Forecasts, models and stress tests are important tools for policymakers and business planners. Recent developments in these related spheres have seen greater emphasis placed on stress tests from a regulatory perspective, while at the same time forecasting performance has been criticized. Given...

Corporate bond defaults in different sectors often increase suddenly at roughly similar times, although some sectors see default rates jump earlier than others. This could reflect contagion among sectors-specifically, defaults in one sector leading to credit stresses in other sectors of the...

It is likely to be several decades before data on government assets, off-balance sheet and contingent liabilities are consistently available across a wide range of countries. In the absence of data, GDP is a readily available scaling factor, but official sector agencies such as the IMF and...