The authors examine the short- and long-run effects of financial liberalization on capital markets. To do so, they construct a new comprehensive chronology of financial liberalization in 28 developed and emerging economies since 1973. The authors also construct an algorithm to identify booms and...

The insurance sector can play a critical role in financial and economic development. By reducing uncertainty and the impact of large losses, the sector can encourage new investments, innovation, and competition. As financial intermediaries with long investment horizons, insurance companies can...

The author examines five major industrial countries'portfolio investment in developing countries to learn if institutional investors are significant investors in emerging developing countries. The data reveals considerable divergence in the pattern of outward portfolio flow for the industrial...

Financial sector development is a critical area of effective social protection policy. A well-regulated financial sector can complement government efforts to keep households from falling into poverty - by supplying the instruments needed to pool risks, or to self-insure against losses because of...

Financial conglomerates are groups of financial institutions related by ownership or control. Specific regulatory and supervisory issues arise when financial services -- such as commercial and retail banking, securities underwriting and trading, investment management, and insurance underwriting...

Despite the intense debate on the advantages and disadvantages of adopting integrated supervision that has taken place in recent years, little is known about the experiences of countries that have adopted it and the obstacles and challenges they have faced to implement it. In an attempt to shed...

The author evaluates three approaches to regulating market risk in banks on the basis of efficiency, competitive neutrality, and effectiveness in regulation. Each approach is judged on how well it fulfills the aims of regulation without overburdening the financial system with the cost of...

This paper is a brief history of financial regulation. The removal and relaxation of controls on credit and interest rates in the 1980s and the growing emphasis on prudential controls is highlighted. Three criteria for evaluating financial regulation and structure are discussed: (1) stability,...

Temporary crediting of carbon storage is a proposed instrument that allows entities with emissions reductions obligations to defer some obligations for a fixed period of time. This instrument provides a means of guaranteeing the environmental integrity of a carbon sequestration project. But...

This paper points out that Governments are facing increasing fiscal risks and uncertainties. Two of the reasons for this situation are: first, the international integration of financial markets, which has meant greater volumes and volatility of cross-border flows of private capital; and, second,...