The Netherlands' pension system is characterized by high participation rates, adequate retirement income, strong capitalization and sustainability. Pressure points are arising, however, due to population aging and untransparent intergenerational transfers inherent in the system. Moreover, the...

This paper employs unique tax administrative data and operational audit information from a sample of approximately 7,500 self-employed U.S. taxpayers to investigate the effects of operational tax audits on future reporting behavior. Our estimates indicate that audits can have substantial...

Emerging economies have high shares of self-employed individuals running owner-only firms who, in contrast to many salaried firms, have little access to formal financing and therefore rely on informal financing (input credit) from other firms. We build a small open economy real business cycle...

Countries in the MENAP and CCA regions have the lowest levels of financial inclusion of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the world. The paper provides empirical evidence on the drivers of SME access to finance for a large sample of countries, and identifies key policy priorities for these...

Gender gaps in womens' economic opportunities-labor market and entrepreneurship-have remained high inIndia. Lack of adequate collateral limits women entrepreneurs' ability to access formal finance, leaving them torely on informal sources, constraining their growth. A small-open economy DSGE...

This paper presents and discusses the estimates of the present value of corporate profits in the United States from 1984 to 2018. To value the expected income stream, it uses the long-range forecasts of professional forecasters for pre-tax corporate earnings and long-term Treasury note yields,...

The paper uses both macro- and micro-level data to assess how has the financial health of the Irish non-financial corporate (NFC) sector changed in the post financial crisis period. The analysis suggests that vulnerabilities have generally declined in recent years, but the NFC sector and...

Understanding the interplay between firms' balance sheets and the macro-economic environment is important for understanding of the Brazilian economy. A close examination of developments in the nonfinancial corporate sector up to the early 2015 reveals weak equity growth, declining profitability,...

The paper investigates EU banks' profitability through the recent financial cycle using banklevelbalance sheet and income statement data. We find that banks that were more successfulat protecting their profits had a less pronounced deterioration in loan quality and a largerimprovement in cost...