We argue that increased foreign borrowing by the private sector reduces the risk that a developing country's government defaults on its foreign debt. We present a simple model in which private foreign borrowing reflects a surge of private entrepreneurship. A larger "entrepreneurial class" raises...

We explore the effect of foreign direct investment on economic growth in developing countries, distinguishing between mergers and acquisitions ("M&As") and "greenfield" investment. A simple model captures the key difference between the two types of FDI: unlike greenfield investment, M&As partly...

The investment decisions of small-scale farmers in developing countries are conditioned by their financial environment. Binding credit market constraints and incomplete insurance can reduce investment in activities with high expected profits. We conducted several experiments in northern Ghana in...

This review examines portions of the vast literature on rural financial markets and household behavior in the face of risk and uncertainty. We place particular emphasis on studying the important role of financial intermediaries, competition and regulation in shaping the changing structure and...

We study the impact of exchange rate risk on an exporting firm in a developing country when there is no forward market in the foreign currency. However there exists a forward traded asset in this country the price of which is highly correlated to the foreign currency. By indirectly hedging its...

A huge literature shows that childhood health and educational attainment are highly correlated. However, estimates for the effect of childhood health on educational attainment under risk generally confound the effect of liquidity constraints and of lack of insurance against risk. It is unclear...

This paper examines the role of the financial sector in renewable energy (RE) development. Although RE can bring socio-economic and environ- mental benefits, its implementation faces a number of obstacles, especially in non-OECD countries. One of these obstacles is financing: underdevel- oped...

Während sich die Entwicklungsfinanzierung in Theorie und Praxis generell mit dem Finanzwesen in Entwicklungs- und Transformationsländern befasst, steht im Teilgebiet der Microfinance die Frage im Vordergrund, wie in diesen Ländern der Zugang ärmerer Bevölkerungsgruppen und speziell von...

We analyze the link between financial development and income inequality for a broad unbalanced dataset of 138 developed and developing countries over the years 1960 to 2008. Using credit-to-GDP as measure of financial development, our results reject theoretical models predicting a negative...

Much has changed in international finance in the twenty years since UNU-WIDER was founded. This paper identifies five broad contours of what we might expect in the next twenty years: the flow of capital from ageing societies to the more youthful economies of the South; the growth in the...