The objective of this paper is to gain new insights about the strengths and weaknesses of the heterodox approach for stopping inflation based on the experience of programs implemented in some Latin American countries and Israel in the sixties and eighties. The most important income policies...

In order to combat inflation, Israel launched a stabilization program in July 1985 which resulted in inflation decreasing to a low 20 percent annually as compared with more than 400 percent in 1984. What contributed to this decline? This paper attempts to analyze the major factors which made the...

This paper focuses on developments in the European Economic and Monetary Union sovereign debt markets in the past decade. The ?rst part analyzes the integration and segmentation structure of the bond markets of the Economic and Monetary Union before and after the sovereign debt crisis, by...

Although there is fast-growing policy interest in offering financial products to help rural households manage risk, the literature is still scant as to which products are the most effective. This paper uses a randomized field experiment in Senegal and Burkina Faso to compare male and female...

Farmers in developing countries face a wide array of risks. Yet they often lack formal financial instruments to protect against risks. This paper examines the impact on consumption, investment, and welfare of the separate provision of three financial products: weather insurance, savings, and...

Contents: Highlights: Fiscal Year 2006 Highlights. Letter from the President to the Council of Governors. Board Activities Highlights. Message from the Executive Vice President. MIGA Officers and Managers. Development Impact: MIGA and Infrastructure: Improving People's Lives. Operational...

This study assesses key issues and recommendations for development, and reviews the specific changes which are necessary in four areas: structural reforms, market institutions, and infrastructure; accounting, transparency, and disclosure; market infrastructure; and credit enhancements. With only...

This paper examines the financial-stability challenges that will most likely be faced by European emerging-market countries in adapting to the post-crises environment, including the new financial-stability architecture and the other remaining weaknesses revealed by the global and European...

Whether the likelihood of a credit boom ending is dependent on its age or not, or whether the respective behavior is smooth or bumpy are important issues to which the economic literature has not given attention yet. This paper tries to fill that gap, exploring those issues with a proper duration...

In an international context, this paper analyzes the main drivers of Brazil's bank spreads measured by the net interest margin, by estimating internationally comparable measures for (i) institutional and regulatory (micro-) factors; (ii) macro-economic factors; and (iii) banking competition...