Finance & Development articles from September 2003

Finance & Development archives from September 2003

From the editor.(Editorial)
September 1, 2003... AT THE IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Dubai in late September, a key concern will be the international community's strategy to help low-income countries accelerate growth and reduce poverty. In the early 1990s, many people felt that such a...

Welfare state not a burden.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... Two points in your article on Professor Allan Meltzer are rather perplexing (June 2003). First, I am not sure that Europe's alleged free riding on the back of U.S. security explains all present frictions. "The force that drove the alliance...

Disbursing aid wisely.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... Bulir and Lane's stimulating piece, "Managing the Fiscal Impact of Aid" (December 2002), provides near-comprehensive coverage of the principal issues. The only omission is the lack of recognition given to the low absorptive capacity of a number...

Geography before institutions.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... This relates to the two articles by Daron Acemoglu and Dani Rodrik and Arvind Subramanian on the primacy of institutions for development (June 2003). One of the greatest weaknesses of the studies on the relative primacy of institutions and...

Getting inflation targeting right.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... Finance & Development is a very useful resource for the students in my economic development course. Now for a bit of history-of-economic-thought nit-picking. In "The Move to Inflation Targeting" (June 2003), the author suggests a short-run...

IMF helping in Iraq's recovery.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The IMF is assisting in the reconstruction and recovery of Iraq. The initial focus of the IMF's work in Iraq has been technical assistance and advice in the IMF's areas of responsibility, including fiscal and monetary policies. This work is...

Is capitalism in danger?(Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists: Unleashing the Power of Financial Markets to Create Wealth and Spread Opportunity)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... In September 2003, Raghuram Rajah--who recently published a provocative book, Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists: Unleashing the Power of Financial Markets to Create Wealth and Spread Opportunity--takes over as the IMF's Economic Counsellor...

Red herring.(30 years ago in F&D)
September 1, 2003... "The main issue regarding debt relief in recent years has been whether it should be viewed as long-term foreign assistance or rather as help toward resolving a short-term liquidity problem." From an article by Thomas M. Klein in the...

Falling short on AIDS.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The world is still not spending enough money to combat AIDS, the United Nations says. It estimates that about half of what is needed is being spent in middle- and low-income countries. "Even with recent increases in AIDS spending, the mismatch...

Middle East needs to boost trade.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) could ward off a major unemployment crisis in the coming years by expanding trade and private investment and generating millions of new jobs, according to a World Bank report, Engaging...

Putting economic policy to the test: an economist's real-life experiments yield surprising results.(People In Economics)
September 1, 2003... "IT IS A CAPITAL MISTAKE to theorize before one has data," Sherlock Holmes remarks to his friend Dr. Watson in "A Scandal in Bohemia." Development economist Esther Duflo would probably agree. A slight, intense, 31-year-old with dark hair...

Beyond the Washington Consensus.
September 1, 2003... BY THEIR nature, the heady times of 1989 were given to hyperbole, with Francis Fukuyama declaring the "End of History." The Berlin Wall came tumbling down and communist regimes were ousted across Eastern Europe. Soviet troops pulled out of...

From reform agenda to damaged brand name: a short history of the Washington Consensus and suggestions for what to do next.(economic reform)
September 1, 2003... THE STORY of the Washington Consensus dates back to 1989, when the press in the United States was still talking about how Latin American countries were unwilling to undertake the reforms that might give them a chance to escape the debt crisis....

Overcoming reform fatigue: Latin America and the Washington Consensus.
September 1, 2003... THE COUNTRIES of Latin America began a process of reform about two decades ago, with a view to restoring growth and overcoming the debt crisis that had enveloped the region. Macroeconomic policies focused on the immediate priority of...

Finding the right path: Africa and the Washington Consensus.
September 1, 2003... AS MANY interpretations of the Washington Consensus exist as there are regions in the world. For Africa, the panoply of reforms subsumed under the term has been useful as a guide to economic policymaking--with the main focus on fiscal...

Inequality: now you see it, now you don't.(Back To Basics; economics)
September 1, 2003... "THE RICH ARE getting richer; the poor are getting poorer." Typing this popular slogan into Google gives over 34,000 hits. But does it describe the truth? And how much should we worry about inequality? Just the facts Establishing the...

Monetary regime options for Latin America: would a common currency help or are floating exchange rates the solution?
September 1, 2003... WHAT EXCHANGE rate and monetary regime a country should choose is a perennial question for many governments. It is especially relevant in Latin America, where many of the previously tried solutions are falling out of favor. In the 1980s,...

Riding the Tiger: how central banks in developing countries can best intervene in volatile foreign exchange markets.
September 1, 2003... OFFICIAL intervention in the foreign exchange market is a risky business, particularly for developing countries with low central bank credibility and a weak external liquidity position. Intervention can often be expensive and fail to achieve...

Assessing offshore financial centers: filling a gap in global surveillance.
September 1, 2003... OFFSHORE financial centers (OFCs), despite their name, are not necessarily islands, although many island jurisdictions have established OFCs. Nor is there a single universal definition of an offshore center. One definition of an OFC is a...

Who will pay? Time is ticking away to solve long-term fiscal challenges posed by aging societies, climate change, and other problems.
September 1, 2003... ACROSS the world, a number of current and emerging problems pose new dangers for industrial and developing countries alike. The convergence of these problems will create significant social, political, and economic challenges to governments...

Hit by disaster.(Picture This; natural disasters)
September 1, 2003... OVER THE past few decades, a growing number of natural disasters have taken an increasingly devastating toll on human lives, livelihoods, and physical infrastructure in countries across the globe. Scientists believe that this long-term upward...

Being prepared: natural disasters are becoming more frequent, more destructive, and deadlier, and poor countries are being hit the hardest.
September 1, 2003... AS THE incidence and intensity of natural disasters have increased, the resulting economic losses have soared. During the past 10 years for which comprehensive data are available (1992-2001), losses stemming from natural disasters have averaged...

Staying on track: a framework for monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals.(economic development)
September 1, 2003... WHEN THE DEVELOPMENT Committee--the ministerial-level body that advises the World Bank and the IMF on development issues--discussed the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the IMF-Bank Annual Meetings in September 2002, it called for...

Making services work for poor people: the poor need more control over essential services.
September 1, 2003... POVERTY HAS many dimensions. In addition to low income (living on less than $1 a day), illiteracy, poor health, gender inequality, and environmental degradation are all aspects of being poor. This is reflected in the eight Millennium...

The horrors of hyperinflation.(Monetary Regimes and Inflation: History, Economic and Political Relationships by Peter Bernholz)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Peter Bernholz Monetary Regimes and Inflation History, Economic and Political Relationships Edward Elgar, Surrey, United Kingdom/Northampton, Massachusetts, 2003, 224 55 [pounds sterling] /$85 (cloth). PETER BERNHOLZ, one of...

To float or not to float.(Too Sensational on the Choice of Exchange Rate Regimes by M. Max Corden )(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... W. Max Corden Too Sensational On the Choice of Exchange Rate Regimes MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2002, 288 pp., $29.95/19.95 [pounds sterling] (cloth). THE BOOK opens with a quote from Oscar Wilde, in which the Irish...

Restarting America's economic engines.(Why Economies Grow: the Forces that Shape Prosperity and How to Get Them Working Again by Jeff Madrick)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Jeff Madrick Why Economies Grow The Forces That Shape Prosperity and How to Get Them Working Again Basic Books (for the Century Foundation), New York, 2002, xiv + 242 pp., $26.00 (cloth). IN THIS well-written and highly accessible...

The Middle East and North Africa.(Country Focus)
September 1, 2003... Pursuing growth-enhancing policies and structural reforms while reinvigorating the reform of institutions. [GRAPHIC OMITTED]

More cheerleading or more whistle-blowing? A little more IMF whistle-blowing would be a welcome sound.(Straight Talk)
September 1, 2003... IN TRYING to prevent global financial crises, the IMF faces a constant tension between being a "whistle-blower" and a "cheerleader." To forestall problems from building to crisis proportions, the IMP needs to speak out clearly, forcefully, and...