The Russian banking sector includes approximately 1,000 banks, but is it competitive? This paper analyzes bank competition in Russia during 2002-2008. The authors examine indicators of concentration and contestability, and compute non-structural measures of competition. They compare competition...

This paper investigates the impact of remittances on financial inclusion. Using household-level survey data for El Salvador, we examine whether remittances affect households’ use of savings and credit instruments from formal financial institutions. We find that although remittances have a...

This paper studies the extent of bank competition in the Middle East and Northern Africa region during 1994-2008, using non-structural measures of competition such as the H-statistic and the Lerner index. Both these measures suggest that banking sector competition in the region is lower relative...

This paper investigates the impact of remittances on financial inclusion. This is an important issue given recent studies showing that financial inclusion can have significant beneficial effects on households. Using household-level survey data for El Salvador, the authors examine the impact of...

I analyze the impact of austerity on sovereign spreads. To do so I propose a model with strategic sovereign default and nominal rigidities where the government follows fiscal rules, which are estimated from data. I first analyze the theoretical implications of the model and find that austerity...

Natural disasters could constitute a major shock to public finances and debt sustainability because of their impact on output and the need for reconstruction and relief expenses. This paper uses a panel vector autoregressive model to systematically estimate the impact of geological, climatic,...

This paper proposes a measure of synchronization in the movements of relevant domestic and foreign fundamentals for choosing suitable currency for denomination of foreign debt. The selection of explanatory variables for exchange rate volatility is motivated using a New Keynesian Policy model....

This paper analyzes results of a survey on debt management strategies conducted by the Banking and Debt Management Department of the World Bank. The analysis focuses on (1) whether a public debt management strategy exists in a given country, (2) whether it is made public, and (3) in which form...

This paper acknowledges the fact that some countries have to borrow in foreign currencies due to the various constraints they face. Starting from this point, the author reviews approaches for trying to determine the currency structure for sovereign debt, and discusses some issues inherent in...