The present paper reviews key issues in pension design and pension reform encountered all across the world. The paper heavily refers to the recent U.S. Social Security reform debate in general and to the Personal Retirement Accounts proposal in particular. A particular emphasis is put on...

While public financial institutions (such as public development banks) are commonly associated with developing countries, in fact they are prevalent in the developed world as well. We study a sample of public financial institutions in industrialized countries and identify dominant trends in...

This paper discusses the foundations for a medium-term fiscal framework for Bulgaria, a transition economy aspiring to join the European Union. The paper argues that a well-designed framework can help to enhance the credibility of macroeconomic policies and facilitate preparations for EU...

Increasing emphasis has been placed on the need for an effective lender of last resort for sovereign states and on procedures for sovereign debt restructuring to help cope with global financial crises. Where private creditors use short-term debt to check sovereign debtor’s moral hazard, there...

Could a high-access, quick-disbursing "insurance facility" in the IMF help to reduce the incidence of sharp interruptions in capital flows ("sudden stops")? We contribute to the debate around this question by analyzing the impact of conventional IMF-supported programs on the incidence of sudden...

Advanced economies have been experiencing diverse developments in accumulation of financial liabilities by their household and corporate sectors since around 1995. Crosscountry- industry evidence indicates that the type of the financial system and the degree of labor market flexibility matter...

This paper examines the efficiency of the different segments of India's financial system using firm-level data on corporate financing patterns. Firms are increasingly relying on external funds to finance their investment in most recent years. Empirical analyses indicate that (1) the financial...

This paper builds a multiperiod, general equilibrium framework for analyzing the macroeconomic effects of financial reforms in developing countries and the costs of maintaining official safety nets under the financial system during such reforms. While a financial liberalization yields efficiency...

In this paper we use a disequilibrium framework common in the “credit crunch†literature, first to examine whether the slow credit growth in Morocco during the rapid expansion of liquidity in the first half of the decade can be attributed to credit rationing, and second to investigate...

This paper compares the importance of precautionary and mercantilist motives in the hoarding of international reserves by developing countries. Overall, empirical results support precautionary motives; in particular, a more liberal capital account regime increases international reserves....