Working Paper
Forecasting recovery from COVID-19 using financial data
We develop a new methodology to nowcast the effects of the COVID-19 crisis and forecast its evolution in small, export-oriented countries. To this aim, we exploit variation in financial indexes at the industry level and relate them to the expected...
Blog
Positioning the Climate Finance in the post-2015 Development Agenda
by
Aziz Karimov
June 2013
24 June 2013 Aziz Karimov By the end of 2015, we will see a new global development agenda which will substitute the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs...
Blog
Time to rethink theory on the role of finance in development: The new structural financial economics framework
by
Justin Yifu Lin, Jiajun Xu, Zirong Yang, Yilin Zhang
April 2024
The primary role of finance is to serve the ‘real economy’¬—the part of the economy that produces goods and services. Yet in practice, the financial...
Working Paper
The political economy of Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador
This paper provides a contextual analysis of the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador. First, we outline the historical context and the political situation of the period 2019–24 that serve as context for the passage and implementation...
Working Paper
China’s international development finance
China is emerging as perhaps the most globally significant development finance provider, going far beyond concessional foreign aid. With China’s initiatives to create and foster new multi-lateral finance institutions, and to work in terms of large...
Blog
From the Editor's desk (November 2011)
Tony Addison As we come to the end of November, the snow has yet to arrive in Helsinki. We continue to enjoy clear skies and spectacular sunsets...
Blog
From the Editor's Desk (December 2011)
Tony Addison With the end of the year fast approaching, we bring you the last Angle of 2011. Here in Helsinki, the shortest day of the year is nearly...
Journal Article
Finance and Economic Development in Africa
It is clear that a lot remains to be learnt about the role of the financial sector in African growth and development process. All three papers in this volume focus on the existing consensus in the literature that there seems to be a positive...
Journal Article
The Finance – Growth Thesis
Financial liberalisation is widely seen as key to promoting financial development and unlocking growth in developing countries. While this thesis has been backed by an extensive literature, we show that it rests on weak theoretical and empirical...
Working Paper
Financial Development and Income Inequality in Rural China 1991-2000
Financial development can exert a significant influence on the distribution of income. In this paper, using Chinese provincial data over the period of 1991-2000 and applying the generalized method of moment (GMM) techniques, we investigate the...
Working Paper
Financial Sector Development and Growth
This paper documents the financial and institutional developments of China during the past two decades, when China was successfully transformed from a rigid central-planning economy to a dynamic market economy following its unique path. We...
Working Paper
Central Banks as Agents of Economic Development
In the last two decades, there has been a global sea change in the theory and practice of central banking. The currently dominant ‘best practice’ approach to central banking consists of the following: (1) central bank independence (2) a focus on...
Working Paper
Finance and Poverty in Ethiopia
In this paper, using the rich household panel data of urban and rural Ethiopia that covers the period from 1994 to 2000, we attempted to establish the link between finance and poverty in Ethiopia. Our results show that access to finance is an...
Working Paper
Foreign Direct Investment in Small Island Developing States
The role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in small island developing states (SIDS) is an issue that has been neglected until relatively recently. The reasons for this lack of interest are unsurprising, given both the low absolute volume of capital...
Working Paper
Finance and Growth
This study is an attempt towards an integration of financial development and its effect on the real sector via the transmission mechanism with special reference to developing and emerging market economies. It finds two cointegrating relations between...
Working Paper
The Benefits and Costs of Group Affiliation
This paper investigates the benefits and associated agency costs of using internal capital markets through affiliating with groups using data of two thousand firms from nine East Asian economies between 1994-6. We find that mature and slow-growing...
Working Paper
Foreign Assistance in a Climate-Constrained World
The emergence of climate finance has the potential to catalyze positive changes in the institutional architecture and distribution mechanisms for financial flows to lower income countries. The nature of the challenge of development in the context of...
Working Paper
Aid and Infrastructure Financing
The central argument of this study is that given the magnitude of the investment in infrastructure that is required, especially in Africa, the role of foreign aid in the future should be distinctly different. While aid will be required to continue to...
Book
Macroeconomic Policy after the Conservative Era
The essays collected in this volume, written by well-known academics and policy analysts, discuss the impact of increased capital mobility on macroeconomic performance. The authors highlight the most adequate ways to manage the transition from a semi...
Book
From Capital Surges to Drought
This collection analyses the new trends in capital flows to emerging markets since the Asian crisis, their determinants and policy implications. It explains why such flows have declined so dramatically in recent years, emphasising both structural and...
Book
Finance and the Real Economy
The present volume contains six papers on financial-policy issues and country experiences, presented at a joint ECLAC/UNU-WIDER/UNCTAD seminar held at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile, on 5-6 October 1992. In the first, Yilmaz Akyuz discusses...
Book
Democratic Reform and the Position of Women in Transitional Economies
Exploring the effects of the post-1989 developments in Eastern and Central Europe on the social and economic position of the women of the region, Valentine Moghadam explains how the economic crisis and subsequent development, social breakdown, and...
Journal Article
Financing the New Economy
Part of Journal Special Issue
The New Economy
Presentation
Tony Addisson at the International Financial Architecture as a Global Public Good
Tony Addison has been invited to speak at the International Financial Architecture as a Global Public Good — an expert roundtable in support of Our Common Agenda. The event takes place online on 28 March 2022 at 9am (EST), and it will focus on...
Mon, 28 March 2022
Online,
United States
Past event
Working Paper
Earnings Mobility in Times of Growth and Decline
In recent years, the economy of Argentina has experienced both rapid economic growth and severe economic decline. In this paper, we use a series of one-year long panels to study who gained the most in pesos when the economy grew and who lost the most...
Working Paper
Domestic savings in sub-Saharan Africa
One essential condition of economic progress in any society is an ample supply of savings, which depends on the growth of real capital.Economists agree that higher investment rates will lead to higher growth. Thus, domestic savings is considered an...
Blog
Sales recovered faster from the pandemic than employment: Evidence from tax administrative and survey data in Zambia
by
Aliisa Koivisto, Christopher Hoy, Laban Simbeye, Muhammad Malik, Mashekwa Maboshe
August 2022
Like most other countries, the government of Zambia introduced restrictions to control COVID-19, which considerably curtailed normal economic activity...
Working Paper
Does Financial Liberalisation Improve Access to Investment Finance in Developing Countries?
This paper considers the effect of financial liberalisation on access to investment finance using firm level data covering 57 developing and transition countries. An index is presented which measures financial market liberalisation along the...
Working Paper
Financing the New Economy
This paper examines the financial sector preconditions for the successful development of a high technology sector. It argues that there is a close relation between types of activities undertaken in different countries and their institutional...
Working Paper
Financial systems in new middle-income African economies
This paper examines the possible implications for the financial systems of low-income African economies and in particular Tanzania of their stated aspiration to achieve middle-income status. In doing so it finds little evidence that the mere increase...
Working Paper
Comparative Appraisal of Multilateral and Bilateral Approaches to Financing Private Sector Development in Developing Countries
This paper identifies the rationale behind the emergence of private sector development (PSD) as a special area of development assistance. It describes PSD policies’ main elements and instruments and provides an overview of the differences and...
Working Paper
Sanction-busting through tax havens
Financial sanctions, which aim to economically hurt a target by restricting its access to financial assets and markets, require the ability to identify who owns an asset. Although experts have long claimed that offshore financial centres that offer...
Working Paper
Political Regime, Private Investment, and Foreign Direct Investment in Developing Countries
This paper uses annual aggregate data for 36 low or middle income countries covering the period 1995-2001 to investigate the effect of FDI on private investment. It also explores if the relationship between FDI and private investment is influenced by...
Working Paper
Source of Finance, Growth and Firm Size – Evidence from China
Using a comprehensive firm-level dataset spanning the period 1998-2005, this paper provides a thorough investigation of the relationship between firm size, total factor productivity growth and financial structure in China, controlling for the...
Book
Development Finance in the Global Economy
For much of the last 30 years the global economy has had a limited impact on poverty alleviation. But there are now grounds for optimism. Presently, global liquidity is ample, pushing investors into parts of the world they previously avoided, and...
Research Brief
The Role of ODA in Infrastructure Financing
It has long been recognized that the creation of an adequate infrastructure is vital for creating sustainable growth and reducing poverty in Africa. However the gap between the investment that is needed and the money currently available is too big to...
Research Brief
Foreign Assistance in a Climate-Constrained World
The three goals of promoting development, adaptation to climate change, and climate change mitigation are in reality inseparable policy areas and as such there is a compelling case for addressing them simultaneously. Climate finance aimed at helping...