How does patent examination influence access to finance for innovative firms? We exploit a reform to the UK's patent system that introduced substantive examination to the patent application process, improving the information available to potential investors on the value of firms' patents. Using...

How does patent examination influence access to finance for innovative firms? We exploit a reform to the UK's patent system that introduced substantive examination to the patent application process, improving the information available to potential investors on the value of firms' patents. Using...

Through fiscal reaction functions, we investigate fiscal sustainability for five European country-group panels and check for a change in fiscal behaviour after countries adopted the euro as their currency. Using annual data for the period between 1990 and 2021, we identify evidence of average...

Development finance institutions (DFIs) face significant challenges in addressing unmet development needs, particularly in smaller, lower-income countries with few large firms and high investment risks, and in sectors with few private operators. In response, some DFIs, like British International...

This paper provides a novel way for instructors to teach about the perils of a large National Debt, which is currently $36 trillion. We provide a detailed lesson plan that utilizes balloons to illustrate the possible paths a society can take to address this issue. The lesson plan consists of an...

This paper studies how credit guarantee and employment protection programs interact in assisting firms during crises times. The paper analyzes how these government programs influence credit allocation, indebtedness, and risk at both the micro and macro levels. The programs provide different...

Long-term projections are the bedrock of any analysis looking at the sustainability of public finances. This paper computes the changes in economic growth in individual European Union (EU) countries needed for government debt-to-GDP ratios to stay on their baseline trajectories (taken from the...

Development finance institutions (DFIs) face significant challenges in addressing unmet development needs, particularly in smaller, lower-income countries with few large firms and high investment risks, and in sectors with few private operators. In response, some DFIs, like British International...

China's global development finance is undergoing a major transformation. As domestic reforms and borrower debt risks rise, Chinese financial institutions are shifting how they finance projects abroad-especially in Africa, where they've long played a major role. This report explores how China is...

This paper provides a novel way for instructors to teach about the perils of a large National Debt, which is currently $36 trillion. We provide a detailed lesson plan that utilizes balloons to illustrate the possible paths a society can take to address this issue. The lesson plan consists of an...

Long-term projections are the bedrock of any analysis looking at the sustainability of public finances. This paper computes the changes in economic growth in individual European Union (EU) countries needed for government debt-to-GDP ratios to stay on their baseline trajectories (taken from the...

This paper studies how credit guarantee and employment protection programs interact in assisting firms during crises times. The paper analyzes how these government programs influence credit allocation, indebtedness, and risk at both the micro and macro levels. The programs provide different...

Through fiscal reaction functions, we investigate fiscal sustainability for five European country-group panels and check for a change in fiscal behaviour after countries adopted the euro as their currency. Using annual data for the period between 1990 and 2021, we identify evidence of average...

China's global development finance is undergoing a major transformation. As domestic reforms and borrower debt risks rise, Chinese financial institutions are shifting how they finance projects abroad-especially in Africa, where they've long played a major role. This report explores how China is...

Germany is undergoing a major shift in fiscal policy. In response to recent crises and long-term structural challenges, the federal government has introduced a debt-financed spending package that marks a significant departure from past fiscal orthodoxy. This paper investigates the macroeconomic...

More than three years after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, some of its global spillover effects continue to impact many low-income and lower-middle-income countries (LICs and LMICs). As the world faces new global shocks - such as aid cuts and rising US tariffs - this synthesis report...

Germany is undergoing a major shift in fiscal policy. In response to recent crises and long-term structural challenges, the federal government has introduced a debt-financed spending package that marks a significant departure from past fiscal orthodoxy. This paper investigates the macroeconomic...

Sri Lanka stands at a pivotal moment. After overcoming its most severe economic crisis since Independence, the country has shown remarkable signs of recovery and stabilisation. Yet, significant challenges remain - from persistent poverty to looming global uncertainties - threatening to stall...

Using detailed micro data, we document that households often use "stimulus" checks to pay down debt, especially those with low net wealth-to-income ratios. To rationalize these patterns, we introduce a borrowing price schedule into an otherwise standard incomplete markets model. Because interest...

This paper evaluates explanations for China's growth slowdown. The natural tendency for rapidly growing economies to slow down is a major factor, along with problems bequeathed by unbalanced growth, including a declining ICOR, slowing total factor productivity growth, and rising indebtedness. A...

Since 2022 the European Central Bank and Danmarks Nationalbank have increased their key monetary policy rates at a record pace. This study shows that the pass-through to retail rates has been stronger in Denmark than in the euro area so far. Interest rate fixation periods are shorter in Denmark,...

We study the relationship between financial well-being and sexual orientation in the United States using Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) data for 2019-2022. We document that people who are lesbian, gay, and bisexual (or LGB) have significantly more difficulty managing...

Increasing personal bankruptcy protection raises consumers' desire to borrow and lenders' cost of extending credit; the impact on equilibrium borrowing is ambiguous. Using bankruptcy protection changes between 1999 and 2005 across U.S. states, we find that borrowers respond to greater protection...

For more than 25 years, the Social Security Trust Fund has been projected to run out of money in 2033 (give or take a few years), potentially causing benefits to be severely reduced in the absence of corrective legislative action. Today (February 2024), projections are made by the Social...

This report analyses the role that external shock financing can play in addressing the adverse impacts of external shocks in L&MICs. It summarises the growth impact of external shocks, maps out existing external shock financing facilities and instruments in the global financing architecture, and...

When it comes to rising house prices, nearly everyone has a theory about the cause. There’s ‘too much foreign money’. There are ‘too many immigrants’. There’s ‘too little construction’. And so on. What unites these explanations is that they appeal, in some way, to the idea that...

In this paper, we study the drivers of public debt surges across 172 countries from 1980-2021. We focus on the role of discrepancies between the annual change in public debt and the budget deficit, referred to as stock-flow adjustments (SFA). The analysis employs survival methods to model the...

Based on 25 years (1995-2019) of fully integrated sectoral data, this study builds on monetary circuit theory to examine the Italian experience of growing private debt followed by a long recession with balance-sheet restructuring. It is argued that this process cannot be identified as a typical...

An individual's financial situation positively impacts her subjective well-being (SWB) according to the literature. However, most existing studies focus solely on income, neglecting other aspects of an individual's financial situation such as wealth. In this paper, we empirically examine the...

We present novel findings on the impact of monetary policy on consumer spending behavior using a newly assembled high-frequency household expenditure panel. Leveraging comprehensive weekly electronic transaction-level data for all individuals in Norway over 13 years, our study sheds light on the...