There has been increasing concern in Canada with respect to over-regulation; and specifically to what it means to smaller entities. Seeking to advance the understanding of the impacts of regulations on the SME sector, CGA-Canada commissioned a Small and Medium-sized Entities (SME) survey, a...

This Selected Issues paper provides an overview of past growth performance and an assessment of the outlook for growth in Timor-Leste. It identifies impediments to growth and discusses policies that would contribute to the accelerated rates of growth needed to reduce poverty and unemployment and...

This Selected Issues paper paints a picture of the Indian economy that has made great strides, but has more to do to accelerate growth and reduce poverty. The paper assesses empirically whether India has entered a new phase of higher trend growth. Two alternative methodologies are used to...

It is known that government has discretionary power in providing public goods and regulating the economy. Corrupt bureaucracy with discretionary power creates and extracts rents by manipulating with the public good supply and regulations: i) by attaching excessive red tape to the public good...

This study assesses the overall impact on credit of the financial regulatory reforms in Europe, Japan, and the United States. Long-term cost estimates are provided for Basel III capital and liquidity requirements, derivatives reforms, and higher taxes and fees. Overall, average lending rates in...

This paper studies a model in which an agent considers proposing a project of unknown quality to an evaluator, who decides whether or not to accept it. First, we show that there exist instances where an agent with a better track record of producing high-quality projects should be subjected to...

Plant-derived vaccines may soon displace conventional vaccines. Assuming there are no major technological barriers undermining the feasibility of this innovative technology, it is worthwhile to generate quantitative models of regulatory burden of producing and diffusing plant-derived vaccines in...

We analyze factors driving persistently higher financial intermediation costs in low-income countries (LICs) relative to emerging market (EMs) country comparators. Using the net interest margin as a proxy for financial intermediation costs at the bank level, we find that within LICs a...

Mobilizing more revenue is a priority for sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Countries have to finance their development agendas, and weak revenue mobilization is the root cause of fiscal imbalances in several countries. This paper reviews the experience of low-income SSA countries in...

This report is an overview of the performance of the European Banking Authority (EBA) against its mandates, given economic conditions prevailing in the banking sector in the European Union (EU). Banks remain a key contributor to the EU financial and professional services industry. Outlook for...