This paper explains the evolution of the International Monetary Fund’s mandate and discusses its role in supporting countries experiencing a macroeconomic crisis. We consider the conditionality attached to its loans and why it is convenient in some regards. Even though its operations and...

The Chinese state has integrated its economy into the neoliberal globalization of trade and investment without neoliberalizing its own financial markets, and to ensure stability, the state applies strict controls on interest rates, capital movement and the value of RMB. The Chinese state...

The global financial and economic crisis revealed institutional weaknesses and structural problems of particular Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) countries. The crisis and slowdown that followed had an impact on their relative competitiveness. Financial and economic turbulences of recent years...

The European Monetary Union is characterized by a crisis of governance, this has become more evident with the crisis of the euro which has shown the weaknesses of the European institutions and stressed the heterogeneity of member countries. The global financial crisis struck the euro area very...

One solution to the euro crisis as a debt crisis can be found in stimulating economic growth. The Troika has proposed measures to deregulate labor markets in Southern EU countries: a longer working week, relaxation of job dismissal laws, raising the age of retirement. A longer working week for...

The pedestrian narrative about the Greek financial crisis and default is that the country was fiscally mismanaged for a long time and failed to carry out needed structural reforms that could have improved economic growth prospects and enhanced the country’s creditworthiness. Therefore, a...

The pedestrian narrative about the Greek financial crisis and default is that the country was fiscally mismanaged for a long time and failed to carry out needed structural reforms that could have improved economic growth prospects and enhanced the country’s creditworthiness. Therefore, a...

The pedestrian narrative about the Greek financial crisis and default is that the country was fiscally mismanaged for a long time and failed to carry out needed structural reforms that could have improved economic growth prospects and enhanced the country’s creditworthiness. Therefore, a...

We examine changes in the corporate tax rate across the U.S. and their implications on the pricing and quantity of loans. We find an asymmetric effect on the cost of credit: loan spreads decrease by approximately 5.9 basis points in response to a one percentage tax cut, but they are insensitive...

When allocating their aid budget, development agencies need to decide whether to give outright grants or use concessional loans that blend a grant and credit element. Theory suggests that the degree of concessionality should be negatively correlated with debt sustainability. Several donors use...