This paper examines financial sector reforms in eight developing countries--Argentina, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda--and derives general lessons from their experience. The paper reviews the initial situation of these countries; describes the financial sector (and...

The IMF Working Papers series is designed to make IMF staff research available to a wide audience. Almost 300 Working Papers are released each year, covering a wide range of theoretical and analytical topics, including balance of payments, monetary and fiscal issues, global liquidity, and...

Despite the global resolve to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation, several people across the world still have very limited or no access to basic drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. Therefore, this study primarily examined the effect of...

This study reviews policy developments in recent years and, in the light of that, explores ways in which further consensus might be reached among WTO members to reduce farm trade distortions - and thereby also progress the multilateral trade reform agenda. Particular attention is given to ways...

Purpose - This article analyses the effect of bank concentration on women's political empowerment in 80 developing countries over the period 2004-2020. Design/methodology/approach - Banking concentration (BC) is measured by the assets held by the three largest commercial banks as a percentage of...

What considerations should guide public debt policy going forward? Should debt be reduced to achieve normative anchors (such as 60 percent of GDP), should it be increased further to finance a big public investment push, or should the existing debt be serviced forever? We argue that, for...

This paper analyzes how differences in legal origin, judicial efficiency, and investor protection affect firm leverage and earnings volatility across developing countries. Using a large number of developing countries, four main findings are highlighted. First, firms in civil legal origin...

We examine the role of global and domestic shocks in driving macroeconomic fluctuations for Ghana. We are able to study the impact of exogenous shocks including productivity, credit supply, and commodity price shocks. We identify the shocks with a combination of sign and recursive restrictions...