South Asia has attracted global attention because it has experienced rapid GDP growth over the last two decades. What is not so well known is that South Asia is the least integrated region in the world. South Asia has opened its door to the rest of the world but it remains closed to its...

Current issues in banking policy range from the need to construct basic institutions and incentive structures in transition economies, to the challenges posed by the increasingly complex interactions involved in contemporary banking. The authors of this report outline the basic regulatory...

The ultimate objective of economic reforms in Central and Eastern Europe is the creation of flexible and efficient market economies. Attaining this objective requires comprehensive action on at least four fronts: macro-economic stabilization, price and market reforms, privatization of state...

The authors present an identification strategy that allows them to study the sectoral effects of monetary policy and the role that monetary policy plays in the transmission of sectoral shocks. They apply their methodology to the case of the United States and find some significant differences in...

A new literature on the nature of and policies for youth in Latin America is emerging, but there is still very little known about who are the most vulnerable young people. This paper aims to characterize the heterogeneity in the youth population and identify ex ante the youth that are at-risk...

This paper analyzes the role of public finance and trade policies in the adjustment experience of Chile over the past 15 years. The purpose is to first review the Chilean public sector and trade reforms, and then to examine their role in the economic development of Chile. The paper is divided...

This paper documents the link between risk, stability, and access to credit markets in an emerging economy. It presents annual credit loss distributions of Chilean banks for the period 1999-2005, providing the first empirical evidence of the cyclical pattern of expected losses and unexpected...

This paper reviews movements in raw materials consumption over the past 30 years. Included in this review are all base metals and steel, and important agricultural raw materials. These primary commodities share the common characteristic that they are used as inputs in manufacturing and...

This paper surveys fiscal policy in developing countries from the point of view of long-run growth. The first section reviews existing methodologies to estimate the effects of fiscal policy shocks and of systematic fiscal policy, with time series or with cross-sectional methods, and their...

This report proposes an action plan for the rationalization of tax structures for Central America. To harmonize tax policies among Central American nations, the report recommends the following: (a) continuing trade liberalization, by reducing thelevel and dispersion of effective trade...