Read more about the article Turkey’s Economy at the Crossroads

Turkey’s Economy at the Crossroads

Turkey’s economy is at a crossroads, and how the country emerges from the current period of political crisis could dictate its ability to meet its challenges. Will power consolidation and purges render a compromised central bank? Will truculence with major partners such as the EU and Russia lead to deceleration in real-sector growth? Will human rights abuses and risk aversion lead investors to steer clear of Istanbul? And how will a population on edge react to what many expect to be a miserable summer in tourism receipts?

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Read more about the article Tales of Emerging Markets

Tales of Emerging Markets

Emerging market economies (EM) as a special class of financial assets have recently been subject to two competing tales. On the one hand, there is evidence of continued financial deepening and further integration within the global financial system, while the offer of higher yields remains hard to find elsewhere. On the other hand, there are frequent bouts of fear of systemic unwinding of positions triggered by investors “exiting” EM that exhibit signs of weak or unclear macroeconomic foundations.

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Read more about the article Capital Flows and Deleveraging in Emerging Markets

Capital Flows and Deleveraging in Emerging Markets

Capital outflows from emerging market economies have substantially accelerated since last year. Some analysts have taken those features as pointing to a high likelihood of a “third wave” of the global financial crisis, this time centered on emerging markets. While arguably their combination may acquire a disorderly nature and materialize systemic risks to those economies as a group – and therefore to the global economy going forward – there are also reasons to expect the significant portfolio rebalancing at play not to lead to a disruptive break.

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Read more about the article Whither Emerging Markets Foreign Exchange Reserves

Whither Emerging Markets Foreign Exchange Reserves

After a exponential rise in foreign exchange reserves accumulation by emerging markets from 2000 onwards, the tide seems to have turned south since mid-2014. Changes in capital flows and commodity prices have been major factors behind the inflection, with the new direction expected to remain, given the context of the global economy going forward. Although it is too early to gauge whether the on-going relative unwinding of such reserves defenses will lead to vulnerability in specific emerging markets, the payoff from strengthening domestic policies has broadly increased.

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Read more about the article Middle Income Growth Traps

Middle Income Growth Traps

This paper studies the existence of middle-income growth traps in a two-period overlapping generations model of economic growth with two types of labor and endogenous occupational choices. It also distinguishes between “basic” and “advanced” infrastructure, with the latter promoting design activities, and accounts for a knowledge network externality associated with product diversification. Multiple steady-state equilibria may emerge, one of them taking the form of a low-growth trap characterized by low productivity growth and a misallocation of talent—defined as a relatively low share of high-ability workers in design activities. Improved access to advanced infrastructure may help to escape from that trap. The implications of other public policies, including the protection of property rights and labor market reforms, are also discussed.

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Read more about the article When it comes to fiscal policy, it’s better to save for a rainy day than to let it pour

When it comes to fiscal policy, it’s better to save for a rainy day than to let it pour

  While pro-cyclical fiscal policies – ie. expansionary fiscal policies in booms and contractionary fiscal stances in downturns – remain a common feature among developing countries, some countries have recently…

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Read more about the article Access to Finance, Product Innovation, and Middle-Income Growth Traps

Access to Finance, Product Innovation, and Middle-Income Growth Traps

After experiencing an initial period of rapid growth, many developing countries have fallen into the middle-income “trap”—stuck between low-wage, low-technology markets and high-income, innovation-based developed economies. This note argues that inadequate access to finance has an adverse effect on innovation, directly, through the financing of fewer research and development (R&D) projects, and also indirectly, as fewer individuals may choose to invest in the skills necessary to work in R&D fields.

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