• Despite post-Monterrey donor initiatives, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are underfinanced. • The revenue potential, the additionality and the speed of availability of new finance sources, and their political feasibility, are of particular importance. • On these criteria, it is...

Sovereign wealth funds have become important players in global financial markets. But their investments have repeatedly raised concerns, such as fear of industrial espionage or geopolitical threats. This paper argues that the principal motivation for setting up SWFs should put such concerns into...

Suppose a DAC donor earmarks $1 billion of taxpayers’ money for official development assistance (ODA). The donor may use two instruments as an outright grant or in combination with a market loan to produce a concessional loan of $2 billion with a percentage grant element of 50 per cent. Many...

• Advanced developing countries are increasingly encouraged to remove existing capital controls, but mixed experiences with capital account opening caution that reform must be carefully designed to increase efficiency and growth without compromising stability • A gradual dismantling of...

Poor countries are and will remain for some time vulnerable to external shocks, whether to export prices or from natural disasters. The lowest-income countries have a higher incidence of shocks than other developing countries and tend to suffer larger damages when shocks occur. For the poorest...

• The unprecedented withdrawal of foreign private capital from Asia, more than 10 per cent of GDP in the crisis countries, confronts them with a transfer problem. Creditor governments should induce their home banks into financial rescue operations to reduce moral hazard in private-sector...

• The rapid ageing of populations in the rich economies can be expected to stimulate strong growth in private funded pensions, providing a massive potential of foreign finance for developing countries. • Pension managers can reap big diversification benefits by investing on the emerging...