Aid ineffectiveness, fragmentation, and volatility have already been highlighted by scholars and OECD studies. Far fewer studies have been devoted to another problem of capital flows: herding behaviour. Building upon a methodology applied to financial markets, where herding is a common feature,...

In this paper we test the impact of elections on fiscal policy in Latin American economies in comparison to OECD countries over the period 1990-2006. We find that in Latin American countries, the average primary balance declines by an amount close to 0.7 per cent of GDP during an election year,...

Latin American sovereign bonds represent a significant share of the emerging debt class (50 per cent by early 2001) and so have considerably shaped the dynamics of this market. Recent financial turmoil, contagion episodes and investors’ renewed concerns with debt default call for a better...

In this paper we aim to answer the following two questions: <I>1) has the Common Monetary Area in Southern Africa (henceforth CMA) ever been an optimal currency area (OCA)? 2) What are the costs and benefits of the CMA for its participating countries?</I> In order to answer these questions, we carry...</i>

Ce document technique a utilisé toutes les données disponibles sur la malnutrition des enfants dans les <I>Demographic and Health Surveys</I> de 20 pays. Il présente donc l’analyse la plus complète des facteurs de malnutrition en Afrique. Cette analyse suit l’approche standard qui fait...</i>

Political cycles represent a core issue for capital markets in developing and emerging countries. This paper analyses the intricate links between financial markets and emerging democracies and highlights changes in the ways analysts and investors react to political cycles in emerging markets....

Efforts to establish, test and analyse hypotheses regarding cross-country variations in women’s economic status are hampered by the lack of a readily accessible and easily used information resource on the various dimensions of gender inequality. Addressing this gap, this paper introduces the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/19/28/36223936.xls"...</a>

The paper addresses two core questions: do investment banks’ recommendations have an impact on the allocation of portfolio flows in the emerging-markets asset class? Above all, are these recommendations related to the business of investment banks? In order to answer these questions, we...

The paper focuses on relations between experts and politicians in Latin America. It is divided into three parts. The first outlines the distinctive features of the political economy of expertise in Latin America. This provides the context to the second part, which focuses on the analysis of...

OECD Members, like those of the European Union, have created a new culture of policy interdependence and mutual respect. This gives the lie to the idea that cultures are deterministic, backward-looking realities that prevent some countries from developing and help others to do so. International...