We ?nd a curious negative casual relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and total factor productivity growth (TFPG) across the world for the period 1996-2009. The relationship is robust to speci?cations in which we instrument for FDI using lagged values and geography variables as...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) plays a substantial regulatory role in the international monetary and financial system. The IMF has been assigned a formal regulatory role in a limited number of areas such as obligations covering exchange rate policies. The Fund has a broader informal...

This paper develops a modest proposal for introducing final outcome indicators in the IDA aid allocation formula. It starts with a review of the current formula and the rationale for it. It is argued that this formula, and in particular the Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) part...

The main objective of this paper is to provide estimates of the cost of moving out of subsistence for Madagascar's farmers. The analysis is based on a simple asset-return model of occupational choice. Estimates suggest that the entry (sunk) cost associated with moving out of subsistence can be...

Resume des principales conclusions et compte rendu des travaux. Reunion de Washington dur les Perspectives de la Cooperation avec le Sahel au sein de l'Afrique de l'ouest, 8 et 9 avril 1997

Cette etude s'inscrit dans le cadre d'une reflexion sur l'impact de l'aide alimentaire du point de vue des beneficiaires, initiee lors de la reunion du Reseau de Prevention des Crises Alimentaires au Sahel de novembre 1994. Par ailleurs, elle complete aussi les travaux menes actuellement sur les...

Compte rendu de la reunion annuelle du Reseau de prevention des crises alimentaires au Sahel, Rome (Italie), 28-29 novembre 1996

For Africa, a regional customs union is unlikely to realise net welfare gains (in the sense of trade creation dominating trade diversion) which cannot be attained through unilateral trade liberalization. Unilateral reform has often failed in Africa, however. A regional customs union tied to...

Using a dataset of 104 countries over a period from 1966 to 2004, this paper analyses the relevance of country specific shocks for income volatility in open economies. We show that exposure to country specific shocks has a positive and significant impact on GDP volatility. In particular, we find...