Books

August 2, 1999

Orderly and Effective Insolvency Procedures

Description: Written by IMF's Legal Department, this book outlines the key issues involved in designing and implementing orderly and effective insolvency procedures, which play a critical role in fostering growth and competitiveness and may also assist in the prevention and resolution of financial crises. The book draws on lessons learned from firsthand experience by some of the IMF's 182 member countries. It includes an analysis of the major policy choices that countries need to address when designing an insolvency system, a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of these choices, and a number of specific recommendations.

Notes: French version is not available to order--web version only.

July 1, 1999

Guidelines for Public Expenditure Management

Description: Traditionally, economics training in public finances has focused more on tax than public expenditure issues, and within expenditure, more on policy considerations than the more mundane matters of public expenditure management. For many years, the IMF's Public Expenditure Management Division has answered specific questions raised by fiscal economists on such missions. Based on this experience, these guidelines arose from the need to provide a general overview of the principles and practices observed in three key aspects of public expenditure management: budget preparation, budget execution, and cash planning. For each aspect of public expenditure management, the guidelines identify separately the differing practices in four groups of countries - the francophone systems, the Commonwealth systems, Latin America, and those in the transition economies. Edited by Barry H. Potter and Jack Diamond, this publication is intended for a general fiscal, or a general budget, advisor interested in the macroeconomic dimension of public expenditure management.

June 30, 1999

Economic Adjustment and Reform in Low-Income Countries (ESAF Review Background Papers)

Description: The Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) is the cenerpiece of the International Monetary Fund's strategy to provide assistance on concessional terms to low-income member countries that are undertaking important macroeconomic adjustment and stuctural reforms. By February 1999, a total of SDR 7 billion (about US$9 billion) had been distributed under 79 ESAF arrangements to 51 developing countries. Edited by Hugh Bredenkamp and Susan Schadler, this volume features internal IMF staff assessments of the ESAF and provides an historical account of policies implemented and outcomes achieved under ESAF- supported programs.

May 21, 1999

The Changing Role of Export Credit Agencies

Description: Export credit agencies play an important role in international trade and investment flows. Exports insured or financed by the approximately 50 export credit agencies that are members of the Berne Union account for about 10 percent of their countries exports, which, in turn, represent about 78 percent of world exports. The IMF estimates that in 1997 debts to Berne Union members accounted for more than 21 percent of the total indebtedness of developing countries and economies in transition. Edited by Malcolm Stephens, this book provides useful background information to those whose involvement in international trade and investment brings them into contact with the services of export credit agencies.

May 6, 1999

Transforming Financial Systems in the Baltics, Russia and Other Countries of the Former Soviet Union

Description: In 1991, the Baltics, Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union set out on the road to establishing market economies by lieberalizing prices, dismantling the instruments of central planning, and initiating a process of fundamental structural reforms. Since then these 15 countries have taken substantial steps toward achieving macroeconomic stabilization, and are well advanced in many areas of the transformation to market economies. In particular, considerable progress has been made in developing market-oriented financial structures. Edited by Malcolm Knight, Arne B. Petersen, and Robert T. Price, this volume focuses more narrowly on progress achieved in the area of market-oriented central bank and financial system reforms.

May 4, 1999

Economic Policy and Equity

Description: This book brings together the views not only of policymakers and academics but also of religious leaders and labor leaders from around the world- including the 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economics, Amartya Sen - who participated in an IMF conference on this topic. Contributors discuss the causes of growing inequality and the complex question of how to use policy to make economic systems more equitable under five headings: perspectives on economic policy and equity, globalization and equitable growth, country experiences in equity-oriented policymaking, design and implementation of policy, and a roundtable discussion on lessons for countries and the IMF. Edited by Vito Tanzi, director of the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF; Ke-young Chu, a senior advisor; and Sanjeev Gupta, a division chief in the department.

January 11, 1999

Africa: Adjustment to the Challenges of Globalization

Description: Sub-Saharan Africa needs much faster economic growth and more effective economic, financial, and social policies if it is to make up for lost ground and reduce the number of people living in abject poverty. Edited by Laura Wallace, this volume presents the proceedings of a May 1998 seminar in Paris, organized jointly by the IMF and the Japanese Ministry of Finance, on ways to accelerate Africa's growth in our increasingly globalized world. Senior African and Asian government officials, representatives from multicultural institutions, donors, academics, and private sector participants gathered to discuss how to improve the private investment environment in African countries and take advantage of globalization's benefits while minimizing its risks, and how to strengthen the contribution of government in areas of capacity building, good governance, effective public resource management, and improved quality and composition of government spending.

December 3, 1998

Trade Reform and Regional Integration in Africa

Description: Edited by Zubair Iqbal and Mohsin Khan, this volume is a collection of papers given at a seminar on trade issues in Africa, conducted by the IMF nad the African Economic Research Consortium. It represents the views of government officials, academics, and representatives from multilateral and regional agencies on issues relating to trade reform and regionalism in Africa. Issues include the role of trade liberalization in promoting sustained growth, interdependence of trade and macroeconomic policies, impediments to effective trade reforms, the steps needed to accelerate trade reform, and the importance of regional interaction.

November 20, 1998

Australia: Benefiting from Economic Reforms

Description: Australia's recent economic performance has been impressive. It has experienced steady growth since the early 1990s and inflation has averaged just 2 percent over the same period. This strong showing marks a departure from the performance of the postwar years, when falling productivity and rising inflation caused Australia's per capita income to slip from one of the highest among OECD countries to merely average. This economic turnaround is explored in this book edited by Anoop Singh, Josh Felman, Ray Brooks, Tim Callen, and Christian Thimann of the Asia and Pacific Department.

July 1, 1998

Moderate Inflation: The Experience of Transition Economies: The Experience of Transition Economies

Description: Many countries, including several transition economies, have in the last few years recorded a sharp decline in inflation, but have been unable to bring inflation down to lower single digits or to achieve price stability. In these countries, inflation has stabilized at moderate levels, with further progress becoming seemingly more difficult. What are the problems created by moderate inflation? What is the appropriate speed of disinflation? These and other issues related to disinflation in transition economies are taken up in this book, edited by Carlo Cottarelli and Gyorgy Szapáry.