In this paper we analyze how Western Balkans public finances adapted to the boom-bust cycle. Large capital inflows into emerging European economies during the mid-2000s resulted in rapid economic growth and convergence to EU income levels. This also resulted in improved fiscal positions of most...

Nominal wage growth in most advanced economies remains markedly lower than it was before the Great Recession of 2008-09. This paper finds that the bulk of the wage slowdown is accounted for by labor market slack, inflation expectations, and trend productivity growth. In particular, there appears...

We review the debate on the association of financial globalization with inequality. We show that the within country distributional impact of capital account liberalization is context specific and that different types of flows have different distributional effects. Their overall impact depends on...

We review the debate on the association of financial globalization with inequality. We show that the within-country distributional impact of capital account liberalization is context specific and that different types of flows have different distributional effects. Their overall impact depends on...

This paper attempts to explain the stylized fact that support for a greater role of the state in the economy typically increased in response to major economic shocks. These effects persist over time and are strikingly consistent across three large surveys covering a uniquely wide geography....

Outward migration has been an important phenomenon for countries in Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC), particularly those in Central America and the Caribbean. This paper examines recent trends in outward migration from and remittances to LAC, as well as their costs and benefits. For the...

This paper documents the downward trend in the labor share of global income since the early 1990s, as well as its heterogeneous evolution across countries, industries and worker skill groups, using a newly assembled dataset, and analyzes the drivers behind it. Technological progress, along with...

This paper looks at how the formation of a customs union between Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia and associated changes in import schedules affected the structure of imports of the three member countries. The results suggest that the benefits of the new tariff policy to member countries are...