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The paper uses repeated cross-sections of Bulgaria's household survey data (1995, 1997, 2001, and 2003) and a comparable list of durable goods to investigate the dynamics and distribution of durable goods over time, including during the economic crisis of 1996-1997 and the subsequent period of relatively robust economic growth leading up to European Union membership. It examines the dynamics of the ownership of durable goods by wealth classes, geographic locations, and various ethnic groups, including the Roma. In the aggregate, there was convergence between the poorest and the richest classes in the ownership of durable goods between 1995 and 2003, with the poorest class making a significant gain between 2001 and 2003 after having lost some ground between 1995 and 2001. There was also convergence in the ownership of durable goods between urban and rural residents. However, there appear to be some diverging tendencies between Bulgarians and the minority ethnic groups, particularly in the ownership of relatively more expensive goods such as personal computers and cars.

Assets --- Currencies and Exchange Rates --- Debt Markets --- Durable Goods --- Economic growth --- Economic Theory and Research --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Growth rate --- Income measures --- Macroeconomic policies --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- National economy --- Per capita income --- Real GDP --- Wealth

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This paper applies a growth diagnostics approach to identify the most binding constraints to private-sector growth in Malawi - a small, landlocked country in Southern Africa with one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world. The approach aims to identify the constraints (in terms of public policy, implementation, and investments) most binding on marginal investment, and therefore whose relaxation would have the largest impact on growth through the investment channel. The authors find that growth in Malawi has been primarily driven by the domestic multiplier effect from export revenues. The multiplier effect is particularly pronounced due to the high number of smallholder farmers, which produce Malawi's main export crop, tobacco, and consequently results in the widespread and rapid transmission of agricultural export income. Furthermore, despite changes in the structure of agricultural production from estate to smallholder farming and liberalization of prices and finance, a longstanding relationship persists between exports in real domestic currency and overall gross domestic product. This central role of exports in creating domestic demand highlights the importance of the real exchange rate in Malawi's growth story, which directly increases the strength of the export multiplier. The most pressing constraint to growth in Malawi continues to be the regime of exchange rate management. Despite good progress, there is compelling evidence that the rate is still substantially overvalued. Furthermore, it is also likely that the inflow of foreign aid - in excess of 50 percent of exports -contributes to the overvaluation through its large component of recurrent expenditures.

Access to Finance --- Agriculture --- Currencies and Exchange Rates --- Debt --- Debt Markets --- Economic Theory and Research --- Emerging Markets --- Export growth --- Exports --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- GDP --- GDP deflator --- GDP per capita --- Gross domestic product --- Human capital --- Income --- Inflation --- Interest rates --- Living standards --- Monopoly --- Multiplier effect --- Overvaluation --- Per capita incomes --- Private Sector Development --- Real GDP --- Total factor productivity --- Treasury bills

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A notable contrast in modern economic history has been the rapid economic growth of China and the slower and volatile economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. As the engagement between the two continues to grows, there will be a greater cross-fertilization of experiences. Total factor productivity comparisons suggest that capital accumulation in China coupled with more efficient factor usage explains the differential with Africa. Although the two have similar populations and patterns of inequality, their growth trajectories have been divergent. What can Africa learn from China? Although the lessons vary depending on country location and resource endowment, seven basic lessons are visible. First, the political economy of Chinese reforms and the shared gains between political elites and the private sector can be partially transplanted to the African context. Second, the Chinese used diaspora capital and knowledge in the early reform years. Third, rural reforms in China helped accelerate economic takeoff through a restructuring of property rights and a boost to both savings rates and output. Fourth, Chinese growth has taken place in the context of a competitive exchange rate. Five, port governance in China has been exemplary, and African landlocked economies can benefit significantly from port reform in the coastal countries. Six, China has experimented with a degree of decentralization that could yield benefits for many Sub-Saharan African countries. Seventh, Africa can learn from China's policies toward autonomous areas and ethnic minorities to stave off conflict. Africa can learn from China's experiences and conduct developmental experiments for poverty alleviation goals.

Access to Finance --- Agriculture --- Banks & Banking Reform --- Centrally planned economy --- Debt Markets --- Decentralization --- Development strategy --- Economic expansion --- Economic growth --- Economic history --- Economic takeoff --- Economic Theory & Research --- Emerging Markets --- Exports --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- GDP --- GDP per capita --- Growth rate --- International trade --- Living standards --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Natural resources --- Political economy --- Private Sector Development --- Property rights --- Real GDP --- Savings --- Total factor productivity

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To the surprise of many observers, the 2005 International Comparison Program (ICP) found substantially higher purchasing power parity (PPP) rates, relative to market exchange rates, in most developing countries. For example, China's price level index - the ratio of its PPP to its exchange rate - doubled between the 1993 and 2005 rounds of the ICP. The paper tries to explain the observed changes in PPPs. Consistently with the Balassa-Samuelson model, evidence is found of a "dynamic Penn effect," whereby more rapidly growing economies experience steeper increases in their price level index. This effect has been even stronger for initially poorer countries. Thus the widely-observed static (cross-sectional) Penn effect has been attenuated over time. On also taking account of exchange rate changes and prior participation in the ICP's price surveys, 99 percent of the variance in the observed changes in PPPs is explicable. Using a nested test, the World Bank's longstanding method of extrapolating PPPs between ICP rounds using inflation rates alone is out performed by the model proposed in this paper.

Consumer price --- Consumer price index --- Cost of living --- Debt Markets --- E-Business --- Economic growth --- Economic Theory & Research --- Emerging Markets --- Exchange rates --- Expenditure --- Expenditures --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- GDP --- GDP per capita --- Inflation --- Inflation rates --- Labor markets --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Market economy --- Markets and Market Access --- Price level --- Price level changes --- Price levels --- Private Sector Development --- Purchasing --- Purchasing power --- Real GDP --- Surplus

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This paper attempts to identify Lebanon's greatest constraints to economic growth, following a growth diagnosis approach. It concludes that fiscal imbalances and barriers to entry are most binding on long-term growth. Macroeconomic imbalances and related perceived risks affect the nature of investment decisions in Lebanon, in favor of liquid instruments rather than longer-term productive investments. Further, many barriers to entry discourage agents from investing in a number of markets: legal impediments to competition, corruption, and a set of fiscal incentives favoring the allocation of resources to non-tradable sectors, where potential demand and investment opportunities are scarcer. In turn, using a steady-state computable general equilibrium model, the paper assesses the long-term growth impact of a selected set of policy reforms envisaged to lift such constraints. Results suggest that 1 to 2 percentage points of additional GDP growth per year could be gained through public expenditure reform, greater domestic competition, and tax harmonization.

Access to Finance --- Barriers to entry --- Competitiveness --- Currencies and Exchange Rates --- Damages --- Debt --- Debt Markets --- Economic activity --- Economic Theory and Research --- Emerging Markets --- Equilibrium --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- GDP --- Growth potential --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Private property --- Private Sector Development --- Real GDP