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Social Science > Demography

You are looking at 1 - 7 of 7 items for :

  • Type: Journal Issue x
  • Financial Institutions and Services: General x
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Cover IMF Working Papers
Measuring Digital Financial Inclusion in Emerging and Developing Economies: A New Index
Purva Khera
,
Miss Stephanie Y Ng
,
Ms. Sumiko Ogawa
, and
Ms. Ratna Sahay
Adoption of technology in the financial services industry (i.e. fintech) has been accelerating in recent years. To systematically and comprehensively assess the extent and progress over time in financial inclusion enabled by technology, we develop a novel digital financial inclusion index. This index is based on payments data covering 52 developing countries for 2014 and 2017, taking into account both access and usage dimentions of digital financial services (DFSs). This index is then combined with the traditional measures of financial inclusion in the literature and aggregated into an overall index of financial inlusion. There are two key findings: first, the adoption of fintech has been a key driver of financial inclusion. Second, there is wide variation across countries and regions, with the greatest progress recorded in Africa and Asia and the Pacific regions. This index should offer a useful analytical tool for researchers and policy makers.
Keywords:
Fintech; digital financial services; financial inclusion; financial services industry; adoption of technology; capital markets department; services play; account ownership; Mobile banking; Caribbean; Asia and Pacific; Global; Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Pandemics and Firms: Drawing Lessons from History
Mr. Serhan Cevik
and
Fedor Miryugin
The global economy is in the midst of an unprecedented slump caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. To assess the likely evolution of nonfinancial corporate performance going forward, this paper investigates empirically the impact of past pandemics using firm-level data on more than 537,000 companies from 14 developing countries during the period 1998–2018. The analysis indicates that the prevalence of infectious diseases has an economically and statistically significant negative effect on nonfinancial corporate performance. This adverse impact is particularly pronounced on smaller and younger firms, compared to larger and more established corporations. We also find that a higher number of infectious-disease cases in population increases the probability of failure among nonfinancial firms, particularly for small and young firms. In the case of COVID-19, the magnitude of these effects will be much greater, given the unprecedented scale of the outbreak and strict policy responses to contain its spread.
Keywords:
Pandemics; nonfinancial corporate performance; firm-level; WP; nonfinancial firm; firm level; liquidity pressure; sector peer; firm performance; revenue base
Cover IMF Working Papers
Reform Options for Mature Defined Benefit Pension Plans: The Case of the Netherlands
Mr. Marc Gerard
The Netherlands has been operating fully funded, defined benefit second pillar pension schemes that have consistently ranked high worldwide for delivering high replacement rates while featuring strong solidarity among members. Yet the long-term sustainability of the Dutch pension funds has been undermined in recent years by protracted low interest rates and unfavorable demographic developments, exacerbating controversies over intergenerational transfer mechanisms within the plans. This has prompted a national debate over ways to move toward more individualization while preserving financial security at retirement for all. This paper draws on this experience, illustrated by stress testing simulations and assessed vis-à-vis solutions implemented in peer countries, to discuss the main policy trade-offs associated with the reform of mature pension systems in advanced economies.
Keywords:
WP; wage; interest rate; ratio; benefit; labor market; solvency; pension funds; defined benefit plans; defined contribution plans; fully funded; pension mathematics; stress tests; solvency ratio; fixed income; benefit indexation; rate of return; risk pooling; inflation shock; industry wage development; replacement function; indexation benefit; benefit curtailment; Pension spending; Pensions; Labor markets; Aging; Wages; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Germany: 2007 Article IV Consultation: Staff Report; Staff Supplement; Public Information Notice; and Statement by the Executive Director for Germany
International Monetary Fund
The German economy has made major strides, helped by wide-ranging reforms. Greater transparency and stronger incentives for prudent action will support crisis prevention and management. The immediate priorities are preserving the integrity of the financial system and maintaining economic confidence. Policy on banking sector restructuring should be mindful of, and consistent with, the forces of international financial integration. Stepping up productivity is the key to sustaining growth. Further efforts are needed to bolster and reinforce commendable gains in fiscal outcomes.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; government; deficit; Bundesbank; labor productivity growth; staff recommendation; debt data; potential GDP; supervisory authority; GDP projection; Commercial banks; Cooperative banks; Labor markets; Aging; Employment; Global; Europe
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Republic of Korea: Staff Report for the 2006 Article IV Consultation
International Monetary Fund
Korea has enjoyed strong growth owing to rapidly increasing exports and consumption. Potential growth is slowing as the population ages, whereas social polarization is growing. Korea should implement plans to build an advanced financial system and improve service productivity by opening the sector to more competition and enhancing small firms’ access to finance. It should also address the prospective long-term deterioration of the fiscal position owing to population aging by tackling the health care and pension problems, and increase labor market flexibility.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; draft budget; soft landing; percent; percent in September; economy; staff appraisal; government policy; inflation regime's stability; Korea-EFTA free trade trade agreement; market development; Exports; Inflation; Financial sector; Current account balance; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Financial Deepening, Inequality, and Growth: A Model-Based Quantitative Evaluation
Robert M. Townsend
and
Mr. Kenichi Ueda
We propose a coherent unified approach to the study of the linkages among economic growth, financial structure, and inequality, bringing together disparate theoretical and empirical literature. That is, we show how to conduct model-based quantitative research on transitional paths. With analytical and numerical methods, we calibrate and make tractable a prototype canonical model and take it to an application, namely, Thailand 1976-1996, an emerging economy in a phase of economic expansion with uneven financial deepening and increasing inequality. We broadly replicate the actual data, test the model formally, and identify anomalies.
Keywords:
WP; growth rate; financial system; Financial deepening; inequality; growth; transitional dynamics; saving rate; value function; Thai baht; benchmark economy; parameter value; portfolio choice; population shift; Income inequality; Income distribution; Personal income; Agroindustries; Asia and Pacific
Cover IMF Working Papers
Transitional Growth with Increasing Inequality and Financial Deepening
Mr. Kenichi Ueda
We study models that display growth with financial deepening and increasing inequality along the way to perpetual steady state growth. A benchmark model is essentially a complete markets model but with transaction costs of financial intermediation. New proofs are required and thus provided for stochastic dynamic programming for the case of unbounded return functions and perpetual growth with a non-convex transaction technology. We calibrate the model and report quantitative predictions for Thailand during 1976-96. We find a discrepancy between the model and the data, suspect barriers to financial deepening as a cause, and evaluate the associated welfare loss.
Keywords:
WP; confidence interval; participation rate; Transitional growth; inequality; financial deepening; transaction costs; value function; savings rate; portfolio share; critical value; functional equation; fixed cost; capital level; Income distribution; Income inequality; Consumption; Financial sector; Asia and Pacific; population distribution; transitional value; values function; parameter value; economy data source; setting parameter