The disproportionate increase of bank lending to households relative to businesses is a central trend in the financial sector of many countries. In this paper, we provide evidence that credit information sharing has strongly contributed to this trend. Specifically, using a sample of 25 European...

While the theoretical and empirical finance literature has focused almost exclusively on enterprise credit, about half of credit extended by banks to the private sector in a sample of 45 developing and developed countries is to households. The share of household credit in total credit increases...

This paper uses VAR techniques to investigate the potential for forming monetary unions in Eastern and Southern Africa. All countries in the sample are members of various regional economic organizations. Some of the organizations have a monetary union as an immediate objective whereas others...

Theory predicts that a fixed exchange rate regime will be abandoned after a sizable economic shock as currency devaluation could stimulate exports and output. However, devaluation is risky as the new level of the exchange rate and the rate of inflation cannot be predicted. We show that this...

In this study we examine the connection between the varied experiences of the transition countries in attracting FDI and their diverse experiences in transforming their tax structures to be consistent with a market economy. In particular, we study whether complexity and uncertainty in their tax...