Petroleum is now by far Timor-Leste’s largest source of income. If well harnessed, Timor-Leste’s petroleum wealth offers the potential for a more prosperous future. This Selected Issues paper provides an overview of how Timor-Leste’s Petroleum Fund functions. It considers...

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...

This technical note provides an overview of Mexico’s derivatives markets, and describes concisely the derivatives regulatory framework and risk management practices in financial institutions active in these markets. The most important derivatives market in Mexico is the over-the-counter...

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...

OTC derivatives markets were an increasing source of vulnerability heading into the crisis. OTC derivatives markets contributed to the financial crisis. Credit derivatives facilitated the development and growth of the structured securities markets; and the purchasing, packaging, and distribution...