This paper shows that inflation in Yugoslavia shares common elements with inflation in other highly indebted countries, despite appearances other-wise. These common elements include a large transfer of resources abroad unmatched by an internal adjustment, resulting in a large internal...

The authors compare the implementation of two apparently similar stabilization programs by two reforming socialist countries, launched two weeks apart (Dec. 1989 in Yugoslavia and Jan. 1990 in Poland). They investigate possible differences underlying the apparently similar programs that may...

The paper presents and applies an integrated framework to assess the consistency between fiscal deficits and other macroeconomic targets, in particular output growth and the rate of inflation. The model centers around the government budget constraint and can be used to either derive the...

The paper reviews alternative definitions of the non-financialpublic sector deficit. Important points giving rise to different definitions are the problem of foreign exchange losses, the appropriateness of including net government lending to the private sector and the distinction between nominal...

The purpose of the paper is to review the structure and performance of the Czech pension system and examine alternative reform options. The paper shows that in the absence of reform the deficits of the Czech pension system may exceed 8 percent of GDP in 2050. To contain these deficits the paper...

After discussing the evolution of the policy dialogue in Hungary, this report broadly describes the reform of the pay-as-you-go public pension system and its partial privatization as legislated in July 1997. Through a combination of a debt and tax financed transition, the first partial pension...

The insurance sector can play a critical role in financial and economic development. By reducing uncertainty and the impact of large losses, the sector can encourage new investments, innovation, and competition. As financial intermediaries with long investment horizons, insurance companies can...

This paper provides new evidence on the factors affecting protracted credit contraction in the wake of the global financial crisis. The paper applies panel vector autoregressions to a global panel that consists of quarterly data for 41 countries for the period 2000-2011 and documents that...

The performance of the Hungarian second pillar since inception has been mixed. This is partly due to a less than satisfactory support for the 1997 pension reform, conservative fund portfolio distributions, the hybrid nature of the mandatory pension fund system, the segmented nature of the market...

Empirical analyses of annuities markets have been limited to a few industrial countries and restricted by data limitations. Chile provides excellent conditions for research on annuities because of the depth of its market and the availability of data. The authors use a panel of life insurance...