We argue that in an economy with downward nominal wage rigidity, the output gap is negative on average. Because it is more difficult to cut wages than to increase them, firms reduce employment more during downturns than they increase employment during expansions. This is demonstrated in a simple...

While China's growth gathered momentum in 2017, rebalancing was uneven anddecelerated along many dimensions reflecting the temporary factors behind the growthpickup. Going forward, rebalancing is expected to proceed as these temporary factorsrecede, but elevated income inequality and leverage...

The legacy of non-performing loans and high opportunity cost of government financing ofbank recapitalization impeded the efficiency of financial intermediation and are an importantpolicy issue in Vietnam. This paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the issue.An empirical analysis...

Labor markets in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are characterized by high levels of informality and relatively rigid regulation. This paper shows that these two features are related and together make the speed of adjustment of employment to shocks slower, especially when regulations are...

An attempt will be made to study the impacts of government policies on the distribution of income, paying close attention to the corresponding response of the different macroeconomic aggregates and balances. The Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) will be chosen as the working instrument. A numerical...

Gross domestic product (GDP) is the most widely used indicator from the system of national accounts. Although often interpreted as an indicator for (economic) well-being, it first and foremost monitors economic activity, and falls short of reflecting broader measures which try to capture...

We quantify the macroeconomic effects of COVID-19 for a small open economy by calibrating a SIR-multi-sector-macro model. We measure sectoral supply shocks utilizing teleworking and physical job proximity, and demand shocks with credit card purchases. Both shocks are also affected from changing...

A SAM (Social Accounting Matrix) can be an important tool for measuring a society’s activity, underlying which there are systems that can be worked upon in different ways. This tool will be presented as an alternative support for those who intervene in the policymaking process, which can be...

The proportion of added value in Korean manufacturing has remained stable without major changes since the 1990s, and the same was true for the nation’s service sector in the 2010s. But the structural change index (SCI), which measures the vitality or dynamism of industry as a whole, shows that...