The Institutional and Political Determinants of Fiscal Adjustment Staff Working Paper 2006-1 Robert Lavigne The author empirically assesses the effects of institutional and political factors on the need and willingness of governments to make large fiscal adjustments. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Development economics, Econometric and statistical methods, Fiscal policy, International topics JEL Code(s): E, E6, E62, O, O1, O17, O19
La fonction de production et les données canadiennes Staff Working Paper 2005-20 Patrick Perrier This study has two aspects. First, the author examines the theoretical properties of the constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production function and the implications of this formulation for the properties of a structural macroeconomic model. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models JEL Code(s): D, D2, D24, E, E2, E23, O, O4, O40
Commodity-Linked Bonds: A Potential Means for Less-Developed Countries to Raise Foreign Capital Staff Working Paper 2004-20 Joseph Atta-Mensah The author suggests that commodity-linked bonds could provide a potential means for less-developed countries (LDCs) to raise money on the international capital markets, rather than through standard forms of financing. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Development economics, Financial markets, International topics JEL Code(s): F, F3, F30, F34, F4, F49, G, G1, G11, G13, O, O1, O16
Contraintes de liquidité et capital humain dans une petite économie ouverte Staff Working Paper 2004-13 Florian Pelgrin In an overlapping-generations model that represents a small open economy, where agents live two periods, liquidity constraints lead to low economic development when the only accumulable factor is human capital. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models JEL Code(s): I, I2, I20, O, O4, O40
The Effect of Adjustment Costs and Organizational Change on Productivity in Canada: Evidence from Aggregate Data Staff Working Paper 2004-1 Danny Leung A basic neoclassical model of production is often used to assess the contribution of investment to output growth. In the model, investment raises the capital stock and output growth increases in proportion to the growth in capital. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Productivity JEL Code(s): O, O3, O31, O4, O49
Financial Constraints and Investment: Assessing the Impact of a World Bank Loan Program on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Sri Lanka Staff Working Paper 2003-37 Varouj Aivazian, Dipak Mazumdar, Eric Santor The authors examine the investment behaviour of a sample of small, credit-constrained firms in Sri Lanka. Using a unique panel-data set, they analyze and compare the activities of two groups of small firms distinguished by their different access to financing; one group consists of firms with heavily subsidized loans from the World Bank, and the other consists of firms without such subsidies. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Development economics JEL Code(s): G, G0, G00, O, O1, O16
Do Peer Group Members Outperform Individual Borrowers? A Test of Peer Group Lending Using Canadian Micro-Credit Data Staff Working Paper 2003-33 Rafael Gomez, Eric Santor Microfinance institutions now serve over 10 million poor households in the developing and developed world, and much of their success has been attributed to their innovative use of peer group lending. There is very little empirical evidence, however, to suggest that group lending schemes offer a superior institutional design over lending programs that serve individual borrowers. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Development economics JEL Code(s): E, J, J2, J23, O, O1, O17
Technological Change and the Education Premium in Canada: Sectoral Evidence Staff Working Paper 2003-18 Jean Farès, Terence Yuen It has been well documented that the education premium measured by the wage difference between university and high school graduates has remained constant over the past two decades in Canada. Despite this stable pattern at the aggregate level, skill-biased technology could have important implications for the inter-industry wage structure. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Labour markets JEL Code(s): J, J3, J31, O, O3, O30
Financial Structure and Economic Growth: A Non-Technical Survey Staff Working Paper 2002-24 Veronika Dolar, Césaire Meh There is a large body of literature that studies the relationship between financial structure (that is, the degree to which the financial system is either market- or intermediary-based) and long-run economic growth. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Development economics, Economic models, Financial institutions, Financial markets, Financial services JEL Code(s): F, F3, F36, G, G0, G00, G1, G14, G2, G21, K, K2, K22, O, O1, O16
Does Exchange Rate Policy Matter for Growth? Staff Working Paper 2002-17 Jeannine Bailliu, Robert Lafrance, Jean-François Perrault Previous studies on whether the nature of the exchange rate regime influences a country's medium-term growth performance have been based on a tripartite classification scheme that distinguishes between pegged, intermediate, and flexible exchange rate regimes. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Exchange rate regimes, Exchange rates, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): F, F3, F31, F33, F4, F43, O, O4, O40