Both OECD and developing economies have embarked on structural reforms aimed at dismantling regulations and reducing the extent of distortions affecting different sectors of their economies. Regardless of the marked difference, both groups have to deal with the problems of the appropriate...

What policies encourage firms to become formal? The standard approach emphasizes reducing the costs of compliance with government regulation. This is unlikely to be sufficient. Instead we need to understand compliance as a function not only of firm-level costs and benefits but also in terms of...

Both OECD and developing economies have embarked on structural reforms aimed at dismantling regulations and reducing the extent of distortions affecting different sectors of their economies. Regardless of the marked differences, both groups have to deal with the problems of the appropriate...

Both OECD and developing economies have embarked on structural reforms aimed at dismantling regulations and reducing the extent of distortions affecting different sectors of their economies. Regardless of the marked difference, both groups have to deal with the problems of the appropriate...

Between 1989 and 1993 a structural reform program was introduced in Colombia. If the reform package paled in comparison to those of other countries, it was remarkable given Colombia?s long-standing record of moving very cautiously in the reform front. The fact that the reform effort did not...

Developing countries frequently face large adverse shocks to their economies. We study two distinct types of such shocks: large declines in the price of a country’s commodity exports and severe natural disasters. Unsurprisingly, adverse shocks reduce the short-term growth of constant-price GDP...