Using time-series tests, the paper provides evidence that fiscal spending can influence long-run growth. Data on six functional categories of public spending (education, health care, social welfare, transport, justice and national defense) over the period 1950 to 1994 are examined for...

This paper tries to improve the identification of firms whose access to bank credit would be threatened by a tightening of monetary policy. It extends a simple competitive credit rationing model with limited collateral by introducing a central bank financing facility. The effects of monetary...

Workers’ remittances to developing countries have substantially increased over the past decade, both globally and in sub-Saharan Africa. They have been argued to be shock absorbers, increasing when home economies face economic difficulties and have been shown to alleviate poverty. During...

This paper investigates the determinants and the macroeconomic role of remittances in sub-Saharan Africa. It assembles the most comprehensive data set available so far on remittances in the region; it comprises data for 36 countries for 1990 through 2008, and incorporates newly available data on...

While most economists accept that, in the long run, open economies fare better in aggregate than closed ones, many fear that trade could harm the poor. African countries, for example, have realized significant improvements in trade liberalization in recent decades, yet Africa remains the poorest...