Working Papers

July 1, 1999

The IMF Approach to Economic Stabilization

Description: This paper explains the IMF approach to economic stabilization. It argues that a Fund-supported program is a process, comprising six broadly defined phases, that evolves along a multiplicity of potential pathways. The paper discusses the three-pronged approach to stabilization at the core of all IMF-supported programs, stresses the iterative character of “financial programming,” and explains the rationale for setting quantitative performance criteria for fiscal and monetary policy in IMF-supported arrangements. A main theme is that IMF-supported programs contain a great deal of flexibility to respond both to differences in circumstances and to changes in conditions in individual cases.

July 1, 1999

Rachet Effects in Currency Substitution: An Application to the Kyrgyz Republic

Description: Currency substitution is now a common issue in the design of monetary policy in most transition economies. This paper analyzes the persistence of this phenomenon in the Kyrgyz Republic by including a ratchet variable in the model specification. The main conclusion of the paper is that, while some degree of persistence is present in the allocation of bank deposit, currency substitution in the economy at large has not yet reached a point where reversing it would be difficult. In this regard, there is still room for monetary policy to influence currency allocation in the private sector.

July 1, 1999

Adjustment Costs, Irreversibility and Investment Patterns in African Manufacturing

Description: This paper examines dynamic patterns of investment in Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe, assessing the consistency of those patterns with different adjustment cost structures. Using survey data on manufactured firms, we document the importance of zero investment episodes and lumpy investment. The proportion of firms experiencing large investment spikes is significant in explaining aggregate manufacturing investment. Taken together, evidence from descriptive statistics, average investment regressions modeling the response to capital imbalance, and transition data analysis indicate that irreversibility is an important factor considered by firms when making investment plans. The picture is not unanimous however, and some explanations for the mixed results are proposed.

Notes: This paper was written by multiple authors (12).

July 1, 1999

A Dynamic Model of Inflation for Kenya, 1974–1996

Description: This paper analyses the dynamics of inflation in Kenya during 1974–96, a period characterized by external shocks and internal disequilibria. By developing a parsimonious and empirically constant error correction model the paper finds that the exchange rate, foreign prices, and terms of trade have long-run effects on inflation, while the money supply and interest rate only have short-run effects. The dynamics of inflation are also found to be influenced by food supply constraints. Moreover, inertia is important for the period up to 1993, when about 40 percent of current inflation was transmitted to the next quarter. After 1993 inertia drops to about 10 percent.

July 1, 1999

Managerial Entrenchment and the Choice of Debt Financing

Description: The paper analyzes the choice between public and private debt by an entrenched manager. The model shows that when the firm’s credit risk is low, management issues public bonds because of the value gains from increased flexibility rather than reduced restrictions and monitoring. In fact, management’s expected private gains decrease as initial private debt restrictions are selectively relaxed. In contrast, when credit risk is high, management issues private debt because of the value gains and private benefits from renegotiating more stringent restrictions. When the maturity of private debt is shortened, however, privately and publicly placed bonds can be preferred to bank debt.

July 1, 1999

Coordinating Tariff Reduction and Domestic Tax Reform

Description: A key obstacle to fundamental tariff reform in many developing countries is the revenue loss that it ultimately implies. This paper establishes a simple and practicable strategy for realizing the efficiency gains from tariff reform without reducing public revenues, showing that for a small open economy, a cut in tariffs combined with a point-for-point increase in domestic consumption taxes increases both welfare and public revenues. Increasingly stringent conditions are required, however, to ensure unambiguously beneficial outcomes from this reform strategy when allowance is made for such important features as nontradeable goods, intermediate inputs, and imperfect competition.

July 1, 1999

Central Banking Without Central Bank Money

Description: Given the rapidly declining demand for central bank reserves and their gradual replacement in wholesale payments by alternative forms of money—clearinghouse moneyand treasury money—this paper discusses whether the complete extinction of base money could undermine monetary control. It argues that such concerns are misplaced since central banks can target interest rates and inflation even in the absence of base money. The paper explores implications for current and future central banking, including monetary and foreign exchange operations, lender of last resort, coordination between public debt and monetary management, and design of operating rules in currency boards.

July 1, 1999

Institutionalized Corruption and the Kleptocratic State

Description: This paper argues that corruption patterns are endogenous to political structures. Thus, corruption can be systemic and planned rather than decentralized and coincidental. In an economic system without law or property rights, a kleptocratic state may arise as a predatory hierarchy from a state of pure anarchy. A dictator minimizes the probability of a palace revolution by creating a system of patronage and loyalty through corrupt bureaucracy. Competitive corruption patterns are associated with anarchy and weak dictators, while strong dictators implement a system of monopolistic corruption. Efforts at public sector reform may meet resistance in countries featuring such systemic corruption.

July 1, 1999

Determinants of Angola’s Parallel Market Real Exchange Rate

Description: The paper estimates Angola’s equilibrium parallel market real exchange rate during the 1992–98 period. Using standard integration/co-integration techniques, the results fail to support the purchasing power parity hypothesis and indicate that two exogenous variables—the price of oil and the foreign interest rate—are able to explain most of the variation in the real exchange rate during the last seven years. These results contrast with the tenet that the parallel market exchange rate in Angola is solely influenced by monetary developments.

July 1, 1999

Does Mother Nature Corrupt? Natural Resources, Corruption, and Economic Growth

Description: This paper argues that natural resource abundance creates opportunities for rent-seeking behavior and is an important factor in determining a country’s level of corruption. In a simple growth model, we illustrate the interrelationships between natural resources, corruption, and economic growth, and discuss potential anti-corruption policies. We show that the extent of corruption depends on natural resource abundance, government policies, and the concentration of bureaucratic power. Furthermore, the growth effects of natural resource discoveries and anticorruption policies crucially depend on the economy’s state of development. We empirically corroborate the model’s implications in a cross-country framework with both corruption and growth endogenized.