The transitional recession in countries of Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union has lasted much longer than expected. The legacy of the past and recent policy mistakes have both contributed to the slow progress. As structural reforms and gradual institution building have taken hold, the...

Argues that the effects of financial liberalization on employment and incomes often carry disturb economic and social development and that financial liberalization warrants at least as much attention as trade liberalization. Compares and weighs the potential benefits in terms of growth against...

ILO pub. Working paper on the indirect impact of multinational enterprises on employment in developing countries - considers the theoretical framework of mne's indirect repercussions on the economy of a host country, analyses effects of national income, improved competitiveness of counterpart...

Over the past few years, expenditure on private consumption rose more rapidly than incomes because private households continued to spend in spite of the reticent development of incomes. As a consequence, the propensity to save declined and remained at a steady low level in the first half of...

The Selected Issues paper describes the nexus between household wealth, saving, and consumption, and provides estimates for the medium-term path of household saving and consumption. The paper also discusses to what extent the credit market frictions are holding back Ireland's economic recovery....

This paper takes stock of the current state of development of the financial systems in five Central European transition economies (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia) that are also leading EU accession candidates. It presents both a progress report and an...

This paper examines the empirical relationship between inequality and growth, and analyzes the impacts of growth, inequality, and government spending on poverty reduction. A new panel dataset has been assembled on inequality and poverty that reduces measurement error and ensures comparability...

This Selected Issues paper for the United States discusses the microeconomics of the country—household wealth and savings. Households’ consumption-saving decisions have an important bearing on the U.S. economic outlook. This paper demonstrates how households with consistently lower...