Since the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were launched at Bretton Woods more than 50 years ago, and the regional development banks in subsequent decades, the world economy has changed in important respects. In considering the role of international financial institutions (IFIs),...

Changes in the role of collective action at the international level, in the international economic environment, and, most importantly, our better understanding of economics in general require that we rethink the role of international financial institutions (IFIs). For multilateral development...

This paper examines the implications of the liberalization of capital outflows in China, India, Brazil, and South Africa (CIBS) for other developing countries. It focuses on their prospects of attracting not only foreign direct investment (FDI), but also portfolio capital flows from CIBS. To...

This paper provides a brief analysis of three major questions raised in the context of the recent global financial crisis. First, how similar is the crisis to previous episodes? We argue that the crisis featured some close similarities to earlier ones, including the presence of credit and asset...

In this Policy Contribution, Jean Pisani-Ferry, takes a look at the way the IMF his gradually making its come-back from an era of crisis confidence and legitimacy. The author believes the Fund could gain a significant role as the key institution that links macroeconomic and financial...

The G20 is not just a G7 with Extra Chairs is a joint paper written by Agnes Benassy-Quere, Rajiv Kumar and Jean Pisani-Ferry (Director of Bruegel) following the International Cooperation in Times of Global Crisis: Views from G20 Countries conference in Delhi on 14th and 15th of September,...

In this timely policy contribution, Visiting Scholar Ignazio Angeloni suggests that the Pittsburgh G20 may represent policymakers' last chance at real financial market reform. He develops a shortlist of recommendations for world leaders to tackle at the summit and says that world leaders at the...

This paper revisits financial market integration in the European Economic and Monetary Union, using a threshold vector error-correction model (TVECM) for a fixed rolling window. This approach enables us to analyze the dynamics of transaction costs and detect any co-movements with (policy...

This paper has been prepared as a part of a broader Ezoneplus project that evaluates European Monetary Union (EMU) and its enlargement to prospective members in central and eastern Europe. The project is financially supported by European Commission (HPSE-CT-2001-00084). It contains the following...

This paper applies the Phillips and Sul (2007) method to test for convergence in stock returns to an extensive dataset including monthly stock price indices for five EU countries (Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK) as well as the US over the period 1973-2008. We carry out the...