Countries that are classified as having floating exchange rate systems (or very wide bands) show strikingly different patterns of behavior. They hold very different levels of international reserves and allow very different volatilities in the movements of the exchange rate relative to the...

This paper checks whether state-ownership of banks is correlated with ending behavior over the business cycle and finds that their lending is less responsive to macroeconomic shocks than the lending of private banks. The paper tests whether this is due to the presence of quot;lazyquot; public...

This paper uses a difference-in-difference methodology similar to the one originally proposed by Rajan and Zingales (1998) to test whether defaulting hurts the more export-oriented industries. Strong support for this hypothesis was found, but contrary to the findings of previous studies, our...

Recent empirical and theoretical literature on the impact of real exchange rate devaluations on economic performance questions the traditional expansionary effect generated within standard Mundell-Fleming models. Contractionary devaluations may arise when firms face maturity or currency...

In this paper, we introduce the first comprehensive database on sovereign debt systematically compiled to ensure comparability, for all countries in the Americas, and use this new data to highlight the main stylized facts regarding sovereign debt for developing America in the last two decades....

This paper builds a new dataset of bank ownership and bank performance covering approximately 50,000 observations for 119 countries over the 1995-2002 period. Next it uses the dataset to reassess the relationship between bank ownership and bank performance providing separated estimations for...

This paper uses a new dataset to reassess the relationship between bank ownership and bank performance, providing separate estimations for developing and industrial countries. It finds that state-owned banks located in developing countries tend to have lower profitability and higher costs than...

This paper introduces a novel index to measure public investment quality, utilizing the World Bank's investment project performance data from 120 countries over 2000-21. After detailing the construction of the index, the paper examines how public investment quality influences the relationship...

This paper argues that current account statistics may provide a poor indication for the real evolution of a country's net foreign assets. This may be due to a series of factors including the mismeasurement of FDI, unreported trade of insurance or liquidity services and debt relief. Because of...

This paper considers ongoing and proposed reforms of the international financial system in light of Latin America's recent experience of volatility and a regional recession largely resulting from financial contagion. The authors begin by surveying three diagnoses of Latin America's financial...