The most widely used specification of the import demand function is that in which the quantity of imports is explained by the price level of imports, the price level of domestically produced goods, and the level of income. This paper contends that this formulation of import functions, although...

There has been considerable interest in recent years in the possibility of hardening the SDR, motivated by the desire for an international yardstick of monetary stability. This paper explores various ideas aimed at hardening the SDR in the light of the previous debate on the valuation of the...

A dynamic model of public investment, private investment, savings, and growth is developed and applied to India and Korea. The model highlights the impact of public investment on private investment and growth by incorporating the various channels of influence that public investment has on...

Is there a trade-off between raising growth and reducing inequality and poverty? This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on the complex links between growth, inequality, and poverty, with causation going in both directions. The evidence suggests that growth can be effective...

Using panel data for a large set of high-income, emerging market, developing, and transition countries, we find robust evidence that the large output loss from financial crises and some types of political crises is highly persistent. The results on financial crises are also highly robust to the...

This paper investigates the extent to which output has recovered from the Asian crisis. A regime-switching approach that introduces two state variables is used to decompose recessions in a set of six Asian countries into permanent and transitory components. While growth recovered fairly quickly...

We revisit the dramatic failure of monetary models in explaining exchange rate movements. Using the information content from 98 countries, we find strong evidence for cointegration between nominal exchange rates and monetary fundamentals. We also find fundamentals-based models very successful in...