This paper proposes a novel shrinkage estimator for high-dimensional covariance matrices by extending the Oracle Approximating Shrinkage (OAS) of Chen et al. (2009) to target the diagonal elements of the sample covariance matrix. We derive the closed-form solution of the shrinkage parameter and...

In this paper, we identify the groups of countries where international risk-sharing opportunities are most attractive. We show that the bulk of risk-sharing gains can be achieved in groups consisting of as few as seven members, and that further marginal benefits quickly become negligible. For...

Empirical evidence on the relationship between democracy and economic reforms is limited to few reforms, countries, and years. This paper studies the impact of democracy on the adoption of economic reforms using a new dataset on reforms in the financial, capital and banking sectors, product...

This paper develops a small open economy dynamic stochastic general-equilibrium model with macrofinancial linkages. The model includes a financial accelerator--entrepreneurs are assumed to partially finance investment using domestic and foreign currency debt--to assess the importance of...

We analyze the performance of kernel density methods applied to grouped data to estimate poverty (as applied in Sala-i-Martin, 2006, QJE). Using Monte Carlo simulations and household surveys, we find that the technique gives rise to biases in poverty estimates, the sign and magnitude of which...

Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. MACROECONOMIC-BASED MODELS -- III. CREDIT SCORING (OR ACCOUNTING-BASED) MODELS -- IV. RATINGS-BASED MODELS -- V. HYBRID MODELS -- VI. CONCLUSIONS -- REFERENCES.

Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. BIASES OF ORDINARY-LEAST-SQUARES (OLS) AND LEAST-SQUARES-WITH-DUMMY VARIABLES ( LSDV) ESTIMATORS: ANALYTICAL SOLUTIONS -- III. MONTE CARLO EXPERIMENTS -- IV. CONCLUSION -- References.

Intro -- Contents -- I. MARKET-BASED DEFAULT PROBABILITIES AND FINANCIAL SURVEILLANCE -- II. CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS -- III. BONDS -- IV. EQUITY PRICES -- V. FROM RISK-NEUTRAL PROBABILITIES TO REAL-WORLD PROBABILITIES -- VI. CONCLUSIONS -- REFERENCES.

Country practices towards managing financial risks on a sovereign balance sheet continue to evolve. Each crisis period, and its legacy on sovereign balance sheets, reaffirms the need for strengthening financial risk management. This paper discusses some salient features embedded in in the...