Previous research has documented weak, and sometimes conflicting, effects of legal quality on measures of firm debt. Using WorldScope data for 1,689 firms, as well as more detailed proprietary data for 315 firms across nine East Asian countries, the authors find that access to foreign financing...

The authors empirically investigate the determinants and consequences of the maturity structure of debt, using data from a panel of UK and Italian firms. They find that in choosing a maturity structure for debt, firms'tend to match assets and liabilities. They conclude that more profitable...

The authors use firm level data on Bulgaria to investigate the impact of liquidity constraints on firms'investment performance. Internal funds are a important determinant of investment in most industrial economies. The authors use a simple accelerator model of investment to test whether...

Economic policy makers traditionally hold the view that, because of imperfections in capital markets, a shortage of long-term finance acts as a barrier to industrial performance and growth. Long term finance is thought to allow firms to invest in more productive technologies, even when they do...

The present paper is the product of an effort to systematize some of the state owned enterprise (SOE) data that have become available recently. Part one of the paper begins by examining the role of SOEs on aggregate value added and investment, during the 1980-85 period in developing countries....

Over the 1980s and 1990s, GDP growth had stagnated because of oil export price volatility and natural disasters, the sacrifice of capital formation to heavy external public debt service, and incomplete and uneven structural reform. The exchange rate depreciation that proved continually necessary...

Enthusiasts for financial sector tax reform typically come either with some form of"flat tax"(including value added tax on financial services, zero taxation on capital income, or a universal transactions tax) or advocating corrective taxes designed to offset market failures or achieve other...

Few issues in modern finance have inspired the interest of both practitioners and theoreticians more than risk evaluation and management. The basic principle governing risk management in an infrastructure project finance deal is intuitive and well-articulated: allocate project-specific risks to...

The authors argue that emerging economies borrow short term due to the high risk premium charged by international capital markets on long-term debt. They first present a model where the debt maturity structure is the outcome of a risk-sharing problem between the government and bondholders. By...

Voluntary debt reduction schemes (VDR), such as debt-equity swaps (DES) or collateralized debt conversions (CDC), are bound to play a relevant role in the foreign debt strategy of highly indebted countries (HICs). This paper assesses the impact of VDR on domestic macroeconomic variables. More...