Over the past decade, regional integration has become the focus of intense global interest and debate, and the regionalization of East Asia has figured prominently in that dialogue. East Asia can be described as a heterogeneous region that is both global and intraregional. The authors examine...

This paper builds on recent work that shows how financial sector outcomes are affected by the provision of information by financial and other entities. In particular, it shows that an indicator of economic transparency is positively related to higher levels of private credit and a lower share of...

The two literatures on targeting and on intrahousehold inequality have developed rapidly over the past 15 years, but largely independent of each other. The literature on targeting concerns itself with the design of tax and transfer programs for poverty alleviation in the presence of limited...

This paper acknowledges the fact that some countries have to borrow in foreign currencies due to the various constraints they face. Starting from this point, the author reviews approaches for trying to determine the currency structure for sovereign debt, and discusses some issues inherent in...

No region has been more dynamic in recent years than East Asia. Despite its successful economic development, evaluations of the East Asian development model have often been capricious, shifting from"miracle"to"cronyism."How can we explain East Asia's ups and downs consistently? To respond to...

In this report, the authors develop and estimate a model of household defensive behavior and illness. Using cross-section data from a household survey in Jakarta, they observe defensive behavior (washing hands after using the toilet) consistent with expectations: defensive effort intensifies...

This paper examines the move towards risk-based supervision of pension institutions in Denmark. Although Denmark has not adopted a comprehensive model to assess risk it has developed a number of building blocks which it uses for risk-based assessment. The motivations for improving risk...

The authors use 20 household surveys for India's 15 major states, spanning 1960-94, to study how initial conditions and the sectoral composition of economic growth interact to influence how much economic growth reduced poverty. The elasticities of measured poverty to farm yields and development...

Between 1987 and 1990, Mexico's current account and trade balance deteriorated by more than US$10 billion. Higher investment accounts only partly for this deterioration; nor can it be attributed to the public sector. By conventional (unadjusted) measures of private saving - the total investment...

Certain experts have expressed the view that developed country imports from developing countries have a tendency to increase less rapidly than their gross domestic product. Additionally, the view has been expressed that developed countries have raised their barriers to imports from developing...