This paper first describes the major concerns associated with SWFs, mainly revolving around state ownership and lack of transparency. It then focuses on the National Fund for the Future of Kazakhstan (the “oil fund”, or NOF) and Samruk Kazyna (SK), the holding company for state owned...

Countries in which inflation targeting has been adopted require high quality inflation forecasts. The Polish National Bank adopted a variant of implicit inflation targeting and therefore the ability to forecast inflation is critically important to policy makers. Since the domestic price...

Yuan real effective exchange rate misalignment is esitimated in a behavioral equilibrium exchange rate (BEER) model for the period 1997 to third quarter 2007. Using the Beveridge-Nelson decomposition a vector error correction model (VECM) of the exchange rate as a function of macroeconomic...

This paper examines the relationships between various owner, firm, and industry characteristics of private-sector Hungarian firms and their difficulty in obtaining bank loans in 1991. We identify several factors that are related to the difficulty firms face in obtaining bank loans including the...

Yuan real effective exchange rate misalignment is estimated in a behavioral equilibrium exchange rate (BEER) model for the period 1997 to third quarter 2007. Using the Beveridge-Nelson decomposition a vector error correction model (VECM) of the exchange rate as a function of macroeconomic...

The effects of FDI on export behavior of both recipients and non-recipient competing firms in the same sector often guides economic development policy. We estimate a Logit model of the probability of export and Pooled Tobit and Fixed and Random Effects Tobit models of the volume of exports using...

A model of the long run equilibrium real exchange rate based upon macroeconomic fundamentals is employed to calculate real exchange rate misalignments for Poland and Russia during the 1990s using the Beveridge and Nelson (1981) decomposition of macrofundamentals into transitory and permanent...

Two specialists on the Polish economy examine the process whereby the fiscal system of Poland' s centrally planned economy was replaced during the 1990s by a system designed for a market economy. Changes in the structure of both revenues and expenditures are described. The authors demonstrate...