The paper analyzes the macroeconomic implications of different systems of industrial relations. After reviewing the relevant literature, and analyzing cross-country evidence, the paper focuses on the experience of centralized bargaining characterizing Spain in the period 1979-86. The paper...

This study constructs an index of human capital for the Spanish labor force over the past two decades and projects it over the next decade on the basis of likely demographic developments. The methodology considers both educational attainment resulting from formal schooling and improvements in...

This paper examines credit origins of the business cycle in the former Czechoslovakia. Industrial production is found to be cointegrated with various measures of bank credit during 1976-90 and it is shown that noninvestment credits are Granger-causing industrial production and that a feedback...

While federal credit programs are varied in form, their fiscal and economic effects arise primarily from the same source—each program’s subsidy component. Recent credit reform proposals would make control of credit subsidies the primary focus of budgetary efforts. By subjecting these...

This paper surveys some of the principal monetary policy issues facing countries of the former U.S.S.R. The emphasis is on the immediate problem of imposing financial discipline in these economies, to bring down inflation quickly and decisively. Possible options for the essential nominal anchor...

Emerging markets are particularly vulnerable to boom-bust credit cycles, due to excessive capital flows, shallow equity markets, and companies'' high leverage and open FX positions. While the policy debate on how to respond to boom-bust credit cycles remains unsettled, it has been conjectured...

Many central banks have abandoned credit ceilings in favor of monetary control frameworks based on indirect instruments. In the long run, ceilings limited competition, hampered the development of a money market, and caused disintermediation. Despite the many distortions associated with the use...

This paper deals with the early stages of transformation of centrally-planned economies (CPEs) into market economies during which expectations play a key role. It focuses on the transitional phase during which the economy is not any more a CPE but has not yet become a market economy. During this...

The paper makes an assessment of the progress made in developing local debt markets in emerging Asia. Market development has been limited by hurdles confronting borrowers and lenders, current and potential liquidity providers, and insufficient support from government policies and regulations....