The developing countries are caught in the cleft stick of assertion of national interests and independence, on one side, and need for an improved investment climate to attract foreign direct investment, on the other. The question facing the foreign firms is how they can safeguard their capital...

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has been officially in business since January 19, 1971. Its major purpose is to reorganise and widen the scope of programmes for the promotion of US private investment overseas in developing countries.

Cross-country regressions suggest little connection from foreign capital inflows to more rapid economic growth for developing countries and emerging markets. This suggests that the lack of domestic savings is not the primary constraint on growth in these economies, as implicitly assumed in the...

Die hohe Auslandsverschuldung zwingt viele Entwicklungsländer, ausländische Kredite durch heimische Ressourcen zu ersetzen. Entsprechend gewinnt die Mobilisierung von zusätzlichem inländischen Sparkapital für die Entwicklungsfinanzierung an Bedeutung. In der Literatur, die sich mit den...

The paper describes and evaluates unemployment insurance savings accounts (UISAs) - a relatively new and not well-known way of providing unemployment benefits. The UISAs reduce work disincentives by allowing recipients to keep their own unused unemployment contributions, and offer the...

Many financial institutions in developing countries offer savings products. Yet, little has been done to assess systematically and quantitatively the relative merits of different product designs. This paper first examines different designs that provide incentives to clients to commit to save....

We investigate the role of budget balances, financial development and openness, in the evolution of global imbalances. Financial development or the lack thereof has received considerable attention as a possible contributing factor to the development of persistent and expanding current account...