Asia proved to be remarkably resilient in the face of the global financial crisis, but why was its output performance stronger than that of other regions? The paper shows that better initial conditions — in the form of lower external and financial vulnerabilities — contributed significantly...

This paper develops a comprehensive new framework to measure and analyze sovereign risk. Contingent claims analysis is used to construct a marked-to-market balance sheet for the sovereign and derive a set of forward-looking credit risk indicators that serve as a barometer of sovereign risk....

We analyze the flexibility of the Canadian labour market across provinces in both an inter- and intra-national context using macroeconomic data on employment, unemployment, participation, and (for Canada) migration and real wages. We find that Canadian labour markets respond in a similar manner...