RP2006/50 Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis and Saibal Kar:
The Corporate Debt Market: A Firm-Level Panel Study for India (PDF 124KB)

Traditionally, firms in India have shown a low preference towards debt financing, despite its advantages. Using panel data from 450 firms during 1992-93 and 2003-04, we attempt to identify factors which could explain the pattern of financing of manufacturing firms in India and the key determinants of their debt structure. We examine the roles of age of the firm, long term borrowing and net sales in affecting its debt structure.

RP2007/14 Indranil Dutta:
The Burden of Government Debt in the Indian States: Implications for the MDG Poverty Target (PDF 175KB)

In this paper we explore what impact, if any, government debts have on achieving the Millennium Development Goals for the Indian states. To fulfill the goals, national governments, especially in the developing world, have to undertake major investments in the social sector; but how much they will really be able to do so will depend on the conditions of their finances. For the Indian states we find that government investment in the social sector is extremely important to reduce poverty, but the government’s debt burden is actually stopping several states from attaining the MDG targets. Although, in the medium term the impact of the debt on poverty is not very harmful, in the longer run it has a significant negative impact. Therefore for policy purposes reduction in debt should be given a priority.

RP2006/11 Silvia Marchesi and Laura Sabani:
Prolonged Use and Conditionality Failure: Investigating IMF Responsibility (PDF 98KB)

Since the 1970s, prolonged use of resources by the IMF has consistently expanded, among both low- and middle-income countries. Overall, this phenomenon suggests a lack of effectiveness of Fund supported programmes. In the literature conditional lending failure has been explained by looking both at the characteristics of the borrowing countries (demand-side factors) and at the possible influence of IMF specific interests (supply-side factors). Among the latter it has been suggested that noncompliance with conditionality might be attributed to the lack of credibility of the IMF threat of interrupting financial assistance in case of policy slippages. In this paper we critically review this literature and we propose a novel explanation, according to which it is the repeated nature of the IMF involvement, together with the fact that the Fund acts simultaneously as a lender and as a monitor (and as an advisor) of economic reforms, that weakens the credibility of the IMF threat. Specifically, we argue that …/

RP2006/09 Tony Addison:
International Finance and the Developing World: The Next Twenty Years (PDF 98KB)

Much has changed in international finance in the twenty years since UNU-WIDER was founded. This paper identifies five broad contours of what we might expect in the next twenty years: the flow of capital from ageing societies to the more youthful economies of the South; the growth in the financial services industry in emerging economies and the consequences for their capital flows; the current strength in emerging market debt, and whether this represents a change in fundamentals or merely the effect of low global interest rates; the impact of globalization in goods markets in lowering inflation expectations, and therefore global bond yields; and the implications of the adjustment in global imbalances between Asia (in particular China) and the United States for emerging bond markets as a whole. The paper ends by noting the paradox that today we see ever larger amounts of capital flowing across the globe in search of superior investment returns, and yet the financing needs of the poorer countries are still largely unmet. Keywords: international

RP2005/76 Panicos O. Demetriades and Svetlana Andrianova:
Sources and Effectiveness of Financial Development: What We Know and What We Need to Know (PDF 131KB)

Drawing on recent literature, the paper argues that institutions and political economy factors hold the key to understanding why some countries have succeeded in developing their financial systems while others have not. The paper also reviews new evidence which suggests that institutional quality may influence the effectiveness of financial development in delivering economic growth. These new findings highlight the possibility that poor countries may be stuck in a bad equilibrium, in which weak institutions inhibit growth both directly and indirectly, through under-developed, lowquality finance. In addition, the paper identifies a number of unanswered questions in the financial development literature, including the precise role of important institutions like law in finance, and the influence of geographical factors.

RP2005/74 Fabrizio Carmignani and Abdur Chowdhury:
Does Financial Openness Promote Economic Integration? Some Evidence from Europe and the CIS (PDF 107KB)

Drawing on recent literature, the paper argues that institutions and political economy factors hold the key to understanding why some countries have succeeded in developing their financial systems while others have not. The paper also reviews new evidence which suggests that institutional quality may influence the effectiveness of financial development in delivering economic growth. These new findings highlight the possibility that poor countries may be stuck in a bad equilibrium, in which weak institutions inhibit growth both directly and indirectly, through under-developed, lowquality finance. In addition, the paper identifies a number of unanswered questions in the financial development literature, including the precise role of important institutions like law in finance, and the influence of geographical factors.

DP2003/16 Robbie Mochrie:
Economic and Theological Approaches to Debt Cancellation (PDF 182KB)

Differences in economic and theological approaches to debt cancellation result from differences in disciplinary assumptions in respect of purpose, method, and argument. We argue that they provide alternative commentaries upon the need for debt cancellation, but that it is not possible to demonstrate the superiority of one over the other, so practitioners in one are likely to continue to find it difficult to respond meaningfully to arguments from the other.

The Committee for the Cancellation of the Third World Debt (the CADTM - Comité pour l’annulation de la dette du Tiers Monde) is an international network of individuals and local committees from across Europe and Latin America, Africa and Asia. It was founded in Belgium on 15th March 1990. The network acts in close liaison with other movements and organisations fighting for the same ideals. Its main preoccupation, besides the debt issue, is the planning of activities and radical alternatives for the creation of a world respectful of people’s fundamental rights, needs and (...)more

Alternatives Agriculture and Food Sovereignty aid ALBA Arbitration audit

Bank of the South capitalism climate change climate crisis Corporations

Corruption / financial criminality Crisis

Debt campaign debt crisis Debt of the Northern countries Denise

ecological crisis Ecological debt External debt

Films financial crisis food crisis

G8 / G20 Globalization

Housing crisis

Illegitimate debt IMF Initiative for the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs)

International Financial Institutions (IFI) International law

Migrations

Natural Resources Neoliberalism No Global Movement

Odious debt

Paris Club (The) Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) Privatizations

Reparations

Social Forum Social movements socialism Structural Adjustment

vulture funds

Women World Bank

[Là-bas si j’y suis] Annulons la dette !
par Là-bas si j’y suis
(11 juin 2003)

Les crises de la dette extérieure d’Amérique latine au XIXe & XXe siècle
par Eric Toussaint
(20 mai 2003)

L’origine de la crise de la dette du tiers-monde
par Eric Toussaint , Damien Millet
(16 avril 2003)

Et si on abolissait la dette du Tiers-Monde ?
par Eric Toussaint
(1er avril 2003)

La dette au banc... des accusés
par Olivier Bailly
(septembre 2002)

Dette extérieure, une nouvelle forme de colonialisme
par Jordi Gagete Mateos
( 2002)

"LE BATEAU IVRE DE LA MONDIALISATION"
Un tour du village planétaire
par Arnaud Zacharie , Eric Toussaint
( 2000)