This technical note focuses on fixed income markets for Thailand. The note recommends that Thailand should begin an orderly transition from merit-based regulation of corporate issuers and institutional investors to a disclosure-based regulatory system that opens the debt market to a larger and...

The literature stresses the importance of financial market characteristics in determining the supervisory architectures. In the real world it is not always clear to what extent market features are taken into account. We present two complementary approaches to gain insights in the above...

Statistical measures of the volatility of exchange rates, interest rates, and stock prices are estimated for a number of countries. Periods of high volatility are identified and compared with periods of financial difficulty. The results indicate that GARCH models of volatility could be...

In this paper, we assess the macroeconomic determinants of stock market capitalization in a panel of 17 countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, including both hydrocarbon-rich countries and economies without sizeable natural resource wealth. In addition to traditional variables, we...

This paper discusses the experience of the EU's eight new member countries (EU8) between 1995 and 2003 when the bulk of capital account liberalization took place, focusing on interest-rate-sensitive portfolio flows and financial flows. It takes stock of the lessons from capital flow patterns to...

This 2007 Article IV Consultation highlights that Switzerland’s economy is performing well. The expansion moved into its fourth year with above average growth and employment, and few signs of inflation. This favorable outcome can be traced to a vibrant external environment, including in...

The literature on optimal fiscal policy finds that highly volatile real returns on government debt, for example through surprise inflation, have very low costs. However, policymakers are almost always very apprehensive of this option. The paper discusses evidence concerning features of...

The staff report for the Third Review under the Stand-By Arrangement and request for establishment of performance criteria focuses on Peru’s economic developments, outlook, and program for 2006. The Peruvian economy continues to perform well. Fiscal transparency has been increased,...

In this paper, we examine the ability of the contingent claims approach (CCA) to identify corporate sector and economy-wide vulnerabilities. We apply the Moody's MfRisk model, which uses aggregated CCA principles, to assess vulnerabilities retroactively in two historical country cases. The...

This article investigates how financial development helps to reduce poverty directly through the McKinnon conduit effect and indirectly through economic growth. The results obtained with data for a sample of developing countries from 1966 through 2000 suggest that the poor benefit from the...