Foreign direct investment is a key ingredient of successful economic growth and development in developing countries--partly because the very essence of economic development is the rapid and efficient transfer and cross-border adoption of"best practices."Foreign direct investment is especially...

This paper reviews and discusses issues involved in assessing the relationship between capital account liberalization and economic performance. First, it discusses the different measures of restrictions used in the literature. Second, it reviews the literature on the relationship between growth...

This paper considers whether the Plaza Agreement of September 1985 marked the beginning of a fundamental shift in the exchange-rate policy regime for the United States, the former West Germany, and Japan. The paper uses a simple monetary model of the open economy to illustrate how the exchange...

The privatization of infrastructure should lead to the development of new infrastructure, improvements in the operation of existing infrastructure, and a reduction in budgetary subsidies. Whether countries reap the full benefits of privatization, however, depends on how risks are allocated. If...

Governments face a lower apparent cost of capital than private firms. However, the low cost of borrowing by governments does not reflect superior capabilities to choose or manage projects. Instead, it reflects the fact that governments have recourse to taxpayers, who de facto provide a fairly...

The author concludes that government, through the tax system, cannot really do better than private financial markets at funding infrastructure projects. All the financial advantages of sovereign finance are due purely to its coercive powers and are of no social value. Under government finance...

This paper provides an overview of approaches to the economic regulation of piped water supply and sewerage systems. The discussion emphasizes the particular importance that quality issues take on in water systems relative to any other infrastructure sector. Water quality is obviously important...

Privatization of infrastructure ventures in sectors such as energy, telecommunication, transport, and water has become popular over the last decade. Often- for good or bad reasons - private firms are given monopoly franchises under some type of long-term concession agreement, for...

The development of information and communications technology is opening up the opportunity for providing essential financial services to most people. Indeed, many mobile money or branchless banking schemes are currently spreading across the world. However, these schemes can only be sustainable...