IMF Staff Papers, Volume 47, No. 2
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 47, No. 2

Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2000-01-01

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 145197423X

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This paper analyzes portfolio diversification, leverage, and financial contagion. It studies the extent to which basic principles of portfolio diversification explain “contagious selling” of financial assets when there are purely local shocks. The paper demonstrates that the elementary portfolio theory offers key insights into “contagion.” Most important, portfolio diversification and leverage are sufficient to explain why an investor will find it optimal to significantly reduce all risky asset positions when an adverse shock impacts just one asset.

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 47, No. 3
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 47, No. 3

Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2001-10-10

Total Pages: 140

ISBN-13: 1451973748

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This paper provides an overview of the recent theoretical and empirical research on herd behavior in financial markets. It looks at what precisely is meant by herding, the causes of herd behavior, the success of existing studies in identifying the phenomenon, and the effect that herding has on financial markets. The paper also surveys a selected number of studies that evaluated the demand for money using the error-correction model approach in the 1990s across a range of industrial and developing countries.

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 47, No. 1
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 47, No. 1

Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2000-01-01

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 1451974582

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This paper discusses the origins of the pyramid schemes and the way the authorities handled them. The paper analyzes the economic effects of the pyramid schemes, concluding that despite the descent into anarchy triggered by the schemes’ collapse, their direct effects on the economy are difficult to specify and appear to have been limited. The paper also argues that prevention of pyramid schemes is better than cure and that government and international financial institutions should be vigilant in clamping down on frauds.

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 47, Special Issue, IMF Annual Research Conference,
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 47, Special Issue, IMF Annual Research Conference,

Author: Mr.Robert P. Flood

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2001-11-28

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 1451963092

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This paper presents a broad overview of postwar analytical thinking on international macroeconomics, culminating in a more detailed discussion of recent progress. The paper reviews important empirical evidence that has inspired alternative modeling approaches, as well as theoretical and policy considerations behind developments in the field. The paper presents an empirical study of fiscal policy in countries with extreme monetary regimes. It also examines members of multilateral currency unions, dollarized countries that officially use the money of another country, and countries using currency boards.

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 48, No. 2
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 48, No. 2

Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2001-12-12

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1451974256

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This paper analyzes the link between product variety and economic growth. It finds support for the hypothesis that a greater degree of product variety relative to the United States helps to explain relative per capita GDP levels. The paper presents an empirical study for South Africa, which indicates that there exists a stable money demand type of relationship among domestic prices, broad money, real income, and interest rates, as well as a long-term relationship among domestic prices, foreign prices, and the nominal exchange rate.

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 50, No. 2
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 50, No. 2

Author: Mr.Robert P. Flood

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2003-07-11

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 9781589062023

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This paper examines sources of economic growth in East Asia. The conventional growth-accounting approach to estimating the sources of economic growth requires unrealistically strong assumptions about either competitiveness of factor markets or the form of the underlying aggregate production function. The paper outlines a new approach utilizing nonparametric derivative estimation techniques that does not require imposing these restrictive assumptions. The results for East Asian countries show that output elasticities of capital and labor tend to be different from the income shares of these factors. The paper also explores the compensating potential of private intergenerational transfers.

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 52, No. 3
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 52, No. 3

Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2005-12-22

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1589064755

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This last issue for 2005 comprises seven new papers, including a contribution to the journal's occasional Special Data Section about domestic debt markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, and also an in-depth look at the internal job market for entry-level economists at the IMF. The remaining articles cover toics as diverse as: modeling of asset markets, exchange rates in developing countries, international bank claims on Latin America, the effectiveness of "early warning" systems, and the use (by emerging market countries) of the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS).

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 49, No. 2
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 49, No. 2

Author: Mr.Robert P. Flood

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2002-07-11

Total Pages: 122

ISBN-13: 9781589061194

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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.

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 51, No. 2
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 51, No. 2

Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2004-07-29

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9781589063235

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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.

IMF Staff Papers, Volume 52, No. 2
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 52, No. 2

Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2005-08-29

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1589064488

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This paper examines contractionary currency crashes in developing countries. It explores the causes of India’s productivity surge around 1980, more than a decade before serious economic reforms were initiated. The paper finds evidence that the trigger may have been an attitudinal shift by the government in the early 1980s that, unlike the reforms of the 1990s, was pro-business rather than pro-market in character, favoring the interests of existing businesses rather than new entrants or consumers. A relatively small shift elicited a large productivity response, because India was far away from its income possibility frontier.