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作者:Jain, S; Mansuri, G
作者单位:University of Virginia; The World Bank
摘要:Informal lenders appear to be thriving even in regions where microfinance institutions (MFIs), such as the Grameen Bank, have established lending programs. We suggest that an explanation for this well-documented observation lies in the ubiquitous use of regularly scheduled repayments by MFIs. Borrowers are typically required to repay their loans in tightly structured installments, beginning soon after loan disbursement. This little-remarked aspect of the repayment schedule is usually explained...
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作者:Woo, J
作者单位:DePaul University; Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD)
摘要:This paper is motivated by an important puzzle that arises from the contrasting macroeconomic experience across developing regions in the recent decades. In sharp contrast to East Asia, the fiscal policies in much of Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa are characterized by large fiscal deficits and volatilities of fiscal outcomes. In order to address both large deficits and volatile fiscal outcomes, we develop a simple model of endogenous fiscal policy in which government spending is strategi...
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作者:Marjit, S
摘要:We attempt to trace the consequences of liberal economic policies on informal wage in a general equilibrium model with formal informal labor markets, wage-differential, vertical linkage and restricted capital movement. In particular, we show that the informal wage, representing income for a vast segment of unskilled labor may actually increase even if more people are employed in the informal segment. This also confirms that a contraction in the formal sector employment and the consequent expan...
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作者:Marjit, S; Beladi, H
作者单位:North Dakota State University Fargo
摘要:In this paper, we argue that the Harris-Todaro, (HT) framework sometimes satisfies an envelope property, which makes it work like a full-employment Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson (HOS) model. Then, the HT structure produces very similar results as one gets in the standard HOS framework. Differences arise because the envelope condition may break down. We show how several celebrated results in the HT structure can have this reinterpretation. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.
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作者:Docquier, F; Rapoport, H
作者单位:Stanford University; Universite de Lille; Universite de Lille
摘要:We develop a model of interdependency between emigration, education investment, and discrimination, in the context of an ethnically divided developing economy. Assuming a rent-extraction basis for discrimination, we first endogenize ethnic discrimination in the benchmark case of an economy closed to migration, and then explore how migration prospects affect ethnic inequality. Under the free migration assumption, we find the intuitive result that migration prospects have a protective effect on ...
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作者:de la Brière, B; Sadoulet, E; de Janvry, A; Lambert, S
作者单位:University of California System; University of California Berkeley; INRAE
摘要:Two non-exclusive hypotheses about what motivates remittances sent by Dominican migrants to their rural parents in the Sierra are tested: (a) an insurance contract taken by parents with their migrant children and (b) an investment by migrants in potential bequests. Results show that the relative importance of these two motives to remit is affected by destination (US vs. cities in the Dominican Republic), gender, and household composition. The insurance function is mainly fulfilled by female mi...
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作者:Schmukler, SL; Servén, L
作者单位:The World Bank
摘要:Currency risk is one of the two components of the total interest rate differential. Hard pegs, such as currency boards, are meant to reduce or even eliminate currency risk, thus, reducing domestic interest rates. This paper investigates the patterns and determinants of the currency risk premium in two currency boards-Argentina and Hong Kong. Despite the presumed rigidity of currency boards, the currency premium is almost always positive and at times very large. Its term structure is usually up...
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作者:Cashin, P; McDermott, CJ; Scott, A
作者单位:International Monetary Fund; Reserve Bank of New Zealand; Bank of England
摘要:This paper examines the duration and magnitude of cycles in world commodity prices. Cycles are a dominant feature of commodity prices, and dealing with the economic consequences of booms and slumps in prices continues to be one of the most challenging issues facing policymakers in commodity-exporting developing countries. We find that there is an asymmetry in commodity price cycles, as price slumps last longer than price booms. How far prices fall in a slump is found to be slightly larger than...
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作者:Martínez, L; Werner, A
作者单位:Bank of Mexico
摘要:This paper analyzes the effect that the change from a fixed to a floating exchange rate regime that took place in Mexico in December 1994 had on the currency composition of corporate debt. In particular, the paper asks whether a fixed exchange rate regime biases corporate borrowing towards foreign currency due to an implicit exchange rate guarantee given by the government. Therefore, under a predetermined regime, firms will not fully internalize their exchange rate risk and will be more likely...
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作者:Schweinberger, AG
作者单位:University of Konstanz
摘要:The possibility of transfer paradoxes or immiserizing growth in tariff ridden, small, open, developing countries with a nontraded goods sector is analysed in four models: a (short-run) sector-specific factor model, a dual economy model (capital is mobile between some but not all sectors), a long-run model (factors are mobile between all sectors) and a model with public goods. Several results of the received literature on transfer paradoxes and/or immiserizing growth in distorted small open eco...