This paper examines empirical determinants of private saving for a sample of economies in Southeast Asia and Latin America over the period 1975-95. It uses panel estimations to establish relationships between private saving rates and a range of policy and nonpolicy variables. The findings show...

Austria has probably the world`s highest pension expenditures relative to its economic size, largely because of the generosity of its pension system. This paper examines the institutional setup of the Austrian pension system and projects its future development based on current policies. The...

Ensuring the involvement of private sector creditors in the resolution of sovereign debt crises is crucial to ensure an effective management and orderly resolution of those crises. A review of experience gained in past financial crises suggests that crisis management practices have been largely...

This paper details the methodological framework underlying the construction of the effective exchange rate (EER) indicators of the euro. This framework yields two sets of indicators: (i) one nominal and several real EER indices against a narrow reference group of euro area trading partners based...

This paper sheds new light on the external and domestic dimension of China's exchange rate policy. It presents an open economy model to analyze both dimensions of macroeconomic adjustment in China under both flexible and fixed exchange rate regimes. The model-based results indicate that...

Global financial regulators are currently reflecting on the nature of the insurance business. Specifically, they are trying to classify insurance into ‘traditional' and ‘non-traditional' activities, and to distinguish them from ‘non-insurance' activities. Subsequently, they will seek to...

The extremely low long-term interest rates in capital markets, to a relevant extent induced by quantitative easing, imply significant challenges for retirement saving and the stability of households' purchasing power over the long-term. The reason is that prices for the two most important...

This paper aims at providing a conceptual distinction between banking and insurance with regard to systemic regulation. It discusses key differences and similarities as to how both sectors interact with the financial system. Insurers interact as financial intermediaries and through financial...

This paper explores the problem of effective taxation at the lower end of the income scale in Germany. For the recipients of social income maintenance--currently about 1.8 million nationals--effective taxation consists not only of the explicit taxation through the tax code but also of the...

This paper presents a new concept - the global roles of currencies. The concept combines the domestic and international (cross-border) use of currencies and therefore captures the overall importance of different currencies in a globalised economy. The measure of a currency's global role is based...