Finance & Development articles from June 1993

Finance & Development archives from June 1993

The ruble area: a breaking of old ties? (Cover Story)
June 1, 1993... SINCE the dissolution of the Soviet Union, most of the former member states have retained the ruble as their national currency but have followed independent monetary policies. Such a combination is not sustainable. With mounting disarray in the...

Intergovernmental finance: critical to Russia's transformation?
June 1, 1993... AS RUSSIA and other transition economies move from centrally planned to market-based systems, fiscal decentralization emerges as an important dimension of public sector reforms. The design of intergovernmental fiscal systems will be critical to...

Privatization in Eastern Europe: is the state withering away?
June 1, 1993... THREE years after the systemic changes sweeping the political and economic landscape of Eastern Europe, privatization is still widely talked about and seemingly pursued. Yet, despite ardent support for the concept, not much privatization is...

Privatization: expectations, trade-offs, and results.
June 1, 1993... WHILE privatization has increased rapidly around the world, the results in many countries have fallen short of initial expectations, particularly of those who imagined instant riches or a fiscal panacea. In practice, privatization objectives are...

Prejudice and fact in Poland's industrial transformation.
June 1, 1993... CONTRARY to the commonly perceived stereotype of state-owned enterprises as passive and non-responsive, there is evidence to suggest that in Poland, state companies are adapting to new realities with considerable vigor. A World Bank study on the...

Reforming social security systems.
June 1, 1993... WHAT are the causes and nature of the crisis faced by many social security systems around the world? And is there a case for reforming them in the framework of IMF-supported adjustment programs? Indeed, a cost-effective social security system...

Protecting the poor: social safety nets during transition. (includes related article)
June 1, 1993... WHILE making the move toward a market-oriented economy, the states of the former USSR must deal with the transitory adverse effects of reform measures on vulnerable groups. Social safety nets--a critical component of a reform program--rank among...

The experience with floating rates.
June 1, 1993... AFTER a decade of experimenting with floating exchange rates, developing countries are finding that the pros outweigh the cons if domestic economic policies are right. Already several new countries in the former USSR are opting to pick floating...

The theory of optimum currency areas revisited.
June 1, 1993... THE THEORY of optimum currency areas is back. Once dismissed as a "dead-end problem" with little practical significance to exchange rate policy and monetary reform, the issue has been resuscitated and rethought--indeed, is now heralded as one of...

War to peace transition in Uganda.
June 1, 1993... IN MANY developing countries, an overblown military sector absorbs substantial budgetary resources that could be better used for development. Large armies also pose a potential threat to democratic civilian governments, by emphasizing conflict...

Where we stand with renewable energy.
June 1, 1993... RENEWABLE energy technologies are now being successfully used in numerous small-scale applications on a commercial basis and for some larger-scale power generation projects. For developing countries in particular, solar energy is an abundant and...

Megacities and the environment.
June 1, 1993... AS MEGACITIES worldwide continue to deteriorate, the "brown" environmental issues take on new urgency. But the recent patterns of growth of these cities promise to make any efforts to reform that much more difficult. One of the most obvious,...