This paper assesses the consequences of implementing a joint liability debt system in a two-country small open economy model. With joint liability a default of one country makes the other participant liable for its debt. The results highlight a trade-off between the contagion risk, in the sense...

US federal transfers to individuals are large, countercyclical, vary geographically, and are often credited for helping stabilize regional economies. This paper estimates the short-run effects of these transfers using plausibly exogenous regional variation in temporary stimulus packages and...

Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain entered a period of severe economic and financial stress in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis. Their collective experience confirmed the primacy of total debt, private or public, in affecting the onset of, depth of, and recovery from economic crises. The year...

Policy makers and regulators have devoted much effort to reforms aimed at improving financial stability in response to lessons from the 2007-09 crisis. At the same time, much effort has also been directed to promoting greater financial inclusion as an enabler of equal opportunity. To some...

The aim of this note is to present and analyze subnational fiscal trends in Russia in the context of overall slowing economic growth and falling oil prices over the last few years. In particular, in 2015, GDP fell by 3.7 percent. Despite efforts to cut expenditures, the federal deficit increased...

This assessment covers the transparency of monetary policy in the Republic of Indonesia, and in particular, BI's role in the formulation and implementation of this policy. It forms part of the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) for Indonesia, which was conducted jointly by the IMF and...

The Philippine economy grew slower than expected at 3.7 percent in 2011, held back by weak public spending and external demand. In the fourth quarter (Q4), growth slightly improved at 3.7 percent. As in past quarters, growth was driven by remittance-fueled household consumption, which grew by...

The aim of this note is to present and analyze subnational fiscal trends in Russia in the context of overall slowing economic growth and falling oil prices over the last few years. In particular, in 2015, GDP fell by 3.7 percent. Despite efforts to cut expenditures, the federal deficit increased...

The Central Bank of Chile (Banco Central de Chile, BCCh) and Chile's Ministry of Finance, requested the World Bank to undertake a stand-alone Review of Standards and Codes (ROSC) module of the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMI) of the Committee on Payments and Market...

Chile has fairly developed payment, clearing, and settlement infrastructures. Sistema liquidacion bruta en tiempo real (real time gross settlement (LBTR) is largely compliant with the principles for financial market infrastructures (PFMI), and is sound from an operations perspective. ComBanc has...