Finance & Development articles from December 2002

Finance & Development archives from December 2002

From the editor.(Editorial)
December 1, 2002... COUPLE of years into the new millennium, it is reasonable for us to wonder if the financial turbulence experienced in emerging market economies since the mid-1990s, with its tremendous economic and social costs, will continue. Crises in Turkey...

The VAT in practice. (Letters to the Editor).(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2002... The qualifications and negatives of the VAT, in principle, described by Ebrill, Keen, Bodin, and Summers in their otherwise excellent article, "The Allure of the Value-Added Tax" (June 2002), do not fully and fairly sum up the VAT's demerits in...

Moral hazard: fact or fiction? (Letters to the Editor).(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2002... In "Moral Hazard in IMF Loans: How Big a Concern?" (September 2002), Kenneth Rogoff argues against his own theory by saying that the moral hazard in IMF loans is not a big concern. He bases this on the fact that the vast majority of IMF loans...

Fewer strings attached. (In Brief).(International Monetary Fund revises conditions placed on its loans)
December 1, 2002... THE IMF has revised its guidelines for the conditions it attaches to loans--the first such change in nearly a quarter century. When countries borrow from the IMP to support an economic reform program, they must meet certain conditions to...

Healthy exports. (In Brief).(World Bank, World Trade Organization form Standards and Trade Development Facility)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2002... The World Bank and the World Trade Organization are establishing a new fund, called the Standards and Trade Development Facility, in an effort to boost trade opportunities for poor countries. Exports of food products from these countries are...

Debt: how much is too much?
December 1, 2002... AS PART of the work on vulnerability indicators, economists are looking at what level of debt is sustainable for an economy and how much is too much. Borrowing from abroad can help countries grow faster by financing productive investment, and...

The bottom line: weaknesses in public and private sector balance sheets could be the sign of a crisis in the making.
December 1, 2002... THE DEPTH of the capital account crises of the 1990s and the devastation they left in their wake shattered any complacency economic and financial experts may have felt about their ability to accurately assess the financial health of a country...

Riding out the storm: dealing with crises more effectively.
December 1, 2002... GIVEN that it is unrealistic to think that all financial crises can be prevented, where are we on efforts to at least reduce their number and severity? The IMF continues to place top priority on surveillance and macroeconomic and structural...

Financial regulators need independence: granting more operational autonomy to the agencies that keep an eye on the financial sector can bolster financial stability.
December 1, 2002... POLITICAL interference in financial sector regulation and supervision contributed to the depth and magnitude of nearly all of the financial crises of the past decade. As a result, the global community--increasingly aware of the need for...

How corruption holds. (Picture).
December 1, 2002... Widespread corruption and poor governance are serious problems in many countries. They cut into government revenues and lead to wasteful spending, thereby weakening a country's economy and eroding the public's confidence in its institutions and...

Managing the fiscal impact of aid: poor countries must find better ways to manage spending in the face of volatile and unpredictable aid flows.
December 1, 2002... ALTHOUGH foreign aid has been shrinking as a share of the budgets of donor countries, it remains very important for recipient countries. They can use it to finance activities that they may not have enough resources to finance on their own-for...

Hawala: how does this informal funds transfer system work, and should it be regulated?
December 1, 2002... SINCE the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, public interest in informal systems of transferring money around the world, particularly the hawala system, has increased. The reason is the hawala system's alleged role in...

Prolonged use of IMF loans: how much of a problem is it?(International Monetary Fund)
December 1, 2002... THE IMF'S original mandate was to provide assistance to member countries in short-term crisis situations, but, in practice, a number of countries have depended on IMF support for long periods. The Philippines, for instance, was engaged in...

Common currency: GCG countries face fundamental choices as they head for monetary union.
December 1, 2002... REGIONAL integration efforts among the member countries of the Cooperation Council of the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC-- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) have recently gained momentum. During a summit...

A bigger role for leqislatures: as elected representatives, legislatures should be involved in developing national poverty reduction strategies and overseeing their implementation.
December 1, 2002... THE INTERNATIONAL community has changed its approach to poverty reduction over the past decade. Instead of developing programs for poor countries to execute, it now requires that these countries take the lead in formulating poverty reduction...

The elusive peace dividend: how armed conflict and terrorism undermine economic performance.
December 1, 2002... THE END of the Cold War was supposed to bring with it a "peace dividend" that would release resources for more productive purposes. Instead, we are witnessing an era of scattered conflicts, while terrorist groups have become more sophisticated...

The reality of globalization. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Theodore H. Moran Beyond Sweatshops Foreign Direct Investment and Globalization in Developing Countries Brookings Institution Press, Washington, 2002, v + 196 pp., $46.95/[pound sterling]34.75 (cloth), $18.95/[pounds sterling]13.95...

Correcting the failures of the past. (Book Reviews).(Capacity for Development: New Solutions to Old Problems )(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Carlos Lopes, and Kahid Malik (editors) Capacity for Development New Solutions to Old Problems London, United Kingdom/Sterling, Virginia, published by Earthscan in association with the United Nations Development...

Preaching to the converted. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Jagdish Bhagwati Free Trade Today Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, and Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, 2002, ix + 128 pp., $24.95/[pounds sterling]17.95 (cloth). Douglas Irwin Free Trade Under Fire ...

Worth enduring the smoke. (Book Reviews).(Nothing Is Sacred: Economic Ideas for the New Millennium)(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Robert J. Barro Nothing Is Sacred Economic Ideas for the New Millennium MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England, 2002, xix + 169 pp., $24.95/[pounds sterling]16.95 (cloth) THIS book isn't for everyone. Some...