoring of Fund Arrangements dataset for reform indexes and the World Bank Enterprise Surveys for firm-level productivity. The paper highlights the following results. Structural reforms such as financial, fiscal, real sector, and trade reforms, significantly improve firm-level productivity. Interestingly, real sector reforms have the most sizeable effects on firm-level productivity. The relationship between structural reforms and firm-level productivity is nonlinear and shaped by some firms’ characteristics such as the financial access, the distortionary environment, and the size of firms. The pace of structural reforms matters since being a “strong reformer” is associated with a clear productivity dividend for firms. Finally, except for financial and trade reforms, all structural reforms under consideration are bilaterally complementary in improving firm-level productivity. These findings are robust to several sensitivity checks.
Keywords:
WP; standard deviation; firm-level productivity; structural reform; productivity gain; Structural Reforms; Productivity; Developing countries; firm level; growth potential; firms benefit; productivity gains; firms' characteristic; Labor productivity; Business environment; Global; Middle East; East Asia; North Africa; Central Asia
Cover Technical Notes and Manuals
A Toolkit to Assess the Consistency Between Real Sector and Financial Sector Forecasts
Sophia Chen
,
Mrs. Paola Ganum
, and
Mr. Pau Rabanal
e develop a toolkit to assess the consistency between real sector and financial sector forecasts. The toolkit draws upon empirical regularities on real sector and financial sector outcomes for 182 economies from 1980 to 2015. We show that credit growth is positively correlated with real sector performance, in particular when credit growth is unusually high or low. However, the relationship between credit growth and inflation is weak. These results hold for different country groups, including advanced economies, emerging markets and low-income countries. Combining credit growth with other variables such as house prices and the output gap helps to understand real sector outcomes. But including the financial account balance does not make a difference.
Keywords:
TNM; credit growth; price; real GDP; Macroeconomic Forecasts; Financial Forecasts; Consistency; Comovement; house price growth; credit condition; asset price fluctuation; equity price appreciation; GDP growth; Credit; Housing prices; Output gap; Financial sector; Emerging and frontier financial markets; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
United Kingdom: 2015 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for United Kingdom
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
Considerable progress has been achieved in the post-crisis repair of the UK economy. Private-sector indebtedness has been reduced, the financial sector regulatory framework has been overhauled, the fiscal deficit has been cut in half, and the employment rate has reached a record high. With the output gap now nearly closed, growth is expected to average near its potential rate of around 2¼ percent over the medium term, with inflation rising slowly from its current low levels to the 2 percent target by end-2017. However, this benign baseline is subject to risks, including those related to potential shocks to global growth and asset prices, still-high levels of household debt, the elevated current account deficit, and the degree to which productivity growth will recover. Uncertainty associated with the outcome of the forthcoming referendum on EU membership could also weigh on the outlook. Continued efforts are needed to complete the post-crisis repair, promote growth, and further bolster resilience.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; government; UK bank; holding; SDR; IMF staff estimate; infrastructure priority; information Notic system; core inflation; money market rate; Housing prices; Inflation; Productivity; Financial sector; Income; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Luxembourg: Staff Report for the 2014 Article IV Consultation
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
This 2014 Article IV Consultation highlights that with a strong policy framework, Luxembourg has weathered the crisis well and the economy is rebounding. The fiscal position remains sound, and the large financial sector has been resilient. After a shallow recession in 2012, growth reached 2.1 percent in 2013. The improving economic and financial environment in Europe drove the recovery in services exports. The outlook is for growth to firm up but without returning to its pre-crisis trend. Output is forecast to grow broadly in line with potential (2 to 2½ percent) during 2014–2019.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; government; Luxemburg; wage indexation mechanism; staff; liability positions vis-à-vis nonresident; government housing benefits policy; cost competitiveness; growth prospect; expenditure review; diversification proceeds; Financial sector; Fiscal stance; Global; Europe
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Investment Technology of Foreign and Domestic Institutional Investors in an Emerging Market
Ila Patnaik
and
Ajay Shah
The literature on the investment technology of foreign versus domestic investors has inconclusive results. This paper revisits the question, with a focus on decomposing portfolio performance into asset allocation and security selection. We document signicant differences in exposure to systematic asset pricing factors between foreign and domestic investors. A quasi-experimental strategy is introduced, for comparing security selection after controlling for diferences in asset allocation. Our results show that foreign investors in India do remarkably poorly at security selection.
Keywords:
WP; DII investment; DII ownership; firm beta; R&D company; chosen firm; firm characteristic; Institutional Investor; Foreign Investors; Domestic Institutional Investors; bottom quintile company; Asset allocation; Productivity; Asset prices; Stock markets; Production growth; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
The East African Community: Prospects for Sustained Growth
Ms. Catherine McAuliffe
,
Ms. Sweta Chaman Saxena
, and
Mr. Masafumi Yabara
The East African Community (EAC) has been among the fastest growing regions in sub-Saharan Africa in the past decade or so. Nonetheless, the recent growth path will not be enough to achieve middle-income status and substantial poverty reduction by the end of the decade—the ambition of most countries in the region. This paper builds on methodologies established in the growth literature to identify a group of countries that achieved growth accelerations and sustained growth to use as benchmarks to evaluate the prospects, and potential constraints, for EAC countries to translate their recent growth upturn into sustained high growth. We find that EAC countries compare favorably to the group of sustained growth countries—macroeconomic and government stability, favorable business climate, and strong institutions—but important differences remain. EAC countries have a smaller share of exports, lower degree of financial deepening, lower levels of domestic savings, higher reliance on donor aid, and limited physical infrastructure and human capital. Policy choices to address some of these shortcomings could make a difference in whether the EAC follows the path of sustained growth or follows other countries where growth upturns later fizzled out. 
Keywords:
WP; EAC country; EAC member; growth acceleration; EAC economy; EAC growth; Accelerated growth; sustained growth; benchmarking; East African Community; sub-Saharan Africa; EAC integration; exchange rate; private sector; common market; Exports; Financial sector; Government debt management; Productivity; Real exchange rates; Africa; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Belgium: Staff Report for the 2011 Article IV Consultation
International Monetary Fund
This 2011 Article IV Consultation reports that the vulnerability of Belgium’s sovereign debt to market pressures makes credible medium-term fiscal consolidation a priority. The 2012 budget includes sizable consolidation measures, and the government is committed to take additional measures as needed with the aim of reaching structural balance by 2015. In light of the weak growth prospects, automatic stabilizers should be allowed to operate freely around the consolidation path. There is a need to strengthen banking supervision and to implement the Basel III and Solvency II regulatory frameworks.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; ing Belgium; article IV consultation staff report; dividend; KBC; real GDP; financial market; budgetary fund; banking sector; Fiscal consolidation; Employment; Financial sector; Europe; Global