Staff Discussion Notes

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Staff Discussion Notes

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• Drivers of Exchange Rates in EMDEs: Implications for Foreign Exchange Intervention
  • Published: September 17, 2026
  • Series: Staff Discussion Notes
  • Authors: Ece Ozge Emeksiz; Andres Fernandez; Nikhil Patel; Ivan Petrella; Tatjana Schulze
  • Summary: Exchange rate movements in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) can reflect shifts in macroeconomic fundamentals or, alternatively, financial shocks that impair currency market functioning.
• Deeper and More Integrated Financial Markets to Foster Growth and Resilience in Europe
  • Published: June 9, 2026
  • Summary: Persistent fragmentation and limited depth in EU financial markets constrain firm growth, innovation, and cross-country risk sharing.
• Bridging Skill Gaps for the Future: New Jobs Creation in the AI Age
  • Published: January 9, 2026
  • Summary: The demand and supply of new skills—especially in IT and AI—are reshaping labor markets, impacting wages and hiring. About one in ten job vacancies in advanced economies demands at least one new skill, often appearing first in the United States. The incidence is about half in emerging economies.
• Fiscal Guardrails against High Debt and Looming Spending Pressures
  • Published: September 22, 2025
  • Summary: Many countries have adopted fiscal rules to foster fiscal discipline, but compliance has been mixed. Recent policy shifts and heightened policy uncertainty further intensify spending pressures and persistent debt challenges, underscoring the need for stronger fiscal guardrails.
• Navigating Trade-Offs between Price and Financial Stability in Times of High Inflation
  • Published: April 10, 2025
  • Summary: Trade-offs between price and financial stability can occur when inflation is above target and financial stress is rising.
• Industrial Policies: Handle with Care
  • Published: March 21, 2025
  • Summary: Industrial policies (IPs) are increasingly implemented, necessitating a reassessment of their benefits and costs. This study examines their economic and geopolitical drivers and their impact on targeted sectors.
• Inflation and Bank Profits: Monetary Policy Trade-offs
  • Published: February 10, 2025
  • Summary: Given the recent surge in inflation and the resulting sharp monetary tightening, this note asks whether bank profits are exposed to inflation.
• Green Jobs and the Future of Work for Women and Men
  • Published: September 27, 2024
  • Summary: The transition to a sustainable and green economy requires workers to move out of carbon-intensive jobs and workers to move into green jobs. The pace and effectiveness of the transition hinge not only on climate policies but also on the skills and adaptability of workers.
• Broadening the Gains from Generative AI: The Role of Fiscal Policies
  • Published: June 11, 2024
  • Summary: Generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) holds immense potential to boost productivity growth and advance public service delivery, but it also raises profound concerns about massive labor disruptions and rising inequality.
• Gen-AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work
  • Published: January 14, 2024
  • Summary: Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to reshape the global economy, especially in the realm of labor markets. Advanced economies will experience the benefits and pitfalls of AI sooner than emerging market and developing economies, largely due to their employment structure focused on cognit
• Green Innovation and Diffusion: Policies to Accelerate Them and Expected Impact on Macroeconomic and Firm-Level Performance
  • Published: November 3, 2023
  • Summary: Innovation in low-carbon technologies (LCTs), which is essential in the fight against climate change, has slowed in recent years. This Staff Discussion Note shows that a global climate policy strategy can bolster innovation in, and deployment of, LCTs.
• Structural Reforms to Accelerate Growth, Ease Policy Trade-offs, and Support the Green Transition in Emerging Market and Developing Economies
  • Published: September 21, 2023
  • Summary: In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging market and developing economies are grappling with economic scarring, social tension, and reduced policy space. Policy actions are already urgently needed to boost growth in the near term and support the ongoing green transition.
• Building Tax Capacity in Developing Countries
  • Published: September 15, 2023
  • Summary: Tax capacity—the policy, institutional, and technical capabilities to collect tax revenue—is part of a deeper process of state building that is essential for achieving the sustainable development goals.
• Market Reforms and Public Debt Dynamics in Emerging Market and Developing Economies
  • Published: September 8, 2023
  • Summary: Many emerging market and developing economies face a difficult trade-off between economic support and fiscal sustainability. Market-oriented structural reforms ease this trade-off by promoting economic growth and strengthening public finances.
• Transforming Public Finance Through GovTech
  • Published: September 6, 2023
  • Summary: Digital divide across countries and within countries continues to persist and even increased when the quality of internet connection is considered. The note shows that many governments have not been able to harness the full potential of digitalization.
• Digitalization During the COVID-19 Crisis: Implications for Productivity and Labor Markets in Advanced Economies
  • Published: March 13, 2023
  • Summary: Digitalization induced by the pandemic was seen both as a possible silver-lining from the crisis that could increase longer-term productivity and a risk for further labor market inequality between digital and non-digital workers.
• Public Perceptions of Climate Mitigation Policies: Evidence from Cross-Country Surveys
  • Published: February 7, 2023
  • Summary: Building public support for climate mitigation is a key prerequisite to making meaningful strides toward implementing climate mitigation policies and achieving decarbonization.
• Geoeconomic Fragmentation and the Future of Multilateralism
  • Published: January 11, 2023
  • Summary: After several decades of increasing global economic integration, the world is facing the risk of policy-driven geoeconomic fragmentation (GEF). This note explores the ramifications.
• The Return to Fiscal Rules
  • Published: October 11, 2022
  • Summary: Governments face difficult policy trade-offs with record debt levels, tightening monetary policies, and urgent demands, including food and energy crises, the climate agenda, and population aging.
• The State as Financier of Last Resort
  • Published: October 11, 2022
  • Summary: During the COVID-19 pandemic and global financial crisis, governments swiftly served as financiers of last resort through large financial support measures (FSMs) such as loan and guarantee programs and equity injections in firms.
• Labor Market Tightness in Advanced Economies
  • Published: March 30, 2022
  • Summary: Two years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a puzzle has emerged in several advanced economies: unfilled job vacancies have increased sharply even though employment has yet to fully recover.
• Toward a Global Approach to Data in the Digital Age
  • Published: October 6, 2021
  • Summary: The ongoing economic and financial digitalization is making individual data a key input and source of value for companies across sectors, from bigtechs and pharmaceuticals to manufacturers and financial services providers.
• A Proposal to End the COVID-19 Pandemic
  • Published: May 19, 2021
  • Summary: Urgent steps are needed to arrest the rising human toll and economic strain from the COVID-19 pandemic that are exacerbating already-diverging recoveries. Pandemic policy is also economic policy as there is no durable end to the economic crisis without an end to the health crisis.
• A Post-Pandemic Assessment of the Sustainable Development Goals
  • Published: April 27, 2021
  • Summary: The COVID-19 pandemic hit countries’ development agendas hard. The ensuing recession has pushed millions into extreme poverty and has shrunk government resources available for spending on achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Insolvency Prospects Among Small-and-Medium-Sized Enterprises in Advanced Economies: Assessment and Policy Options
  • Published: March 25, 2021
  • Summary: The COVID-19 pandemic has increased insolvency risks, especially among small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which are vastly overrepresented in hard-hit sectors.
• Rising Corporate Market Power: Emerging Policy Issues
  • Published: March 10, 2021
  • Summary: Corporate market power has risen in recent decades, and new estimates in this note suggest that the likely wave of small and medium-sized enterprise bankruptcies from the ongoing pandemic will further strengthen market concentration.
• Cyber Risk and Financial Stability: It’s a Small World After All
  • Published: December 4, 2020
  • Summary: The ability of attackers to undermine, disrupt and disable information and communication technology systems used by financial institutions is a threat to financial stability and one that requires additional attention.
• The Role of State-Contingent Debt Instruments in Sovereign Debt Restructurings
  • Published: November 13, 2020
  • Summary: The COVID-19 crisis may lead to a series of costly and inefficient sovereign debt restructurings. Any such restructurings will likely take place during a period of great economic uncertainty, which may lead to protracted negotiations between creditors and debtors over recovery values, and potentiall
• Dominant Currencies and External Adjustment
  • Published: July 16, 2020
  • Summary: The extensive use of the US dollar when firms set prices for international trade (dubbed dominant currency pricing) and in their funding (dominant currency financing) has come to the forefront of policy debate, raising questions about how exchange rates work and the benefits of exchange rate flexibi
• The African Continental Free Trade Area: Potential Economic Impact and Challenges
  • Published: May 13, 2020
  • Summary: Political momentum towards Africa-wide free trade has been intensifying. In March 2018, over 40 countries signed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. Once fully implemented, the AfCFTA is expected to cover all 55 African countries, with a combined GDP of about US$2.2 trillion.
• Women in the Labor Force: The Role of Fiscal Policies
  • Published: February 11, 2020
  • Summary: Despite the increase in female labor force participation over the past three decades, women still do not have the same opportunities as men to participate in economic activities in most countries.
• Discerning Good from Bad Credit Booms: The Role of Construction
  • Published: February 10, 2020
  • Summary: Credit booms are a focal point for policymakers and scholars of financial crises. Yet our understanding of how the real sector behaves during booms, and why some booms may go bad, is limited.
• Finance and Inequality
  • Published: January 16, 2020
  • Summary: The study examines empirical relationships between income inequality and three features of finance: depth (financial sector size relative to the economy), inclusion (access to and use of financial services by individuals and firms), and stability (absence of financial distress).
• The Political Costs of Reforms: Fear or Reality?
  • Published: October 17, 2019
  • Summary: Many countries are experiencing persistent, weak medium-term growth and limited fiscal space. Against this background, economic policy agendas—in both advanced and developing economies—are focusing increasingly on structural reforms.
• A Capital Market Union for Europe
  • Published: September 6, 2019
  • Summary: This note weighs the merits of a capital market union (CMU) for Europe, identifies major obstacles in its path, and recommends a set of carefully targeted policy actions. European capital markets are relatively small, resulting in strong bank-dependence, and are split sharply along national lines.
• A Monitoring Framework for Global Financial Stability
  • Published: August 23, 2019
  • Summary: This paper describes the conceptual framework that guides assessments of financial stability risks for multilateral surveillance, as currently presented in the Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR).
• Strengthening the Euro Area: The Role of National Structural Reforms in Building Resilience
  • Published: June 13, 2019
  • Summary: Cross-country differences in economic resilience—in an economy’s ability to withstand and adjust to shocks—remain significant in the euro area. In part, the differences reflect the lack of a national nominal exchange rate as a mechanism to adjust to shocks.
• Designing Labor Market Institutions in Emerging and Developing Economies: Evidence and Policy Options
  • Published: May 15, 2019
  • Summary: This paper discusses theoretical aspects and evidences related to designing labor market institutions in emerging market and developing economies.
• Fiscal Policy and Development: Human, Social, and Physical Investments for the SDGs
  • Published: January 18, 2019
  • Summary: The goal of this paper is to estimate the additional annual spending required for meaningful progress on the SDGs in these areas. Our estimates refer to additional spending in 2030, relative to a baseline of current spending to GDP in these sectors.
• Work In Progress: Improving Youth Labor Market Outcomes in Emerging Market and Developing Economies
  • Published: January 18, 2019
  • Summary: Economic development and growth depend on a country’s young people. With most of their working life ahead of them they make up about a third of the working-age population in the typical emerging market and developing economy.
• The Future of Saving: The Role of Pension System Design in an Aging World
  • Published: January 9, 2019
  • Summary: This SDN explores how demographic changes have affected and will affect public and private sector savings, highlighting the interaction between pension systems, labor markets, and demographic variables.
• Casting Light on Central Bank Digital Currencies
  • Published: November 13, 2018
  • Summary: The paper is organized in five sections. The first offers an overview of CDBCs—what they are, why central banks might issue CDBCs, and how they might design these.
• Economic Gains From Gender Inclusion: New Mechanisms, New Evidence
  • Published: October 9, 2018
  • Summary: While progress has been made in increasing female labor force participation (FLFP) in the last 20 years, large gaps remain. The latest Fund research shows that improving gender diversity can result in larger economic gains than previously thought.
• Gender, Technology, and the Future of Work
  • Published: October 9, 2018
  • Summary: New technologies?digitalization, artificial intelligence, and machine learning?are changing the way work gets done at an unprecedented rate. Helping people adapt to a fast-changing world of work and ameliorating its deleterious impacts will be the defining challenge of our time.
• Women in Finance: A Case for Closing Gaps
  • Published: September 17, 2018
  • Summary: Women are underrepresented at all levels of the global financial system, from depositors and borrowers to bank board members and regulators.
• Second-Generation Fiscal Rules: Balancing Simlicity, Flexibility, and Enforceability
  • Published: April 12, 2018
  • Summary: Fiscal rule frameworks have evolved significantly in response to the global financial crisis. Many countries have reformed their fiscal rules or introduced new ones with a view to enhancing the credibility of fiscal policy and providing a medium-term anchor.
• A Central Fiscal Stabilization Capacity for the Euro Area
  • Published: March 22, 2018
  • Summary: This note outlines a concrete proposal for a euro area CFC that could help smooth both country-specific and common shocks.
• Trade-offs in Bank Resolution
  • Published: February 9, 2018
  • Summary: This SDN revisits the debate on bank resolution regimes, first by presenting a simple model of bank insolvency that transparently describes the trade-off involved between bail-outs, bail-ins, and larger capital buffers.
• Inequality and Poverty across Generations in the European Union
  • Published: January 23, 2018
  • Summary: This SDN studies the evolution of inequality across age groups leading up to and since the global financial crisis, as well as implications for fiscal and labor policies.
• Big Data: Potential, Challenges and Statistical Implications
  • Published: September 13, 2017
  • Summary: Big data are part of a paradigm shift that is significantly transforming statistical agencies, processes, and data analysis.
• Fintech and Financial Services: Initial Considerations
  • Published: June 16, 2017
  • Summary: A new wave of technological innovations, often called “fintech,” is accelerating change in the financial sector. What impact might fintech have on financial services, and how should regulation respond?
• Gone with the Headwinds: Global Productivity
  • Published: April 3, 2017
  • Summary: Productivity growth—the key driver of living standards—fell sharply following the global financial crisis and has remained sluggish since, adding to a slowdown already in train before.
• Labor and Product Market Reforms in Advanced Economies: Fiscal Costs, Gains, and Support
  • Published: March 10, 2017
  • Summary: Product and labor market reforms are needed to lift persistently sluggish growth in advanced economies. But reforms have progressed slowly because of concerns about their distributive and short-term economic effects.
• Measure up: A Better Way to Calculate GDP
  • Published: February 2, 2017
  • Summary: To derive real GDP, the System of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA) recommends a technique called double deflation. Some countries use single deflation techniques, which fail to capture important relative price changes and introduce estimation errors in official GDP growth.
• Macro-Structural Policies and Income Inequality in Low-Income Developing Countries
  • Published: January 26, 2017
  • Summary: Despite sustained economic growth and rapid poverty reductions, income inequality remains stubbornly high in many low-income developing countries.
• A Banking Union for the Euro Area
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The SDN elaborates the case for, and the design of, a banking union for the euro area. It discusses the benefits and costs of a banking union, presents a steady state view of the banking union, elaborates difficult transition issues, and briefly discusses broader EU issues.
• A Fiscal Indicator for Assessing First and Second Pillar Pension Reforms
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• A Strategy for Resolving Europe's Problem Loans
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Europe’s banking system is weighed down by high levels of non-performing loans (NPLs), which are holding down credit growth and economic activity.
• Accounting Devices and Fiscal Illusions
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: This proposed SDN surveys the various accounting stratagems which governments have used to meet fiscal targets—thereby sidestepping the need for true adjustment—and suggests remedial actions to limit this type of fiscal non-transparency.
• Adjustment in Euro Area Deficit Countries: Progress, Challenges, and Policies
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Imbalances within the euro area have been a defining feature of the crisis. This paper provides a critical analysis of the ongoing rebalancing of euro area “deficit economies” (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain) that accumulated large current account deficits and external liability positions in t
• After Paris: Fiscal, Macroeconomic and Financial Implications of Global Climate Change
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: This paper discusses the implications of climate change for fiscal, financial, and macroeconomic policies. Most pressing is the use of carbon taxes (or equivalent trading systems) to implement the emissions mitigation pledges submitted by 186 countries for the December 2015 Paris Agreement while pro
• Anchoring Growth: The Importance of Productivity-Enhancing Reforms in Emerging Market and Developing Economies
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Fostering and sustaining robust economic growth is an imperative across advanced, emerging, and low-income countries alike. Countries will need to focus on supply-side reforms to raise their potential output and anchor medium-term growth prospects.
• Bank Size and Systemic Risk
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The proposed SDN documents the evolution of bank size and activities over the past 20 years. It discusses whether this evolution can be explained by economies of scale or “too big to fail” subsidies.
• Benefits and Costs of Bank Capital
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The appropriate level of bank capital and, more generally, a bank’s capacity to absorb losses, has been at the core of the post-crisis policy debate.
• Catalyst for Change: Empowering Women and Tackling Income Inequality
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: This study shows empirically that gender inequality and income inequality are strongly interlinked, even after controlling for standard drivers of income inequality.
• Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality: A Global Perspective
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: This paper analyzes the extent of income inequality from a global perspective, its drivers, and what to do about it. The drivers of inequality vary widely amongst countries, with some common drivers being the skill premium associated with technical change and globalization, weakening protection for
• Contingent Capital: Economic Rationale and Design Features
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The causes of the global financial crisis were multi-faceted but revealed still unresolved weaknesses in national and international financial oversight and resolution frameworks.
• Corruption: Costs and Mitigating Strategies
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: In an environment in which growth and employment prospects in many countries remain subdued and a number of high-profile corruption cases have fueled moral outrage, and amid a growing consensus that corruption can seriously undermine a country’s ability to deliver inclusive economic growth in a numb
• Creating a Safer Financial System: Will the Volcker, Vickers, and Liikanen Structural Measures Help?
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The U.S., the U.K., and more recently, the E.U., have proposed policy measures directly targeting complexity and business structures of banks. Unlike other, price-based reforms (e.g.
• Crisis Management and Resolution: Early Lessons from the Financial Crisis
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• Dealing with High Debt in an Era of Low Growth
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: task has become particularly challenging in European advanced economies where expectations of low growth and limits to monetary policy support are shifting the burden of adjustment onto fiscal consolidation.
• Direct Distribution of Resource Revenues: Worth Considering?
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Some scholars have argued that direct distribution of natural resource revenues to the population would help resource-rich countries escape the “resource curse.” This discussion note analyzes whether this proposal is a viable policy alternative for resource-rich countries.
• Economic Diversification in LICs: Stylized Facts and Macroeconomic Implications
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Limited diversification is an underlying characteristic of many low-income countries (LICs). Concentration in sectors with limited scope for increases in productivity and quality may result in less broad-based and sustainable growth.
• Economic Diversification in the GCC: Past, Present, and Future
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Abstract: The economies of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are heavily reliant on oil. Greater economic diversification would reduce their exposure to volatility and uncertainty in the global oil market, help create jobs in the private sector, increase productivity and sustainable g
• Emerging Market Volatility: Lessons from The Taper Tantrum
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Accommodative monetary policies in advanced economies have spurred increased capital inflows into emerging markets since the global financial crisis.
• Emerging Markets in Transition: Growth Prospects and Challenges
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: After a short-lived slowdown in the immediate aftermath of the global financial crisis and a swift rebound, emerging markets (EM) are now entering a period of slower growth. In fact, growth is now lower than the post-crisis peak of 2010-11, as well as the rates seen in the decade before the crisis.
• Emigration and Its Economic Impact on Eastern Europe
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: This paper analyses the impact of large and persistent emigration from Eastern European countries over the past 25 years on these countries’ growth and income convergence to advanced Europe.
• Estimating the Costs of Financial Regulation
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• Externalities and Macroprudential Policy
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: This note overviews macroprudential policy options that have been proposed to address the systemic risks experienced during the recent financial crisis.
• Fair Play: More Equal Laws Boost Female Labor Force Participation
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: This Staff Discussion Note examines the effect of gender-based legal restrictions and other policy choices and demographic characteristics on female labor force participation.
• Fair Taxation in the Middle East and North Africa
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Fairness – and what governments can do about it – is at the forefront of economic and social debate all over the world. In MENA, this has been at the core of recent political transitions but has not been adequately addressed.
• Financial Deepening and International Monetary Stability
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• Financial Inclusion: Can it Meet Multiple Macroeconomic Goals?
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Using several recently available global datasets, this Staff Discussion Note examines macroeconomic effects of financial inclusion. It finds significant benefits to economic growth from financial inclusion, but the benefits diminish as financial inclusion and depth become large.
• Fiscal Frameworks for Resource Rich Developing Countries
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• Fiscal Policy in Latin America: Lessons and Legacies of the Global Financial Crisis
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Latin America’s bold fiscal policy reaction to the global financial crisis was hailed as a sign that the region had finally overcome its procyclical fiscal past.
• Fostering Growth in Europe Now
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• From Ambition to Execution: Policies in Support of Sustainable Development Goals
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The formal launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) sets the global development agenda through 2030, placing significant emphasis on promoting social and environmental sustainability alongside economic growth and poverty reduction.
• From Bail-out to Bail-in: Mandatory Debt Restructuring of Systemic Financial Institutions
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• Global Implications of Lower Oil Prices
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The sharp drop in oil prices is one of the most important global economic developments over the past year. The SDN finds that (i) supply factors have played a somewhat larger role than demand factors in driving the oil price drop, (ii) a substantial part of the price decline is expected to persist i
• Housing Finance and Real-Estate Booms: A Cross-Country Perspective
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The recent global crisis highlighted the risks stemming from real estate booms. This has generated a growing literature trying to better understand the sources and the risks associated with housing and credit booms.
• Income Inequality and Fiscal Policy
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• Inequality and Labor Market Institutions
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The SDN examines the role of labor market institutions in the rise of income inequality in advanced economies, alongside other determinants.
• Inequality and Unsustainable Growth: Two Sides of the Same Coin?
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: This note raises the IMF’s profile on a number of issues related to inequality, unemployment, governance, etc. It builds on earlier empirical work that examined correlations between growth downbreaks/duration of growth spells and a range of macro/policy/institutional factors.
• Institutional Models for Macroprudential Policy
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• Internationalization of Emerging Market Currencies: A Balance Between Risks and Rewards
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• Is the Glass Half Empty Or Half Full?: Issues in Managing Water Challenges and Policy Instruments
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: This paper examines water challenges, a growing global concern with adverse economic and social consequences, and discusses economic policy instruments. Water subsidies provided through public utilities are estimated at about $456 billion or 0.6 percent of global GDP in 2012.
• Islamic Finance: Opportunities, Challenges, and Policy Options
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The SDN discusses the main policy issues and challenges in building an inclusive and safe Islamic finance industry, with emphasis on Islamic banking and Sukuk markets.
• Labor Market Policies and IMF Advice in Advanced Economies during the Great Recession
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: This paper does two things. First, it articulates what are the main implications of theoretical and empirical research for design of labor market policies and labor market institutions.
• Macroeconomic Management When Policy Space is Constrained: A Comprehensive, Consistent and Coordinated Approach to Economic Policy
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The recovery in GDP growth since the global financial crisis has been halting and weak. Concern is widespread that countercyclical policies have run out of space or lack the power to raise growth or deal with the next negative shock.
• Macroprudential and Microprudential Policies: Toward Cohabitation
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Effective arrangements for micro and macroprudential policies to further overall financial stability are strongly desirable for all countries, emerging or advanced.
• Macroprudential Policy in the GCC Countries
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: As undiversified commodity exporters, GCC economies are prone to pro-cyclical systemic risk in the financial system. During periods of high hydrocarbon prices, favorable economic prospects make the financial sector keen to lend, leading to higher domestic credit growth and easier access to external
• Making the Most of Public Investment in MENA and CCA Oil-Exporting Countries
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Over the past decade, rising oil prices have translated into high levels of public investment in most MENA and CCA oil exporters.
• Managing Abundance to Avoid a Bust in Latin America
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• Managing Capital Inflows: What Tools to Use?
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• Monetary Policy in the New Normal
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The proposed SDN would take stock of the current debate on the shape that monetary policy should take after the crisis. It revisits the pros and cons of expanding the objectives of monetary policy, the merits of turning unconventional policies into conventional ones, how to make monetary policy fram
• Multilateral Aspects of Managing the Capital Account
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• Obstacles to International Policy Coordination, and How to Overcome Them
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: In bilateral and multilateral surveillance, countries are often urged to consider alternative policies that would result in superior outcomes for the country itself and, perhaps serendipitously, for the world economy.
• Policies for Macrofinancial Stability: How to Deal with Credit Booms
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: This note explores the costs and benefits of different policy options to reduce the risks associated with credit booms, drawing upon several country experiences and the findings from econometric analysis.
• Policies for Macrofinancial Stability: Options to Deal with Real Estate Booms
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: DISCLAIMER: This Staff Discussion Note represents the views of the authors and does not necessarily represent IMF views or IMF policy. The views expressed herein should be attributed to the authors and not to the IMF, its Executive Board, or its management.
• Raising the Consumption Tax in Japan: Why, When, How?
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• Redistribution, Inequality, and Growth
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The Fund has recognized in recent years that one cannot separate issues of economic growth and stability on one hand and equality on the other. Indeed, there is a strong case for considering inequality and an inability to sustain economic growth as two sides of the same coin.
• Reforming Fiscal Governance in the European Union
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Successive reforms have brought many positive elements to the European Union’s fiscal framework. But they have also increased its complexity. The current system involves an intricate set of fiscal constraints, which hampers effective monitoring and public communication.
• Rethinking Financial Deepening: Stability and Growth in Emerging Markets
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The global financial crisis experience shone a spotlight on the dangers of financial systems that have grown too big too fast. This note reexamines financial deepening, focusing on what emerging markets can learn from the advanced economy experience.
• Rethinking Macro Policy II: Getting Granular
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: This note explores how the economic thinking about macroeconomic management has evolved since the crisis began. It discusses developments in monetary policy, including unconventional measures; the challenges associated with increased public debt; and the policy potential, risks, and institutional ch
• Revitalizing Securitization for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Europe
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for a disproportionate share of output and employment in Europe but are still highly dependent on bank finance, which dried up or became prohibitively expensive during the crisis.
• Securitization: The Road Ahead
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The discussion in this note seeks to preserve the beneficial features of securitization while mitigating those that may pose risks to financial stability.
• Shadow Banking: Economics and Policy
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: This note outlines the basic economics of the shadow banking system, highlights (systemic) risks related to it, and suggests implications for measurement and regulatory approaches.
• Subsidiaries or Branches: Does One Size Fit All?
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• Tackling Small and Medium Enterprise Problem Loans in Europe
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The global financial crisis has left a large private sector debt overhang and high levels of non- performing loans (NPLs) in several European countries. Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) represent a significant and weak segment of the nonfinancial corporate sector.
• Tax Biases to Debt Finance: Assessing the Problem, Finding Solutions
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• The Economic Impact of Conflicts and the Refugee Crisis in the Middle East and North Africa
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: In recent decades, the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) has experienced more frequent and severe conflicts than in any other region of the world, exacting a devastating human toll.
• The Effectiveness of Capital Controls and Prudential Policies in Managing Large Inflows
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• The Fiscal Consequences of Shrinking Populations
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: This Staff Discussion Note looks at the stark fiscal challenges posed by the decline and aging of populations between now and 2100.
• The New Normal: A Sector-level Perspective on Productivity Trends in Advanced Economies
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Total factor productivity growth was stagnant or slowing in many advanced countries even prior to the crisis. This paper documents sector-level productivity patterns across advanced economies prior to the crisis and examines the role of product and labor market rigidities as well as innovation and i
• The Refugee Surge in Europe: Economic Challenges
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Against the background of political turmoil in the Middle-East, Europe faces an unprecedented surge in asylum applications.
• The Too-Important-to-Fail Conundrum: Impossible to Ignore and Difficult to Resolve
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: DISCLAIMER: This Staff Discussion Note represents the views of the authors and does not necessarily represent IMF views or IMF policy. The views expressed herein should be attributed to the authors and not to the IMF, its Executive Board, or its management.
• The Withdrawal of Correspondent Banking Relationships: A Case for Policy Action
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: This paper focuses on the withdrawal of correspondent banking relationships (CBRs) in some jurisdictions post-global financial crisis.
• Toward A Fiscal Union for the Euro Area
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: This is on a highly topical issue and addresses a key policy issue for Europe—namely, reinforcing EMU institutional architecture along with the Banking Union. Some proposals have emerged in Europe, and it will be important to put out staff views on this issue.
• Two Targets, Two Instruments: Monetary and Exchange Rate Policies in Emerging Market Economies
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• Virtual Currencies and Beyond: Initial Considerations
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: New technologies are driving transformational changes in the global financial system. Virtual currencies (VCs) and the underlying distributed ledger systems are among these. VCs offer many potential benefits, but also considerable risks.
• Wage Moderation in Crises: Policy Considerations and Applications to the Euro Area
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The paper studies the impacts of wage moderation in the euro area. Simulation results show that if a single euro area crisis-hit economy undertakes wage moderation, the impact on output is positive for that economy and for the entire euro area.
• What Happens to Social Spending in IMF-Supported Programs?
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• When Should Public Debt Be Reduced?
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: What considerations should guide public debt policy going forward? Should debt be reduced to achieve normative anchors (such as 60 percent of GDP), should it be increased further to finance a big public investment push, or should the existing debt be serviced forever?
• (Why) Should Current Account Balances Be Reduced?
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate.
• Women, Work, and the Economy: Macroeconomic Gains from Gender Equity
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The proposed SDN discusses the specific macro-critical aspects of women’s participation in the labor market and the constraints that prevent women from developing their full economic potential.
• Youth Unemployment in Advanced Economies in Europe: Searching for Solutions
  • Published: December 31, 2016
  • Summary: The SDN will assess the youth unemployment problem in advanced European countries, with a special focus on the euro area. It will document the main trends in youth and adult unemployment in 22 European countries before and after the global financial crisis.