The massive accumulation of international reserves in developing economies is a puzzling recent development in the world economy. This paper studies reserve accumulation as the outcome of a simple model in which the central bank smooths inflation. I explore the view that central banks accumulate reserves to face large fiscal shocks that need monetary financing. Central bank revenues are obtaine...

While many international organisations have independent evaluations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Health organization (WHO), uniquely the World Bank in its 2015 World Development Report sought to ascertain the potential biases that influence how its staff interpret evidence and influence policy. Here, we describe the World Bank’s study design, including experiments ...

This volume is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundari...

World Bank Working Papers are published to communicate the results of the Bank's work to the development community with the least possible delay. The manuscript of this paper therefore has not been prepared in accordance with the procedures appropriate to formally-edited texts. Some sources cited in this paper may be informal documents that are not readily available. The findings, interpretatio...

This dissertation investigates the impact of the current account on house price growth in the United States between Q4 1977 and Q4 2013. An econometric analysis is used to estimate the effect of changes in the current account balance on house price growth over the period, whilst accounting for a range of control variables. The regression results show that throughout the period, negative changes...

Login (LGI) The Login command is the means whereby the user identifies himself and specifies the account number to which his use of SMFS is to be billed. The user should issue a LGI command directly after completing the ICP and before any command referencing a file. The user name and account number specified remain in effect until another LGI command is issued, a LGO command is issued, or the c...

ISSN 0428-1276 Low inflation over long periods is the sign of an effective central bank. The authors suggest that a large fraction of the worldwide decline in inflation since the early 1980s results from an international movement toward more independent central banks. Industrialized nations have achieved a remarkable decline in inflation: Their average annual rate tumbled from 5.6% in the 1955–...

Disclaimer ©Institute for Retail Studies. All rights reserved. 1 The views and opinions expressed in this Working Paper are strictly the responsibility of the authors. 3 INTRODUCTION Charity retailing has grown over the last five years into a thriving and expanding sector and can no longer be ignored by academic researchers. Corporate Intelligence Group (1992) report that there are now over 5,0...

Research on the role of local institutions in confl ict management is still limited. This study highlights various inter-settlement confl icts over the issue of unclear resource boundaries in Danau Sentarum National Park, Indonesia. The park is home to two major ethnic groups (Dayak Iban and Malay) whose livelihoods are highly dependent on fi sh and forest resources available in the park area. ...