IMF Staff Papers articles from May 2007

IMF Staff Papers archives from May 2007

An evaluation of the World Economic Outlook forecasts.(Author abstract)
May 1, 2007... The World Economic Outlook (WEO) is a significant source of forecasts of global economic activity and is a key vehicle in the International Monetary Fund's multilateral surveillance activities. It is published twice a year, in April and...

The missing globalization puzzle: evidence of the declining importance of distance.(Author abstract)
May 1, 2007... Globalization has many meanings. For our purposes, globalization can be characterized as the rapid increase in international trade spurred by advances in technology that have decreased the cost of trade, where the latter is broadly defined to...

Foreign aid policy and sources of poverty: a quantitative framework.(Author abstract)
May 1, 2007... Foreign aid is an important instrument in efforts to reduce poverty and promote economic development around the world. Some countries have successfully leveraged foreign assistance and escaped poverty. Despite these successes, however, the...

Commodity price shocks and the odds on fiscal performance: a structural vector autoregression approach.(Author abstract)
May 1, 2007... Changes in commodity prices translate into shifts in fiscal performance. When commodity prices decline--particularly in the case of commodity-intensive countries--output growth rates decline, the external current account balance worsens, and...

Labor policies to raise employment.(Author abstract)
May 1, 2007... The steady rise in unemployment rates in Europe during the 1970s and 1980s has been attributed to a variety of factors, including mismatches between labor skills demanded and supplied, excessive wages vis-a-vis productivity levels, overly...

Grants vs. loans.(Author abstract)
May 1, 2007... In July 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush, endorsing a recommendation made by the Meltzer (2000) Commission, proposed that the World Bank and other development agencies replace up to 50 percent of their future lending with grants. According...

Core inflation: measurement and statistical issues in choosing among alternative measures.(Author abstract)
May 1, 2007... Countries that adopt inflation targeting require a credible, timely measure of inflation to target, and the consumer price index (CPI) is usually adopted for this purpose. Because the price changes of some components of the CPI, including food...