The debt market in Thailand has made important strides since the financial crisis of 1997. The Thai government has made significant progress in building an orderly yield curve and is beginning to establish some benchmarks. However, more needs to be done if the government is to achieve its...

This technical note focuses on fixed income markets for Thailand. The note recommends that Thailand should begin an orderly transition from merit-based regulation of corporate issuers and institutional investors to a disclosure-based regulatory system that opens the debt market to a larger and...

The German economy has made major strides, helped by wide-ranging reforms. Greater transparency and stronger incentives for prudent action will support crisis prevention and management. The immediate priorities are preserving the integrity of the financial system and maintaining economic...

Jamaica has performed well under the Stand-By Arrangement program. Executive Directors commended that overall macroeconomic performance under the program has been encouraging. Directors welcomed the program aimed at fiscal responsibility legislation and central treasury management, public debt...

The Slovak economy showed recovery from sharp recession. Executive Directors suggested that restoring fiscal sustainability and removing unemployment while maintaining external competitiveness within the monetary union should be given priority. The fiscal consolidation strategy could be...

Compared with its U.S. and U.K. counterparts, the Labor Tax Credit (LTC) is likely to have more limited effects on incentives for primary-earners to enter the labor force, because of the smaller size of the credit. Any significant increase in the LTC to strengthen its effect on the still large...

The incentives for domestic investment in debtor countries are influenced by the terms of their external obligations and by the system of taxation utilized to provide government revenue for debt payments. It is well known that existing debt contracts could be altered to improve the incentives...

This paper explores how the tax treatment of investment and savings affects international capital flows as well as national and global welfare. Focusing on portfolio investment, it evaluates the international effects of capital income taxes in the United States and Japan. During the 1980s, these...

This paper considers the merits of reducing or eliminating some specific tax expenditure measures currently in force in the United States with a view to reducing the federal fiscal deficit. The paper starts from the observation that savings decisions in the United States are distorted and that...