One plausible mechanism through which financial market shocks may propagate across countries is through the effect of past gains and losses on investors'' risk aversion. We first present a simple model on how heterogeneous changes in investors'' risk aversion affect portfolio decisions and stock...

In most macroeconomic models, the substitutability between domestic and foreign goods is calibrated using aggregated data. This imposes homogeneous elasticities across goods, and the calibration is only valid under this assumption. If elasticities are heterogeneous, the aggregate...

This Selected Issues paper presents a short history of the development of the financial sector of Luxembourg, highlighting the strong influence of tax and regulatory advantages for its past development. It describes the structure of the banking sector today and summarizes plans for harmonizing...

On March 22, 2017, the Executive Board adopted the Guidelines for Investing PRG, PRG-HIPC, and CCR Trust Assets (the 'Guidelines') to establish the investment objectives and policies to guide the investment of assets of the PRG, PRG-HIPC, and CCR Trusts (the'Trusts') which are available for...

Guidelines for Investing PRG, PRG-HIPC, and CCR Trust Assets (the "Guidelines"), which were adopted on March 22, 2017, were further amended on January 12, 2022, by the Executive Board of the IMF. The Guidelines establish the investment objectives and policies to guide the investment of assets of...

This paper compares the SDR in terms of its risk-return characteristics relative to those of its five components and, on this basis, finds that the SDR has performed favorably over the period under review. In addition, several efficient portfolios including the SDR and its components are...

This study analyzes the impact of regional cross-listing of stocks on the depth of the stock markets in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It analyzes data from 1990 to 2007 for a panel of 13 stock markets in SSA countries, only some of which have regional cross-listings. Using event study methodology,...

In recent years, the IMF has released a growing number of reports and other documents covering economic and financial developments and trends in member countries. Each report, prepared by a staff team after discussions with government officials, is published at the option of the member country.

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...

This paper presents an update to the Financial System Stability Assessment on Morocco. Major reforms have been achieved since the 2002 Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) within a policy of actively promoting economic and financial sector opening. The 2002 FSAP recommendations have been...