This paper constructs new indicators of liquidity for equity, bond and money markets in major advanced and emerging market countries, documents their evolution and comovements, and assesses the extent to which such measures are determinants of selected spreads and proxy measures of countries'...

Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. FINANCE, FINANCIAL STRUCTURE, AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT -- III. CROSS-COUNTRY DIFFUSION OF ICT -- IV. METHODOLOGY -- V. EMPIRICAL RESULTS -- VI. CONCLUDING REMARKS.

We study the characteristics of credit booms in emerging and industrial economies. Macro data show a systematic relationship between credit booms and economic expansions, rising asset prices, real appreciations and widening external deficits. Micro data show a strong association between credit...

We study the characteristics of credit booms in emerging and industrial economies. Macro data show a systematic relationship between credit booms and economic expansions, rising asset prices, real appreciations and widening external deficits. Micro data show a strong association between credit...

This paper examines housing finance and housing price dynamics in selected emerging Middle Eastern economies over the past two decades. It finds that (i) mortgage markets have experienced rapid development, which has led to lower private per capita consumer spending volatility this decade; (ii) a...

This paper analyzes spillovers from macroeconomic shocks in systemic economies (China, the Euro Area, and the United States) to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as well as outward spillovers from a GDP shock in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and MENA oil exporters to...

Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. MONEY AND PRICES IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA: THE PUZZLE OF THE MISSING INFLATION -- III. AN ALTERNATIVE ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK: THE FISCAL THEORY OF PRICES -- A. The Underlying Model: Standard Cash-in-Advance -- B. Multiple Equilibria -- IV. THE...

This paper assesses the state and resilience of corporate and banking sectors in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in a "higher-for-longer" interest rate environment using granular micro data to conduct the first cross-country corporate and banking sector stress tests for the MENA region....

Personal income taxes (PITs) play little or no role in the Middle East and North Africa, often yielding less than 2 percent of GDP in revenue-with the exception of few North African countries. This paper examines how PITs have evolved in recent decades, and what they might look like in the next...

This paper analyzes corporate vulnerabilities in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan (MENAP hereafter) in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic shock. Using a sample of nearly 700 firms from eleven countries in MENAP, we assess the non-financial corporate (NFC) sector's liquidity and solvency...