In Bulgaria and other transition economies, liquidity constraints and hence access to external funds must be seen in the context of soft budget constraints and the financial system's failure to enforce the efficient allocation of funds. Liquidity constraints in Bulgaria may be seen as a sign of...

We use Bulgarian firm level data to investigate the impact of liquidity constraints on investment performance. Internal funds are an important determinant of investment in most industrialized countries. We test whether internal funds are important for firm investment during the current...

The authors use firm level data on Bulgaria to investigate the impact of liquidity constraints on firms'investment performance. Internal funds are a important determinant of investment in most industrial economies. The authors use a simple accelerator model of investment to test whether...

We study the number of hours children in Africa and Asia are involved in paid child labor on the basis of a newly developed database with information on 169 000 children living in 16 countries. The proportion of involved children varies between 1 and 8 per cent, with generally lower figures in...

We estimate a dynamic heterogeneous agents model for the British pound during the European monetary system crisis. We illustrate the chain of events leading to the suspension of the pound from the exchange rate mechanism in terms of switching beliefs, from fundamentalist to chartist.

Sovereign default is the switching state between successful and unsuccessful Fund catalysis. We find the IMF to be effective in mobilising private capital flows to middle-income countries that participate in a Fund program, but do not restructure their debt. A debt restructuring is a clear...