Asia's financial systems proved resilient to the shocks from the global financial crisis, and growth since then has been strong. But new challenges have emerged in the region's economies, including demographics and aging, the need to diversify from bank-dominated systems, urbanization and...

Japan's revitalization plan, dubbed the "three arrows of Abenomics," devises a three-pronged strategy-combining fiscal, monetary, and structural policies-to overcome that country's apparent inability to sustain economic recovery. This book is the first comprehensive assessment of Abenomics and...

The end of the Cold War has ushered in significant changes in worldwide military spending. This paper finds that the easing of (1) international tensions, (2) regional tensions, and (3) the existence of IMF-supported programs are related to lower military spending and a higher share of...

More than a decade after the start of the transition process, unemployment rates remain in the double digits in a number of Central and Eastern European countries. That unemployment rates have failed to decline, even in countries experiencing good growth, is puzzling. In this paper the authors...

The first sub-Saharan African country to pursue broad economic and structural reform - aided by external finance and technical aid - Ghana is an example of adjustment with growth. Ghana's experience, discussed in this paper, illustrates the need for complementary policy actions and the right...

The decline in military spending that began in the mid-1980s continued through 1995, and this decline was widespread both geographically and by level of development. Cuts in military spending appear to have potentially important implications for nonmilitary spending and fiscal adjustment. In...