This paper presents new estimates of the taxes paid on nonfinancial corporate capital, on the pretax rate of return to capital, and on the effective tax rate. The basic time series show that both the pretax rate of return and the effective tax rate have varied substantially in the past quarter...

A substantial literature exists on the impact of pension schemes, both public and private, on the level of household saving. Yet there is no clear consensus on the impact of pensions on private saving. In this paper we show how beliefs about this displacement effect are modified by prior beliefs...

Empirical studies of the life cycle savings model have tended to rej ect the hypothesis of a quot;hump-shapedquot; pattern for the wealth-age profile. In this paper we show, using new data on net worth for 12,734 families, that there is evidence that wealth declines after retirement provided...

There has been very little study of the consequences of pension wealth for the composition of household portfolios. Using individual data for 10,118 Canadian households we estimate the portfolio effect of pension wealth. Because most households do not own all of the assets which we are able to...

Dollarization, in a broad sense, is increasingly a defining characteristic of many emerging market economies. How important is this trend quantitatively and how important is it for the conduct of monetary policy and the choice of exchange rate regimes? Though these questions have become a hot...

Exchange rates have been at the center of economic debates in emerging economies. Issues related to the feasibility of flexible exchange rates, the relationship between exchange rate volatility and growth, and the role of exchange rate overvaluation in recent crises, among other, have been...

This paper analyzes in detail the evolution of Latin America's international trade patterns, focusing on intraregional trade and on the formal attempts made to create free trade zones or custom unions. In particular, we assess the role of intraregional trade in the structural adjustment required...

This paper introduces the concept of debt intolerance,' which manifests itself in the extreme duress many emerging markets experience at debt levels that would seem manageable by advanced country standards. We argue that safe' external debt-to-GNP thresholds for debt intolerant countries are...

The Mexican peso crisis of December 1994 shocked politicians, analysits, and pundits. Shock was followed by panic, as investors flew the country. It took a massive bail-out package put together by the IMF and the US Treasury to generate some tranquility in the markets in mid to late 1995. From...

The paper examines possible monetary policy strategies for Latin America that may help lock-in the gains in the fight against inflation attained by the region during the 1990s. We start by calling for a refocus of the debate about the conduct of monetary policy away from thinking that it is...