The IMF Working Papers series is designed to make IMF staff research available to a wide audience. Almost 300 Working Papers are released each year, covering a wide range of theoretical and analytical topics, including balance of payments, monetary and fiscal issues, global liquidity, and...

Assiduously tracking the trends and consequences of globalization, the IMF's quarterly magazine Finance & Development has been a major forum for discussing-and dissecting-the policy options and challenges faced by governments in an era when many national decisions transcend borders. This...

Global capital flows have multiplied many times over in recent years, mainly between advanced economies but increasingly also to emerging markets, reflecting the general reduction in regulatory and informational barriers. Thus, with international asset positions now dwarfing output, global...

Capital flows to the nonindustrial countries share three striking characteristics. First, the bulk, of these flows was in the form of debt, not equity; second, the loans were mostly to, or guaranteed by, debtor governments; and third, these debts were largely bank loans, not bonds. This paper...

This paper considers the problem of allocation of investment for a debtor country that faces a ceiling on the amount of foreign debt it can accumulate. It shows that it is optimal for the debtor country to create a more open economy by favoring investment in the export sector over investment in...

This paper surveys that state of fiscal transparency in the wake of the current crisis and looks at what can be done to improve it. It examines the relationship between fiscal transparency and fiscal outcomes; reviews progress in promoting greater fiscal transparency over the past decade; considers...

The global financial crisis underscored the costs of systemic instability at both the national and global levels and highlighted the importance of dedicated macroprudential and capital flow management policies. The IMF has been assisting its members with policy advice as well as developing and...

This paper analyzes reasons for the high post-war correlations of saving and investment, both across countries and over time. It is concluded that the main reason for the observed high correlations over the recent period is probably government policy

A small macroeconomic model based on familiar theoretical considerations is developed and estimated using data from 31 developing countries. Efficient estimation techniques are used to control for country heterogeneity under the assumption of rational expectations. The estimates and the test...