Temporary crediting of carbon storage is a proposed instrument that allows entities with emissions reductions obligations to defer some obligations for a fixed period of time. This instrument provides a means of guaranteeing the environmental integrity of a carbon sequestration project. But...

Risk shifting and incomplete contracting lie at the heart of the agency relationship inherent in the procurement and financing of large-scale projects such as power plants, oil and gas pipelines, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities. Resolving this agency problem is critical in structuring...

The macroeconomic impact of commodity windfalls has provided fertile ground for research since the 1970s. Particularly affected are developing countries that rely heavily on commodity exports. in the case of oil windfalls, cross-country experience is vast: Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nigeria,...

The authors investigate what has motivated the large portfolio flows to several developing countries in recent years. Using monthly data on U.S. capital flows to nine Latin American and nine Asian countries (instead of monthly reserves data), they analyze the behavior of bond and equity flows to...

Does risk perpetuate poverty in a credit-constrained economy? Jalan and Ravallion study portfolio and other behavioral responses to measured risk using household panel data for rural China. One-quarter of wealth is held in unproductive liquid forms. But only a small share of this appears to be a...

The author evaluates the costs and benefits of debt and debt service reduction (DDSR) from the point of view of five countries that have concluded Brady deals: Costa Rica, Mexico, the Philippines, Uruguay, and Venezuela. He concludes that, contrary to widely held views, commercial banks have...

The author uses a linear programming technique (data envelopment analysis) to estimate the inefficiencies of banks in Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and, Thailand. He applies this technique to the pre-crisis period 1992-96. Assessing a Bank's overall performance...

In the long run, sound, efficient securities markets can contribute to economic growth; in the short run, they play an important role in financial liberalization. The author provides a guide to issues involved in institutional and regulatory reform of securities markets - and a discussion of the...

The authors developed a framework for analyzing the relationship between domestic financial markets and the effects of trade liberalization and applied it to Sri Lanka's experience between 1977 and 1987. They found that the domestic financial market significantly affects the outcome of trade...

The increased volatility of exchange rates, interest rates, and primary commodity prices over the past two decades has highlighted the importance for developing countries of managing these risks. Asset and liability management - a risk-management technique to systematically control price risks...