This note is on Korea’s transition to a knowledge-based economy, the prospects and challenges ahead, and the development of its financial sector. Assessment of recent government initiatives to develop capital markets has been presented. The note discusses restrictions on Chaebol ownership...

This 2009 Article IV Consultation highlights that the global financial crisis, which began to affect the economy of San Marino in the second half of 2008, is likely to continue to do so in 2009–10. Short-term vulnerabilities in the financial sector have risen owing to exposure of the...

Many arguments that have been advanced in favor of maintaining capital controls within the EC have not paid sufficient attention to the welfare consequences of this type of market intervention. Our paper provides a simple, optimizing framework in which the welfare consequences of capital...

The paper proposes a new welfare-based measure to evaluate the distributive effects of public programs. The proposed measure differs from traditional approaches in two important ways: first, it is based on life-cycle considerations, since most public expenditure programs have an intertemporal...

In addition to transferring about 16 percent of GDP from exporters to importers, Uzbekistan’s quasi-fiscal multiple exchange rate regime generates identifiable welfare losses of 2-8 percent of GDP on import markets and up to 15 percent on export markets. These excess burdens have increased...

This paper discusses the 59th issue of the By-Laws and Rules and Regulations of the IMF. The By-Laws are adopted under the authority of, and are intended to be complementary to, the Articles of Agreement of the IMF. The Rules and Regulations supplement the Articles of Agreement and the By-Laws...

Banks will want to influence the bank regulator to favor their interests, and they typically have the means to do so. It is shown that such ""regulatory capture"" in banking does not imply ineffectual regulation; a ""captured"" regulator may impose very tight, costly prudential requirements to...

This paper was originally prepared for a seminar of the Executive Board of the Fund. In the seminar, Executive Directors expressed a broad range of views with regard to both the adequacy of the Fund's approach to financial programming and the validity of the analysis presented in this paper

Considers possible adjustments in the design of Fund-supported programs, drawing on the experience of low-income countries that have successfully addressed the most apparent domestic macroeconomic imbalances