Books
1998
June 25, 1998
Tax Law Design and Drafting, Volume 2
Description: A comprehensive guide to income tax legislation, this book is the second of two volumes dealing with tax legislation from a comparative law perspective. Distilled from the IMF Legal Department's extensive experience, the book covers a wide range of issues in both domestic and international taxation. It also includes the most extensive bibliography currently available of the national tax laws of IMF member countries.
Notes: See Volume I
June 24, 1998
External Evaluation of the ESAF
Description: One result of the IMF's move to increased openness are independent external evaluations of important IMF policies, to complement its own in-house evaluations. This paper, prepared by a team of evaluators, includes in addition to the external evaluation, a statement by Bernd Esdar, Chairman of the Executive Director's group concerned with external evaluations; the summing up by IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus of the Executive Board's discussion of the report; the terms of reference; and the IMF staff's response to the evaluation.
June 9, 1998
Structural Change in Japan: Macroeconomic Impact and Policy Challenges
Description: This volume, by Bijan B. Aghevli, Tamim Bayoumi, and Guy Meredith, is based on a seminar on structural change in Japan held in early 1997 and chaired by the IMF's First Deputy Managing Director, Stanley Fischer. Discussion of teh day-to-day management of the standard levers of fiscal and monetary policy is interlinked with consideration for the more deep-seated structural issues. By shifting and destabilizing the underlying economic relationships and creating uncertainty, structural change complicates the task of policy analysis. This volume describes how the IMF is responding to these challenges and how outside experts assess this effect.
May 27, 1998
The Economy of West Bank and Gaza: Recent Experience, Prospects, and Challenges to Private Sector Development
Description: The economy of the West Bank and Gaza Strip faces a difficult external environment in 1997. This paper, by Steven Barnett, Nur Calika, Dale Chua, Oussama Kanaan, and Milan Zavadijil, presents an assessment of the recent experience of the Palestinian economy and examines prospects for 1998 and beyond.
May 20, 1998
Current Legal Issues Affecting Central Banks, Volume V
Description: This volume, edited by Robert C. Effros, focuses on how technology is affecting the world of banking and finance in an era of increasing globalization. The advent of electronic money, stored value cards, and internet transactions are discussed, as well as the impact of technology on cross-border banking and its implications for central banks. Other issues examined are the legal and regulatory frameworks for risk management of banks, sovereign debt, the international laws of bank secrecy, and financial services within the context of the GATT Agreement on Trade Services.
April 15, 1998
Social Safety Nets: Issues and Recent Experience
Description: The 14 papers that comprise this book, edited by Ke-young Chu and Sanjeev Gupta, provide a comprehensive review of the IMF's work on social safety nets. Part I provides a broad overview of the social concerns in structural policy and the basic work related to social safety nets. Part II deals with the design of social safety nets. Part III provides case studies on nine countries from different parts of the world.
March 18, 1998
Payment Systems, Monetary Policy and the Role of the Central Bank
Description: A payment system encompasses a set of instruments and means generally acceptable in making payments; the institutional and organizational framework governing such payments, including prudential regulation; and the operating procedures and communications network used to initiate and transmit payment information from payer to payee and to settle payments. This book, by Omotunde E.G. Johnson, with Richard K. Abrams, Jean-Marc Destresse, Tony Lybek, Nicholas Roberts, and Mark Swinburne, identifies main policy and strategic issues in payment system reform, describes the structure of payment systems in selected countries, highlights areas of consensus, and suggests the direction for future policy analysis.
1997
November 11, 1997
Financial Systems and Labor Markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries
Description: This volume comprises two separate papers on key structural aspects of the reform process in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The first paper addresses issues related to financial intermediation and reform in the context of the evolving economic environment in the GCC countries. The second discusses the labor market challenges and policy issues in the GCC countries and their implications for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
November 11, 1997
The Economy of the Middle East and North Africa in 1997
Description: The economy of the Middle East and North Africa improved considerably in 1996, and remained favorable in 1997. This paper, by Mohamed A. El-Erian and Susan Fennell, presents an assessment of the recent experience of the MENA economies and examines prospects for 1998 and beyond.
September 12, 1997
A Global Integration Strategy for the Mediterranean Countries: Open Trade and Market Reforms
Description: The economy of the Mediterranean region countries - which in the present study include Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, as well as Israel and Turkey - experienced a period of strong and dynamic economic development in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But since the 1980s these economies have experienced a much less dynamic evolution and tended toward stagnation. This paper by Oleh Havrylyshyn, presents an assessment of the experience of these economies in a framework of a broad trade strategy perspective for Mediterranean countries, and examines prospects for the future.