This paper examines the surprising performance of the Argentine stock market in the midst of the country’s most recent financial crisis and the role played by ADRs in Argentine capital flight. Although Argentine investors were subject to capital controls, they were able to purchase stocks with...

This paper introduces a framework of investor behavior in which investors form their expectations regarding the credibility of a prospective IMF program in reforming the financial sector characterized by domestic implicit guarantees. We examine the changes in financial sector returns in response...

We use a spatial competition based model in a two-stage game setup to assess whether equilibrium in exchange rates among the leading currencies is attainable. We show that a stable equilibrium can be reached in the case of two leading currencies, but not in the case of three. In our model,...

This paper maps cross-border financial linkages and identifies factors that drive them, contributing to the discussion on the appropriate design of a global financial safety net (GFSN). It builds on previous staff work and complements the findings of the companion paper on theaAnalytics of...

This 2009 Article IV Consultation highlights that Singapore has been severely affected by the global downturn. The collapse in external demand has led to a sharp contraction in GDP, which fell by almost 13 percent in the first quarter of 2009. Executive Directors have observed that the floating...

This paper provides an empirical analysis of Governments' decisions to sell privatised companies on both international and domestic markets in a sample of 392 privatisations in 42 countries. Political theories of privatisation find strong support in our analyses: market oriented Governments...

This Selected Issues paper on Uganda discusses the progress toward harmonization of capital account regulations and capital market integration. A unified East African Community financial market would offer several benefits to the regional economy. It would expand the opportunities for savings...

The purpose of this paper consists in assessing the extent of financial integration in European Union using the Feldstein-Horioka criterion. More precisely, we test the cross-correlation of savings and investment rates across European Union regions, using NUTS 2 data coming from Eurostat...

The staff report for the Request for a Stand-by Arrangement with officials of Ukraine discusses economic developments and policies. Assuming a global recovery in the second half of 2009, the Ukrainian economy could be back at its estimated potential growth rate by 2011. The large financing gaps...