Economic Issues
2002
August 19, 2002
Corporate Sector Restructuring: The Role of Government in Times of Crisis
Description: Examines the steps involved in restructuring the corporate sector. Large-scale corporate restructuring made necessary by a financial crisis is one of the most daunting challenges faced by economic policymakers. The government is forced to take a leading role, even if indirectly, because of the need to prioritize policy goals, address market failures, reform the legal and tax systems, and deal with the resistance of powerful interest groups.
May 3, 2002
Moral Hazard: Does IMF Financing Encourage Imprudence by Borrowers and Lenders?
Description: Examines the issue of moral hazard inrelation to IMF loans to countries in financial difficulties. Concerns about moral hazard have had a prominent place in recent discussions on how the architecture of the international financial system should be reformed and what the IMF’s role should be.
April 30, 2002
The Pension Puzzle: Prerequisites and Policy Choices in Pension Design
Description: Looks at the policy choices involved in creating pension schemes, particularly whether it is advisable to move away from government pay-as-you-go pensions toward private or publicly funded plans. Examines the reasons for the controversy surrounding pension design, and whether the second level of pension systems should be mandatory, private, funded, and defined-contribution.
April 16, 2002
Hiding in the Shadows: The Growth of the Underground Economy
Description: Examines the role of the shadow, or underground, economy. Looks at ways of measuring it, the relationship between the shadow economy and the main stream economy, why it has been growing in size, and its effects on overall economic growth. How can states limit the size of the shadow economy, and does it matter that it exists?
2001
March 14, 2001
Rural Poverty in Developing Countries: Implications for Public Policy
Description: Reviews causes of poverty in rural areas and presents a policy framework for reducing rural poverty, including through land reform, public works programs, access to credit, physical and social infrastructure, subsidies, and transfer of technology. Identifies key elements for drafting a policy to reduce rural poverty.
March 9, 2001
Controlling Pollution: Using Taxes and Tradable Permits
Description: Explores different ways of controlling pollution through -green-taxes or permits, and evaluates their advantages and disadvantages. While many countries use environmental taxes, interest in tradable permits is growing.
January 1, 2001
Tax Policy for Developing Countries
Description: Discusses important tax policy issues facing developing countries today, provides a review of the role of tax incentives, and identifies some policy challenges posed by the globalization of the world economy. Draws on country cases.
2000
December 20, 2000
Full Dollarization: The Pros and Cons
Description: Analyzes the costs and benefits of full dollarization, or the adoption by one country of another country’s currency. Potential advantages include lower borrowing costs and deeper integration into world markets. But countries lose the ability to devalue, and become dependent on the U.S. Compares with currency board option.
October 2, 2000
Promoting Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Learning What Works
Description: Africa is the world’s poorest continent, but amid all the bad news, there is hope for change. This pamphlet examines the lessons to be learned from some of the more successful economies south of the Sahara, and discusses a policy framework to promote sustainable economic growth and reduce poverty across the region.
September 11, 2000
The Challenge of Predicting Economic Crises
Description: The integration of financial markets around the world over the past decade has posed new challenges for policymakers. The speed with which money can be switched in and out of currencies and countries has increased with the efficiency of global communications, considerably shortening the time policymakers have to respond to emerging crises. This pamphlet takes alook at attempts by economists to predict crises by developing early warning systems to signal when trouble may be brewing in currency markets and banking systems.