Based on annual data spanning the period 1968 to 2000, this paper empirically tests the proposition that growth in Guyana's foreign debt burden contributed to increases in pressure in the country's foreign exchange market. After controlling for other factors that influence changes in foreign...

We focus on the potential economic factors of tax revenue in Trinidad and Tobago and present cointegration test statistics for a second order VAR(2) based on Johansen's maximum likelihood approach. Our results suggest a positive relationship between the level of income and the tax ratio and also...

Having a title to land can be associated with increased farm output for two distinct reasons. On the one hand, access to credit may require the use of land, to which there is secure title, as collateral. The classical channel through which title affects output, however, is by increasing the...

Relatively little is known about the transmission mechanism of monetary policy in small developing countries. In such countries financial markets tend to be relatively unsophisticated hence monetary policy is likely to affect the real sector by altering the quantity and availability of credit...

Costa Rica has some concerns for the "middle income trap" stemming from her perceived weakening export competitiveness, intensifying competition in attracting FDI inflow; and apparent lack of innovation capabilities. Quantitative analyses on the impact of recent FTAs suggest only large firms...

This study measures risk and loss aversion using Prospect Theory and examines the impact of emotions on these parameters. Students’ emotions were manipulated using information on rising deaths due to drug violence in Mexico and youth unemployment and Tanaka et al. (2010) methodology was...

We propose a new measure of allocative efficiency based on unrealized increases in aggregate productivity growth. We show that the difference in the value of the marginal product of an input and its marginal cost at any plant—the plant-input gap—is exactly equal to the change in aggregate...

We use data from a Brazilian social program to investigate the existence of gender bias in intrahousehold allocations of resources. The program makes cash transfers to mothers and pregnant women in poor households. Bureaucratic mistakes, beyond the control of the applicants, have inadvertently...

This paper starts from the observation that 23% of the world’s microfinance institutions (MFIs) manage without subsidies. We examine how unsubsidized institutions cope with their social mission. Overall, the lack of subsidies worsens social performances. However, our results show that...

This paper puts forward a Bayesian version of the global vector autoregressive model (B-GVAR) that accommodates international linkages across countries in a system of vector autoregressions. We compare the predictive performance of B-GVAR models for the one- and four-quarter ahead forecast...