The author applies the theme of the last two papers in the Global Economic Prospects series, written by the International Economics Department, to the case of one developing region: East Asia. He documents the rapid integration of the East Asian economies into the world economy through trade and...

This paper examines the determinants of"debt distress,"which they define as periods in which countries resort to exceptional finance in any of three forms: (1) significant arrears on external debt, (2) Paris Club rescheduling, and (3) nonconcessional International Monetary Fund lending. Using...

The authors describe the techniques and data adopted for the construction of a new series of estimates of the stock of education in 85 countries over 28 years (1960-87). It covers all the important developing regions except the republics of the former Soviet Union. The International Economics...

Despite the popularity of the term among advocates of debt forgiveness, there is little agreement on a workable definition of"odious"debts and there are but few examples where the concept has been invoked in law to justify non-payment of sovereign debts. Most often, these have been cases when a...

The authors present new estimates of long-term total factor productivity (TFP) growth for 83 industrial and developing countries for 1960-87. These estimates are based on new data developed for the research project on total factor productivity growth (and available on diskette). Although based...