Download or read book IMF Staff Papers Volume 49 No 2 written by Mr.Robert P. Flood and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2002-07-11 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper explores sources of the output collapse in Russia during transition. A modified growth-accounting framework is developed that takes into account changes in factor utilization that are typical of the transition process. The results indicate that declines in factor inputs and productivity were both important determinants of the output fall. The paper analyzes the behavior of real commodity prices over the 1862–1999 progress. It also examines whether average stocks of health and education are converging across countries, and calculates the speed of their convergence using data from 84 countries for 1970–90.
Download or read book IMF Staff Papers Volume 49 No 3 written by International Monetary Fund. Research Dept. and published by INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND. This book was released on 2002-09-23 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper empirically investigates the monetary impact of banking crises in Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, and Uruguay during 1975–98. Cointegration analysis and error correction modeling are used to research two issues: (i) whether money demand stability is threatened by banking crises; and (ii) whether crises lead to structural breaks in the relation between monetary indicators and prices. Overall, no systematic evidence that banking crises cause money demand instability is found. The paper also analyzes inflation targeting in the context of the IMF-supported adjustment programs.
Download or read book IMF Staff Papers Volume 49 No 3 written by International Monetary Fund. Research Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2002-09-23 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper empirically investigates the monetary impact of banking crises in Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, and Uruguay during 1975–98. Cointegration analysis and error correction modeling are used to research two issues: (i) whether money demand stability is threatened by banking crises; and (ii) whether crises lead to structural breaks in the relation between monetary indicators and prices. Overall, no systematic evidence that banking crises cause money demand instability is found. The paper also analyzes inflation targeting in the context of the IMF-supported adjustment programs.
Download or read book IMF Staff Papers Volume 49 No 1 written by Mr.Robert P. Flood and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2002-04-18 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper presents details of a symposium on forecasting performance I organized under the auspices of the IMF Staff Papers. The assumption that the forecaster's goal is to do as well as possible in predicting the actual outcome is sometimes questionable. ln the context of private sector forecasts, this is because the incentives for forecasters may induce them to herd rather than to reveal their true forecasts. Public sector forecasts may also be distorted, although for different reasons. Forecasts associated with IMF programs, for example, are often the result of negotiations between the IMF staff and the country authorities and are perhaps more accurately viewed as goals, or targets, rather than pure forecasts. The standard theory of time series forecasting involves a variety of components including the choice of an information set, the choice of a cost function, and the evaluation of forecasts in terms of the average costs of the forecast errors. It is generally acknowledged that by including more relevant information in the information set, one should be able to produce better forecasts.
Download or read book IMF Staff papers written by International Monetary Fund. Research Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1966-01-01 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Foreword to the first issue: “Among the responsibilities of the International Monetary Fund, as set forth in the Articles of Agreement, is the obligation to fact as a center for the collection and exchange of information on monetary and financial problems,’ and thereby to facilitate ‘the preparation of studies designed to assist members in developing policies which further the purposes of the Fund.’ The publications of the Fund are one way in which this responsibility is discharged. “Through the publication of Staff Papers, the Fund is making available some of the work of members of its staff. The Fund believes that these papers will be found helpful by government officials, by professional economists, and by others concerned with monetary and financial problems. Much of what is now presented is quite provisional. On some international monetary problems, final and definitive views are scarcely to be expected in the near future, and several alternative, or even conflicting, approaches may profitably be explored. The views presented in these papers are not, therefore, to be interpreted as necessarily indicating the position of the Executive Board or of the officials of the Fund.”
Download or read book IMF Staff Papers written by Mr. Robert P. Flood and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2002-04-18 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Annotation This paper explores sources of the output collapse in Russia during transition. a modified growthaccounting framework is developed that takes into account changes in factor utilization that are typical of the transition process. the results indicate that declines in factor inputs and productivity were both important determinants of the output fall. the contribution of the productivity drop was critical, but significantly smaller than previously reported.
Download or read book IMF Staff papers written by International Monetary Fund. Research Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1958-01-01 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines the effect transactions with the IMF have on the monetary situation within a country when the foreign exchange purchased from the IMF is used to meet a balance of payments deficit. In some countries, the national currency counterpart is kept on deposit to the credit of the IMF at the central bank. In other countries, the government substitutes a noninterest-bearing note for the national currency counterpart of a transaction with the IMF. It is with the effects of the latter practice that this paper is primarily concerned. The effect of a balance of payments deficit on the money supply will be offset if credit is expanded to finance a government deficit, investment by business, or spending by consumers. The ultimate effect on the money supply will depend upon how the government deals with the national currency turned over to it by the Exchange Equalization Account. Considerable caution is required in concluding that a balance of payments deficit is likely to be moderate and temporary.
Download or read book IMF Staff papers written by International Monetary Fund. Research Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1986-01-01 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WILLIAM. white, who joined the International Monetary Fund in 1948, spent his entire professional life in the Research Department. Present and past staff members, many of whom benefited from his advice, have asked that his contribution-to the work of the Fund should receive recognition in Staff Papers. This appreciation draws on excerpts from written recollections of some of his colleagues.
Download or read book IMF Staff papers written by International Monetary Fund. Research Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1962-01-01 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper provides an analysis of attempts at international coordination of national policies leads to the conclusion that true international action that has a good chance to succeed for specific measures, such as changes in exchange rates, customs tariffs, and perhaps discount rates. There is, on the other hand, little reason to assume that the desire prevalent in all countries for full employment, stable prices, and growth could be supported to any important degree by the acceptance of international obligations. The targets of economic policy as they have been put forward for our discussion appear simple and noncontroversial: reasonable price stability, full employment and an adequate rate of growth, and balance of payments equilibrium. If in any country the relationship between wages and employment is such that at full employment wages increase more rapidly than is compatible with price stability, then obviously the price and employment objectives of that country are not compatible.
Download or read book IMF Staff Papers written by International Monetary Fund. Research Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2002-11-04 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper reports for uncovered interest parity (UIP) using daily data for 23 developing and developed countries during the crisis-strewn 1990s. UIP is a classic topic of international finance, a critical building block of most theoretical models, and a dismal empirical failure. UIP states that the interest differential is, on average, equal to the ex post exchange rate change. UIP may work differently for countries in crisis, whose exchange and interest rates both display considerably more volatility. This volatility raises the stakes for financial markets and central banks; it also may provide a more statistically powerful test for the UIP hypothesis. Policy-exploitable deviations from UIP are, therefore, a necessary condition for an interest rate defense. There is a considerable amount of heterogeneity in the results, which differ wildly by country.
Download or read book IMF Staff papers written by International Monetary Fund. Research Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1965-01-01 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper reviews an attempt that is made to arrive at a rough quantification of the possible effects of various techniques of IMF reserve creation through the IMF on its own liquidity. For purposes of comparison, the additional needs for IMF resources arising, respectively, from the several techniques of reserve creation are expressed in terms of the amounts of the currencies that are normally suitable for drawing, distributed in proportion to quota, to which the IMF would have to secure to cover the additional needs in question. When reserves are created by the IMF, their creation will in some instances involve a use of Fund resources and may affect its own liquidity. When account is taken of the secondary impact of gold investment on world reserves, it appears that the liquidity cost to the IMF of creating reserves by means of gold investment, though greater per unit of investment, might be somewhat less per unit of reserves created than that of other forms of investment.
Download or read book IMF Staff Papers Volume 51 No 2 written by International Monetary Fund. Research Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2004-07-29 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This second issue for 2004 contains 8 new papers, including notable contributions from: Nancy Brune, Geoffrey Garrett, and Bruce Kogut on the global spread of privatization; and Mark P. Taylor and Elena T. Branson on asymmetric arbitrage and default premiums in the U.S. and Russian markets. Other papers in the issue look at German wage structures, contagion in equity markets, export orientation and productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa, the role of higher vs. basic education in economic development, and issues related to capital account liberalization.
Download or read book IMF Staff papers written by International Monetary Fund. Research Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1964-01-01 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper outlines the extent of the IMF with its present policies and practices or with some modification of those policies and practices that is capable of dealing satisfactorily with certain problems of international liquidity. Liquidity that is conditional in any of these senses may be somewhat less prized by the country possessing it than would be an equivalent amount of unconditional liquidity; but the imposition of such conditions may be for the general advantage of the international community, and may make countries having surpluses in their balances of payments readier to provide, or to facilitate the provision of, additional liquidity. An increased supply of the type of liquidity of which the use is subject to policy conditions will have somewhat different results. Although it will probably increase the amount and the financing of external deficits, even this is not certain. The various types of liquidity are to some extent substitutes for each other.
Download or read book IMF Staff papers written by International Monetary Fund. Research Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1967-01-01 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This chapter highlights asymmetries and errors in reported balance of payments statistics. The aggregation of individual countries' balance of payments statements into group statements or a world total provides clues to certain inconsistencies and asymmetries present in the figures. The method, however, does not necessarily disclose all the differences and inaccuracies that exist, nor does it clearly indicate generally which figures, by country or by category of transaction, are to be regarded as the more reliable when substantial differences come to light. The IMF staff, working with the national compilers to improve the statistics, has concentrated on producing a record of individual countries' economic transactions with the rest of the world that can be used as a basis for gauging the impact of these transactions on the countries' domestic economy and foreign position. Most of the available balance of payments statistics may be judged reasonably adequate to serve this purpose.
Download or read book IMF Staff Papers written by International Monetary Fund. Research Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1963-01-01 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper describes the operations of the international monetary system and to evaluate its efficacy to meet existing and foreseeable problems. The attempt is made to put the essential characteristics of the entire monetary system in a realistic perspective and to lay a better basis for studying and evaluating problems importantly affected by the operations of the system. Thus, the present international payments system is a deliberate choice among the means of conducting international financial relations. It is not rigid, and it makes provision for both adapting to enduring changes and meeting sudden and grave financial crises. However, the system has two permanent features—the use of par values and the convertibility of currencies for current transactions; without these features, it would cease to exist. The measures taken will be dealt with in a subsequent article on the management of the convertibility system and the techniques available for its defense.
Download or read book IMF Staff papers written by International Monetary Fund. Research Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The relationship between the degree of wage indexation chosen by private agents and the degree of public debt indexation chosen by the government is examined. It is shown that the government is likely to increase public debt indexation in response to an increase in wage indexation. By contrast, higher public debt indexation has an ambiguous effect on wage indexation. In equilibrium, wage and public debt indexation may be positively or negatively related. This relationship is analyzed in situations where the policymakers can precommit to policies and in those they cannot.
Download or read book IMF Staff papers written by International Monetary Fund. Research Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper uses microeconomic panel data to examine differences in the cyclical variability of employment, hours, and real wages for skilled and unskilled workers. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it finds that, at the aggregate level, skilled and unskilled workers are subject to the same degree of cyclical variation in wages. However, the quality of labor input is found to rise in recessions, inducing a countercyclical bias in aggregate measures of the real wage. The paper also finds substantial differences across industries in the cyclical variation of employment, hours, and wage differentials, indicating important interindustry differences in labor contracting.
