The paper simulates a double-sided competitive market in temporary work permits between the U.S. and Mexico. Eligible working-age Americans would have the option of renting out their implicit work permits while Mexican workers have remunerative new opportunities. With plausible allowances for...

The paper simulates a double-sided competitive market in temporary work permits between the U.S. and Mexico. Eligible working-age Americans would have the option of renting out their implicit work permits while Mexican workers have remunerative new opportunities. With plausible allowances for...

The paper formalizes and tests the hypothesis that greater exposure to big shocks induces stronger societal responses for adaptation and protection from future big shocks. We find support for this hypothesis in various strands of the literature and in new empirical tests using cross-country data...

Most of the literature on the drivers and effects of financial secrecy on emerging economies focuses on tax avoidance, neglecting the problems of institutional arbitrage that go beyond taxation issues. This paper discusses the limits of the institutionalist paradigm that treats businesses solely...

This paper proposes an approach to guide statistical capacity building in developing countries using an analysis based on components of the World Bank’s Statistical Performance Indicator on a sample of 215 countries. The approach demonstrates the importance of expanding traditional...

This paper reviews the literature that explores the drivers and effects of financial secrecy on emerging economies. It shows that most of the research on financial secrecy has been focused on issues of tax avoidance, neglecting the problems of institutional arbitrage that go beyond taxation...

For Russian households coping with economic hardship in the wake of the recent financial crisis, the choice of survival strategy has strongly depended on their human capital. The higher a household's level of human capital, the more likely it is to choose an active strategy. What strategies have...

An analysis of a field survey to investigate household decisions about schooling in rural Pakistan suggests that hiring more female teachers and providing more primary schools for girls closer to villages will improve the chances of rural Pakistani girls entering school and staying...

In theory it is possible that a vulnerable household will never recover from a sufficiently large but short-lived shock to its income - which could explain the persistent poverty that has emerged in many transition economies. But this study for Hungary shows that, in general, households bounce...