This paper presents rigorous and direct tests of two assumptions relating to limited commitment and asymmetric information that current underpin current models of risk pooling. A specially designed economic experiment involving 678 subjects across 23 Zimbabwean villages is used to solve the...

This paper develops a simple and practical framework for characterizing (long-run) economic growth and fluid capital accumulation under shifting technological change. The framework specifies a technological change that depends on exogenous and endogenous factors as well as the interaction...

This paper surveys the existing literature on the determinants of household savings and credit in developing countries and examines the ways in which macro-level policies might impact on household financial behaviour.

Families in developing countries face enormous financial risks from major illness both in terms of the cost of medical care and the loss in income associated with reduced labor supply and productivity. We test whether access to microfinancial savings and lending institutions helps Indonesian...

This paper investigates the feasibility of measuring the efficacy of programs designed to move welfare recipients into jobs using administrative records on individual program participation linked with state records on individual earnings. Like many states, Missouri collects quarterly earnings...

This paper studies the impact of external factors on daily exchange rates and short-term interest rates in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland during the period August 1997 – May 2001. I find that neither exchange rates nor interest rates are influenced by short-term German interest rates....

This paper investigates underlying causes of the debt crisis that only surfaced with Mexico’s unilateral moratorium on her foreign obligations in 1982. The paper investigates the evolutionary trend of LDC debt and the consequences for lenders, borrowers and the international financial system....

This paper considers the methodology of measuring replacement rates, comparing simulation based approaches, which simulate replacement rates for a representative sample of the population, with other approaches that simulate replacement rates for "typical" families or are entirely based on...

This paper deals with a case study on the social security system in a transition economy in Ukraine. The severe socioeconomic crisis in Ukraine, including a huge decline of production, hyperinflation, and the informalization of the economy, caused both a substantial reduction of social security...

The accelerated development in Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and Grid computing has positioned them as promising next generation computing platforms. They enable the creation of Virtual Enterprises (VE) for sharing resources distributed across the world. However, resource management, application...