The present paper is the product of an effort to systematize some of the state owned enterprise (SOE) data that have become available recently. Part one of the paper begins by examining the role of SOEs on aggregate value added and investment, during the 1980-85 period in developing countries....

This paper develops a two equation model for measuring how public sector deficits - and the way that they are financed - affect the real exchange rate, the trade balance, the current account and the level of external indebtedness. One equation relates the real exchange rate to the trade surplus...

The authors bring new empirical evidence on the impact of the choice of ownership and regulatory regime on firms'productivity and prices paid by consumers. They collect the evidence from a sample of electricity distribution companies in Latin America. The authors rely on estimations of labor and...

A major purpose of this essay is to provide an outline of the scope and nature of unemployment insurance (UI) programs in industrialized economies. This includes: (a) laying out their potential goals, including an analysis of the rationales for these goals; (b) summarizing the characteristics of...

Over six decades, Chile experimented with three regulatory regimes and ownership patterns for its telecommunications sectors, each with radically different investment patterns. Until 1970, Chile relied on private ownership and rate-of-return regulation, but excess demand persisted. In the 1970s,...

For almost twenty years, Pakistan's fiscal deficit, at about 7 percent of GNP, averaged nearly twice the level for Asian countries as a whole. This paper examines the causes of Pakistan's fiscal deficits. The authors examine why, despite these deficits, the country's macroeconomic performance...

The purpose of this paper is to show that Yugoslav firms have also been subjected to massive, pervasive redistribution through a soft budget constraint. To quantify such redistribution, the authors focus particulary on the redistributive effects of holding financial assets and liabilities in an...

The authors argue that traditional explanations of the fiscal crisis in reforming ex-socialist economies overlook crucial connections between key components of the deficit - particularly between reductions in spending and declines in revenues. Almost all studies of the fiscal aspects of the...

Interest rates fell sharply after Mexico's Brady deal, and private investment and growth recovered. The authors show that the main benefit of debt relief was not to lower expected payments but to reduce uncertainty. Reduced uncertainty was found to be the dominant factor in explaining the...

The author contrasts excise taxes with sales taxes, consumption taxes, licenses, stamp, duties, and other indirect taxes. He describes different types of excises, their relative tax burdens, and how progressive and economically efficient they may be. The main argument for traditional excise...