Small developing states are disproportionately vulnerable to natural disasters. On average, the annual cost of disasters for small states is nearly 2 percent of GDP-more than four times that for larger countries. This reflects a higher frequency of disasters, adjusted for land area, as well as...

The Fund has a role to play in helping its members address those challenges of climate change for which fiscal and macroeconomic policies are an important component of the appropriate policy response. The greenhouse gas mitigation pledges submitted by over 160 countries ahead of the pivotal...

This paper reviews the fiscal implications of climate change, and the potential role of the Fund in addressing them. It stresses that: -- The potential fiscal implications are immediate as well as lasting, and liable to affect-in differing forms and degree-all Fund members. -- Climate change is...

Background. The case for sovereign state-contingent debt instruments (SCDIs) as a countercyclical and risk-sharing tool has been around for some time and remains appealing; but take-up has been limited. Earlier staff work had advocated the use of growth-indexed bonds in emerging markets and...

Reform package. Comprehensive reform of Fund governance-encompassing quotas, ministerial engagement and oversight, the size and composition of the Executive Board, voting rules, management selection, and staff diversity-is essential to enhancing the Fund's long-term legitimacy and effectiveness....

The paper explores the pros and cons of maintaining the current 'freely usable currency' criterion, and clarifies indicators for assessing it. The freely usable concept and its two key elements-currencies should be "widely used" and "widely traded"-are set out in the Articles and serve important...

The paper considers the merits of rules and discretion for monetary policy when the structure of the macroeconomic model and the probability distributions of disturbances are not well defined. It is argued that when it is costly to delay policy reactions to seldom-experienced shocks until formal...