Women are disadvantaged relative to men, according to key economic, social, and political measures of equality, but in many areas, such as education, differences are narrowing. The concept of externalities underlies the arguments for including gender considerations in budget programs and...

This paper surveys the foreign exchange markets, money and secondary government security markets, and stock exchanges in 107 smaller economy countries. The underdevelopment of these markets impedes risk transfer, monetary policy, corporate financing, and the capacity to absorb capital inflows....

This paper examines the concept of gender-responsive government budgeting, promoted in recent years by women's nongovernmental organizations, academia, and multilateral organizations, and the extent of its implementation by national governments in both advanced and developing countries. Owing to...

The Selected Issues paper provides an overview of trends, performance export growth, value added, and employment, account of the structure and evolution of Lesotho's textiles during the decade through 2002, and discusses future prospects and key issues. It analyzes the implications of the...

This Selected Issues paper on Morocco analyzes Morocco’s growth performance over the past thirty-five years with a special focus on the more recent past. The paper presents stylized trends in growth; it first puts the overall growth performance of Morocco in an international perspective,...

This 2004 Article IV Consultation highlights that economic growth in New Zealand slowed in early 2003 but rebounded in the latter part of the year. Real GDP growth declined from 4¼ percent in 2002 to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 2¾ percent in the first half of 2003, amid...

This 2002 Article IV Consultation highlights that in 2001, overall real growth for Kuwait fell slightly as oil output dropped following OPEC-mandated production cuts. The real non-oil GDP growth decelerated to 0.5 percent from 1 percent in 2000 as the private sector investment remained broadly...

Kuwait’s 2005 Article IV Consultation reports that the economic and financial positions are projected to remain strong mainly on the expectation that world oil prices will decline only gradually. Reflecting sharply higher oil prices and production, economic conditions improved...

The recent wave of foreign investment in China's banks and the prospects of further opening of the banking sector under the WTO agreement suggest that foreign banks are likely to play an increasingly important role in China. This paper takes stock of the involvement of foreign banks in the...

We analyze a unique data set and uncover a remarkable result that casts a new light on the home bias phenomenon. The data are comprehensive, security-level holdings of emerging market equities by U.S. investors. We document, as expected, that at a point in time U.S. portfolios are tilted towards...