Do Some Forms of Financial Flows Help Protect Against "Sudden Stops"? Using a large panel data set that includes advanced, emerging, and developing economies during 1970 2003, this article analyzes the behavior of several types of flows: foreign direct investment (FDI), portfolio equity...

While a number of crises in emerging markets generated widespread contagion in financial markets during the 1990s, more recent crises (notably, in Argentina) have been mostly contained within national borders. This has led some observers to wonder whether contagion might have become a feature of...

This International Finance Corporation (IFC) Research Note analyzes the cost of borrowing for firms in emerging and developing economies, changes in their debt structure, and indicators of indebtedness and profitability. It finds reasons for optimism on their resilience, while noting that...

Do Some Forms of Financial Flows Help Protect Against "Sudden Stops"? Using a large panel data set that includes advanced, emerging, and developing economies during 1970 2003, this article analyzes the behavior of several types of flows: foreign direct investment (FDI), portfolio equity...

External exposure can be measured by the sensitivity of first and second moments of economic growth to openness and foreign shocks. This paper provides an empirical evaluation of external exposure using panel data methods for a worldwide sample of countries. Controlling for domestic conditions,...

In principle, there is little reason people, and countries facing different shocks, and income streams should strive for optimal saving rates. But in practice, the inter-temporal choices that underlie saving, are subject to externalities, market failures, and policy distortions, that can cause...

This paper reviews the design and operation of the Chilean fiscal rule in the past 30 years. Using different empirical approaches, we assess its impact on fiscal procyclicality, public debt, and public investment. While there has been substantial progress in building a modern institutional...

Post-conflict countries receive substantial aid flows after the start of peace. While post-conflict countries' capacity to absorb aid (that is, the quality of their policies and institutions) is built up only gradually after the onset of peace, the evidence suggests that aid tends to peak...

Foreign aid, the real exchange rate (RER), and economic growth are three key variables that shape the aftermath of civil wars in many developing countries. Panel estimations drawn from a sample of 39 conflict and 44 nonconflict countries between 1970 and 2004 indicate that although postconflict...

Foreign aid, the real exchange rate (RER), and economic growth are three key variables that shape the aftermath of civil wars in many developing countries. Panel estimations drawn from a sample of 39 conflict and 44 nonconflict countries between 1970 and 2004 indicate that although postconflict...