This paper contains three volumes presenting the Vietnam Reading and Mathematics Assessment Study conducted in 2001. The first volume sets the study in its country context, describes its genesis, outlines the methodology, and summarizes the results. The main purpose is to show how the analysis...

This paper contains three volumes presenting the Vietnam Reading and Mathematics Assessment Study conducted in 2001. The first volume sets the study in its country context, describes its genesis, outlines the methodology, and summarizes the results. The main purpose is to show how the analysis...

"This paper documents the link between risk, stability, and access to credit markets in an emerging economy. It presents annual credit loss distributions of Chilean banks for the period 1999-2005, providing the first empirical evidence of the cyclical pattern of expected losses and unexpected...

"The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the changes in the calculation of minimum regulatory capital requirements for credit risk that have been drafted by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (Basel II). Even though the revised credit capital rules represent a dramatic...

"Microfinance has been heralded as an effective way to address imperfections in credit markets. But from a theoretical perspective, the success of microfinance contracts has puzzling elements. In particular, the group-based mechanisms often employed are vulnerable to free-riding and collusion,...