Finance & Development articles from September 2002

Finance & Development archives from September 2002

From the editor.
September 1, 2002... IN RECENT years, industrial country leaders have boosted their pledges of aid and debt relief for the poorest countries, but what they have given with one hand they have taken away with the other. For example, industrial countries spent $50...

Financial crises hit poor harder. (Letters to the Editor).
September 1, 2002... "Financial Crises, Poverty, and Income Distribution" (June 2002) shows how, in times of crises, the poor are hit hard while the income share of the richest increases. But the authors do not speculate why the rich get richer. One reason is that...

Developing country debt. (Letters to the Editor).
September 1, 2002... I read "External Debt and Growth" and "Odious Debt" (June 2002) and am glad to see that the IMF is still concerned about developing country debt, despite the apparent demise of Anne Krueger's proposal for a sovereign debt reduction mechanism....

Poverty reduction. (Letters to the Editor).
September 1, 2002... "Taking Stock of Poverty Reduction Efforts" (June 2002) stimulated us to discuss the PRSP [poverty reduction strategy paper] process. Together, we have at least 120 years of experience in development economics. First, PRSPs emphasize the...

Debt sustainability. (In Brief).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... The IMF's Executive Board has approved a framework intended to bring greater consistency and discipline to the IMP's analysis of external and public debt sustainability--an integral part of its crisis prevention initiatives. Judgments about a...

Fewer secrets. (In Brief).(International Monetary Fund)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... IMF members' use of side letters has fallen significantly since the IMF introduced procedures governing the use of side letters in 1999--from an annual average of 14 letters during 1997--99 to 5 during September 1999--February 2002--according...

More accurate exchange rate classifications. (In Brief).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... In a study of the exchange rate regimes of 153 countries going back to 1946, two IMP economists found that the official classification was often radically different from actual country practices. About half of the countries studied by Carmen M....

The Doha development agenda.
September 1, 2002... The launch of a new trade round in Doha last November was a major breakthrough following the debacle in Seattle in 1999. The new round places the needs and interests of developing countries at the heart of its work, but a successful outcome for...

Market access for developing countries.
September 1, 2002... Poor countries could boost growth and reduce poverty by expanding exports to the rich countries and to each other. But, despite the progress made in trade liberalization under successive multilateral agreements, many barriers persist in both...

The truth about industrial country tariffs; average tariff rates mask one important fact: the poor get hit the hardest. (Picture This).
September 1, 2002... What's wrong with tariff structures? Although most tariffs in industrial countries are low, those on several categories of goods remain prohibitively high. Tariffs on many consumer, agricultural, and labor-intensive products are 10-20 times...

Lifting all boats: why openness helps curb poverty.(trade liberalization and globalization)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... Although there is a near-consensus among economists that trade liberalization strongly promotes growth and poverty reduction, concern about its ill effects has not abated. Hence, it is important to assess the quality of the evidence regarding...

Why we should embrace globalization. (Point of View).
September 1, 2002... The key difference between our era of globalization and the last one, which ended with the Great Depression, is that, for the first time, many companies are operating on a global basis. Although this change has raised fears among some people in...

What will WTO membership mean for China and its trading partners?(World Trade Organization )
September 1, 2002... On December 11, 2001, after 15 years of arduous negotiations, China became the 143rd member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The opening of an economy as large as China's can be disruptive to some developing countries in the short run,...

Is globalization good for the poor in China?
September 1, 2002... Developing countries worry that opening up to trade with the rest of the world may make the poor poorer and the rich richer, with China sometimes cited as an example of growing income inequality. A recent IMF study, however, finds that the...

The Tosovsky Dilemma: capital surges in transition countries.(economic policy European Union)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... Transition countries that open themselves up to global capital markets are like honest citizens in a dangerous world--they are vulnerable to large and potentially erratic flows. Such flows should not be seen as one-off destabilizing events:...

The Commonwealth of Independent States' troubled energy sectors.
September 1, 2002... The energy sector plays a large economic role in several of the countries of the former Soviet Union, given their vast reserves of oil and natural gas. But the sector is riddled with distortions and inefficiencies-especially because of...

The future of pension reform in Latin America.
September 1, 2002... The Latin American countries are at the vanguard of global pension reform. Eight have reformed their pension systems in the past 20 years, and additional reforms are now being considered throughout the region. Did the earlier reforms work? What...

Combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
September 1, 2002... Money laundering and terrorist financing can threaten financial stability and economic prosperity, adding to the gravity of the underlying crimes. The IMF, working closely with the global community, is stepping up its efforts to fight these...

Challenges of the "E-banking Revolution".
September 1, 2002... Electronic banking is the wave of the future. It provides enormous benefits to consumers in terms of the ease and cost of transactions. But it also poses new challenges for country authorities in regulating and supervising the financial system...

The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000. (Book Reviews).
September 1, 2002... The Cash Nexus Niall Ferguson Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000 Allen Lane, Penguin Press, London, 2001, xix + 553 pp., [pounds sterling]20 (cloth). A POWERFUL strand of contemporary opinion regards globalization...

Glimpses of Indian Economic Policy: An Insider's View.
September 1, 2002... Glimpses of Indian Economic Policy I.G. Patel An Insider's View Oxford University Press, New Delhi, India, 2002, 205 pp., $29.95/Rs 395 (cloth). IN THE IMP's early years, the two Cambridges (England and Massachusetts) were...

Rainbow's End: The Crash of 1929.
September 1, 2002... Rainbow's End Maury Klein The Crash of 1929 Oxford University Press, New York/Oxford, England, 2001, xx + 345 pp. $27.50/[pounds sterling]22.95 (cloth). WHEN Maury Klein acknowledges from the very outset that his account of...

Integrating China into the Global Economy.
September 1, 2002... Integrating China into the Global Economy Nicholas R. Lardy Brookings Institution Press, Washington, 2002, vii + 244 pp., $48.95 (cloth), $19.95 (paper). NICHOLAS LARDY presents an excellent analysis of China's recent entry into...

Happiness and Hardship: Opportunity and Insecurity in New Market Economies.
September 1, 2002... Happiness and Hardship Carol Graham and Stefano Pettinato Opportunity and Insecurity in New Market Economies Brookings Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 2002, ix + 208 pp., $42.95/[pounds sterling]31.95 (cloth), $17.95/[pounds...

Moral hazard in IMF loans: how big a concern? (Straight Talk).(International Monetary Fund research)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... IT IS an article of faith among many IMF critics that industrial country taxpayers bear the costs of IMF loans-the critics call them "bailouts"-to countries in crisis. The standard scenario is supposedly this: A developing country borrows...