This paper examines whether recent international policy initiatives to facilitate financial rescues in emerging market countries have influenced debtors' incentives to access official sector resources. The paper highlights a country's systemic importance as a key characteristic that drives...

This paper examines whether recent international policy initiatives to facilitate financial rescues in emerging market countries have influenced debtors' incentives to access official sector resources. The paper highlights a country's systemic importance as a key characteristic that drives...

In this paper the question of whether recent international policy initiatives to facilitate financial rescues in emerging market countries have influenced debtors' incentives to access official sector resources is examined. A country's systemic importance is highlighted as a key characteristic...

Many emerging market economy (EME) financial crises in the 1990s quickly spread to other countries. By contrast, spillovers from the Argentina crisis in 2001-02 appear to have been much more limited. Why do some crises spread widely and others do not? This paper stresses the joint importance of...

We develop a model in which countries can protect themselves against shocks by subscribing to a credit union that shares the key features of the International Monetary Fund, or by self-insuring through accumulating reserves. We assess the impact of the increasing heterogeneity of the Fund's...

We develop a model in which countries can protect themselves against shocks by subscribing to a credit union that shares the key features of the International Monetary Fund, or by self-insuring through accumulating reserves. We assess the impact of the increasing heterogeneity of the Fund's...

The allocation of production across firms is a potentially important explanation of the productivity gap between rich and poor economies. Reforms to trade policy and the domestic financial sector are often both key elements of policy packages aimed at reducing productive distortions. However,...

The exponential growth of hedge funds, their role in financial crises in the 1990s, and examples of fraudulent behaviour have precipitated a heated debate over their regulatory status. The existing approaches of greater disclosure and activity restrictions appear too blunt to be effective and...