This public expenditure review (PER) is the first comprehensive assessment of public spending on disaster response, recovery, and reconstruction activities in the Philippines. Despite the high exposure of the country to natural disaster shocks and climate risks, no comprehensive review has been...

This paper examines how a country's weak institutions and polarized government can affect the likelihood of its default on sovereign debt. Using a data set of 90 countries, it shows that strong institutions are associated with fewer sovereign default crises. In addition, when institutions are...

While there is a consensus that the 2008-2009 crisis was triggered by financial market disruptions in the United States, there is little agreement on whether the transmission of the crisis and the subsequent prolonged recession are due to credit factors or to a collapse of demand for goods and...