Publications

Climate Risk and Financial Systems of Latin America: Regulatory, Supervisory and Industry Practices in the Region and Beyond

, , , and | 18 December 2019
Monetary, Discussion Notes | Tags: Central Banks, Climate Risk, Financial Regulation, Green Finance, Latin America
In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), regional supervisors and regulators have not yet explicitly included nor addressed climate-related risks in binding regulations and/or supervisory measures for the financial sector. This implies significant work ahead for the LAC financial sector to develop effective and complete ... continue reading

Housing Taxation in Europe

, , , and | 18 December 2019
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Housing, Tax Expenditures
Tax incentives favouring homeownership are widely used in developed economies. Homeownership is often thought to bring a number of positive contributions, from the promotion of households´ saving to enhanced community engagement. However, housing tax incentives are also considered as a major source of distortions for ... continue reading

Climate Risks in Financial Assets

, and | 4 November 2019
Monetary, Discussion Notes | Tags: Asset Prices, Climate Risk, Climate Stress Tests
This note reviews the empirical evidence available in the academic literature about the impact of climate-related risks on financial assets. It addresses three main questions: does climate change already affect financial asset returns? What is the potential impact of future climate-related costs on financial asset ... continue reading

Unconventional Monetary Policy and Inequality – Is Japan Unique?

and | 20 September 2019
Monetary, Research Papers | Tags: Inequality, Japan, Quantitative Easing
For over a decade, but especially since the start of Abenomics in 2013, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) has been increasing the monetary base rapidly by implementing an unconventional monetary policy (UMP). In a 2014 study, we found that Japan’s UMP had increased income inequality. ... continue reading

Distributional Impact of Unconventional Monetary Policies

| 25 June 2019
Monetary, Discussion Notes | Tags: Income Inequality, QE
The sustained application of accommodative monetary policies has led to concerns that they were aggravating inequality. The criticism has come from several quarters, from academics to private sector participants, from politicians to media and civil society organizations. Some argued that by boosting housing and stock ... continue reading

What the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Means for Tax Expenditures

| 20 June 2019
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Income Tax, Inequality, Tax Expenditures
In a new paper, my former Tax Policy Center colleague Daniel Berger and I calculate that the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) modestly reduced the cost of tax expenditures in the individual income tax and made them slightly less regressive. We estimate that ... continue reading

The Low-Skill Losers

| 30 April 2019
Monetary, Blog | Tags: Employment, Federal Reserve, Inequality, QE
The Fed is devoting increasing analytical – if not yet policy-maker – attention to the unequalizing impact of unconventional policy. It’s a start – a major problem besetting central banks in countries without a robust middle class – i.e., the U.S. – is that ... continue reading

The Digital Economy for Economic Development: Free Flow of Data and Supporting Policies

, , , , , , and | 27 April 2019
Trade, Policy Briefs | Tags: Digitalization, Inclusiveness
The digital economy provides ample opportunities for G20 economies to accelerate inclusive economic growth. To take advantage of digital technology, free flow of data backed up by a series of policies to address other public policy objectives must be promoted. However, policies for the flow ... continue reading

Firm Heterogeneity in Services Trade: Micro-Level Evidence from Eight OECD Countries

, and | 18 April 2019
Trade, Research Papers | Tags: Services Trade
This paper shows that smaller and less productive firms, as well as first-time exporters are overproportionally affected by services trade barriers using micro-data from Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. ... continue reading

Fiscal Transparency: The Case of Tax Expenditures in Developing Countries

| 11 April 2019
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Tax Expenditures
In recent years, more developing countries have started reporting on their tax expenditures, however the quality of reporting needs to improve if it is to usefully contribute to fiscal transparency and the debate on domestic revenue mobilization. ... continue reading