The banking crisis in Chile in 1981-83 was widespread - representing about 60 percent of the banking system's total portfolio. The crisis arose because of macroeconomic problems and was exacerbated by unsound financial practices. The government was faced with two extreme solutions: to let...

Using the dating algorithm by Harding and Pagan (2002) on a quarterly database for 23 emerging market economies (EMEs) and 12 developed countries over the period 1980.Q1 - 2006.Q2, the authors proceed to characterize and compare the business cycle features of these two groups. They first find...

This paper draws on estimates of consumption functions for 13 developing countries to analyze the effectiveness of public policy in raising saving. First, it provides evidence from time-series and panel data on how liquidity constraints affect consumption functions. This suggests that a rise in...

The authors investigate the policy and non-policy factors behind saving disparities, using a large panel data set and an encompassing approach including several relevant determinants of private saving. They extend the literature in several dimensions, by: 1) Using the largest data set on...

The objective of this paper is to apply a framework for macroeconomic consistency to Zimbabwe. Using annual data for 1981and 1987, the paper illustrates the usefulness of imposing consistency on the flow budget accounts (in both current and constant prices) of a developing economy. It presents...

The purpose of this paper is to derive a framework for quantifying the contribution of the most important economic and policy variables to the public sector deficit. The method involves behavioral relations, identities for some key macroeconomic and sector variables and an accounting breakdown...

The authors analyze macrodynamic adjustment during financial liberalization in Chile and New Zealand. During the adjustment to more open capital accounts in the late 1970s or mid-1980s, both countries experienced appreciation of the real exchange rate and a collapse of net exports, while...

There is widespread consensus among economists that high inflation is often caused by the government's need to raise seignorage to finance high budget deficits. Depending on the shape of the money demand function, steady-state seignorage may follow a Laffer curve, where seignorage first rises...

The authors develop and apply a macroeconomic general equilibrium model for Zimbabwe. The country faces the challenge of engaging in a program of fiscal stabilization and structural reform to address its current fiscal imbalance, high unemployment, and low growth prospects. The authors discuss...

The authors analyze the impact of fiscal policy changes in openeconomies, using a rational expectation framework that nests two prototype economies: a neoclassical full-employment benchmark economy, with intertemporally optimizing consumers and firms and instant clearing of asset, goods, and...