IMF Staff Papers, Volume 52, No. 2

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 52, No. 2
Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2005-08-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1589064488

This paper examines contractionary currency crashes in developing countries. It explores the causes of India’s productivity surge around 1980, more than a decade before serious economic reforms were initiated. The paper finds evidence that the trigger may have been an attitudinal shift by the government in the early 1980s that, unlike the reforms of the 1990s, was pro-business rather than pro-market in character, favoring the interests of existing businesses rather than new entrants or consumers. A relatively small shift elicited a large productivity response, because India was far away from its income possibility frontier.

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 52, No. 1

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 52, No. 1
Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2005-04-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781589064195

This first issue of IMF Staff Papers for 2005 contains 7 papers that discuss: whether output recovered after the Asian crisis; the value of a country's trading partners to its own economic growth; whether interdependence is a factor in understanding the spread of currency crises; can remittance payments from expatriates be a reliable source of capital for economic development?; total factor productivity; designing a VAT for the energy trade in Russia and Ukraine; and lastly, a discussion of the reasons for central bank intervention in ERM-I since 1993

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 52, No. 3

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 52, No. 3
Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2005-12-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1589064755

This last issue for 2005 comprises seven new papers, including a contribution to the journal's occasional Special Data Section about domestic debt markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, and also an in-depth look at the internal job market for entry-level economists at the IMF. The remaining articles cover toics as diverse as: modeling of asset markets, exchange rates in developing countries, international bank claims on Latin America, the effectiveness of "early warning" systems, and the use (by emerging market countries) of the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS).

IMF Staff papers

IMF Staff papers
Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 196
Release: 1986-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1451946953

WILLIAM. white, who joined the International Monetary Fund in 1948, spent his entire professional life in the Research Department. Present and past staff members, many of whom benefited from his advice, have asked that his contribution-to the work of the Fund should receive recognition in Staff Papers. This appreciation draws on excerpts from written recollections of some of his colleagues.

IMF Staff papers

IMF Staff papers
Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 197
Release: 1993
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1451947267

This paper discusses how three countries in Europe—Austria, Turkey, and Finland—emerged from a prolonged inflation, restored viable economies, and resumed economic growth in the 1950s. It also attempts to draw some conclusions based on their experience as well as the experience of some other countries. In mid-1949 the Austrian Government requested assistance from the IMF in the formulation of measures that could lead the economy out of the accelerating price-wage spiral. The key issue was to find a policy mix which would lessen the burden on the budget but would help to maintain full employment. Representatives of industry agreed to the stabilization program only after they were persuaded that it was only through the program that industries could hope to maintain the prosperity that they had enjoyed in the early post-war years. They also realized that it was only thus that they could be freed of detailed government regulations which had become onerous.

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 52, Special Issue, IMF Conference in Honor of Michael Mussa

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 52, Special Issue, IMF Conference in Honor of Michael Mussa
Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2005-08-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781589064478

This paper focuses on expectations for the American economy focused on the likelihood of secular stagnation, which continued to be debated throughout the post-war period. Concerns rose during the late 1960s and early 1970s about rapid population growth smothering the potential for economic growth in developing countries were contradicted when, during the mid- and late-1970s, fertility rates began to decline rapidly. In policy-oriented institutions (and in most businesses and individual decision making), policymaking decisions are often guided by projections and forward-looking indicators. The case of Michael Mussa has been one of great anticipation, and of great accomplishment, and all the early optimistic forecasts about him have turned out to be correct. Within the sphere of economics, undoubtedly the most famous and widely used forecast—one, incidentally, that thus far has often been incorrect—is that based on the Malthusian doctrine of the relationship between resources and population.

IMF Staff papers

IMF Staff papers
Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 155
Release: 1962-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1451947127

This paper provides an analysis of attempts at international coordination of national policies leads to the conclusion that true international action that has a good chance to succeed for specific measures, such as changes in exchange rates, customs tariffs, and perhaps discount rates. There is, on the other hand, little reason to assume that the desire prevalent in all countries for full employment, stable prices, and growth could be supported to any important degree by the acceptance of international obligations. The targets of economic policy as they have been put forward for our discussion appear simple and noncontroversial: reasonable price stability, full employment and an adequate rate of growth, and balance of payments equilibrium. If in any country the relationship between wages and employment is such that at full employment wages increase more rapidly than is compatible with price stability, then obviously the price and employment objectives of that country are not compatible.

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 57, No. 2

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 57, No. 2
Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2010-06-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1589069129

This paper introduces a new database of financial reforms covering 91 economies over 1973-2005. It describes the content of the database, the information sources utilized, and the coding rules used to create an index of financial reform. It also compares the database with other measures of financial liberalization, provides descriptive statistics, and discusses some possible applications. The database provides a multifaceted measure of reform, covering seven aspects of financial sector policy. Along each dimension the database provides a graded (rather than a binary) score, and allows for reversals.

IMF Staff papers

IMF Staff papers
Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 340
Release: 1975-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1451947453

In this paper it is argued that in a system of widespread managed floating, as in a par value system with occasional floating, the problem of asymmetry of adjustment between the issuers of the principal intervention currencies and other countries and the problem of ensuring an effective international management of reserves remain to be solved. If the latter problem is less acute under a floating system, the former problem is potentially more acute than under par values. Although widespread floating would appear to offer no obstacle to the operation of a substitution account, its effect on the acceptability of asset settlement is debatable and it would add considerably to the difficulties of organizing multicurrency intervention. If politically acceptable, a system of guided intervention oriented to an established system of normal exchange rate zones would probably be superior to any other arrangement under floating for the purpose of promoting symmetry in adjustment, while permitting an adequate degree of exchange rate management and avoiding the anomaly of mutually offsetting intervention.