Cost-efficiency, scale efficiency, and productivity change are estimated by data envelopment analysis; and cost-efficiency is regressed on explanatory variables. No evidence is found for average productivity responding to deregulation over the period studied. State-owned banks are found to be...

Putting the pension system on a sustainable footing arguably remains the biggest challenge in Russia''s economic policies. The debate about the policy options was hitherto constrained by the absence of general equilibrium analysis. This paper fills this gap by simulating their macroeconomic...

We compile the first large cross-country panel dataset of public sector performance and efficiency, encompassing 114 countries on all income levels from 1980 to 2006, with about 1,800 country-year observations for the education sector and about 900 observations for health. We regress these...

There is a concern that the state-dominated, inefficient, and fragile banking systems in many low-income countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, are a major hindrance to economic growth. This paper systematically analyzes the impact of the far-reaching banking sector reforms undertaken in...

We examine the effects of public sector borrowing from the domestic banking system on financial development in middle-income countries. While these countries'' external debt has been falling, the share of bank credit absorbed by the public sector has been rising rapidly. We argue that this runs...

In recent years financial globalization and benign global market conditions have helped emerging markets in their external financing and budgetary positions. This paper examines three related issues: (i) the importance of the impact of the benign financial environment on fiscal performance; (ii)...

At the crossroad of Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Morocco is a key partner of our institutions. Morocco is rich in history and tradition, economic and human resources. The emergence of a dynamic and broad-based private sector can become a powerful driver of...

Wide-ranging reforms linked to Georgia's EU aspirations have strengthened its economy and improved living standards. Nevertheless, further reforms are still needed and the Covid-19 pandemic has had a big impact on the hospitality sector, which has been a key driving force behind the country's...

We use a growth diagnostic approach to analyse the main impediments to investment and growth in Serbia. We look at a wide set of quantitative and qualitative indicators to understand if businesses are constrained by access to finance or if they forgo investment opportunities because they cannot...

The paper studies the extent of corporate leverage and range of excessive debt of Slovenian firms during the recent financial crisis. Half of all firms (of those with some non-zero debt and at least one employee) are found to face an unsustainable debt-to-EBITDA leverage ratio beyond 4,...