Financial Globalisation and Emerging Market Capital Flows

2004

The distinction is made for purposes of clarity. However, it is not entirely straightforward, because central banks have multiple objectives and might also be concerned with external balance when trying to dampen excessive movements in the exchange rate. It is not always possible to tell what their real motivation is. 11 The effect of sterilised intervention appeared to be small, but the effect of the announcement was large. 12 One implication is that the transactions of the petroleum revenue stabilisation fund are entirely in local currency, so it poses no issues for foreign exchange market intervention. On the other hand, the oil stabilisation fund in Venezuela is maintained in US dollars by the central bank.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015

In 2003, Israel’s international income tax regime undergone a transformation from territorial to one of worldwide taxation. This shift was viewed as a timely one reconciling forces of economic globalization with commonly accepted distributional principles. Under this system, individuals are taxed where they reside and corporations are taxed where incorporated or in the country from which management and control are exercised. A credit is allowed against Israeli tax liability for foreign taxes paid by residents on foreign source income. Since 2003, this is true even when income is produced in a country with which Israel does not have a treaty. As in the case of most countries, the credit is limited to the size of the Israeli tax on foreign source income. While residents are taxed world-wide, nonresidents are taxed only on income earned or produced in Israel. This places considerable importance on the determination of the source of a nonresident’s income. Israel is signatory to 53 bilateral treaties with foreign countries. Most of the treaties follow the OECD Model Convention. These treaties provide Israel a valuable tool in an effort to enhance taxpayer compliance, ease tax collection and advance trade. Although the scope of information exchange, one of the primary benefits derived from treaties, varies from treaty to treaty, Israel commonly provides for information upon request of the other contracting state. Importantly, in view of recent global trends and pressures, the Israeli Tax Authority currently works to amend the Income Tax Ordinance to allow and to exercise ratification of international information-sharing agreements, regardless of whether a bilateral or multilateral treaty exists. Over the long run, this is expected to drastically change the scope and quality of information that the Israeli Tax Authority shares and receives. Israel has retained the remnants of a territorial regime in the income tax exemption for foreign source income for immigrants and returning Israeli residents. It also exempts these taxpayers from key filing requirements, including income tax returns and capital statements. The exemption is available for a 10–20 year period. The efforts of fellow OECD member countries to force repeal these provisions (designed to attract investments to Israel, but viewed as unfairly competitive by trading partners) have been largely unsuccessful. A long standing Investment Law, providing government grants and lucrative tax benefits to eligible corporations, was significantly modified in 2010. At that time, incentives failed to provide economic development in targeted areas and often exceeded the benefit obtained by the Israeli government. In the post-2010 Investment Law, qualification for benefits is tied to proven measures of industry competitiveness and the demonstration of an impact on exports and on Israel’s GDP. Only time will tell whether and the extent to which these revisions are successful.

2016

We wish to thank Tslil Aloni for competent research assistance. Article is prepared as a chapter in the forthcoming book on Israel economy in the 21st century, edited by Avi Ben-Bassat, Reuven Gronau and Asaf Zussman. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

IMF Staff Country Reports, 1995

Recent economic developments in Israel need to be seen against the background of the massive wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union that began in 1990. Although this wave ebbed to an annual flow of around 80,000 immigrants in 1993 and 1994, it has totaled over 600,000 immigrants since 1990, thereby increasing Israel's population by 13 percent. In contrast to earlier immigration waves, the main emphasis of policy has been on providing the immigrants with initial settling*in and housing allowances, rather than absorbing them in public sector employment. This approach has contributed to a markedly greater degree of labor market flexibility, while at the same time allowing further substantial progress in consolidating the budget deficit and in adopting more market oriented supply-side reforms. The overall success of this strategy is reflected in an annual average rate of GDP growth of 6 percent since 1990, or around double the average rate recorded in the second half of the 1980s.

2000

Banks are the central component of the financial system in most countries and are particularly important in emerging markets where non-bank financial institutions are less well developed. In both emerging markets and developed economies, banks play a critical role in the transmission of monetary policy to the economy. In addition, the efficient provision of banking services creates an environment that is conducive to long-term economic growth. In recent years economists have given increased recognition to the economic role of the banks and the broad importance of the payments and intermediary services provided by banks. At the same time, the banking industry around the world has been undergoing dramatic changes in structure and activities. There are several global trends in banking –

1997

... ASSAF RAZIN The Eitan Berglas School of Economics, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel ... Ephraim Kleiman analyzes empirically (in a sample of 51 countries) the incidence of effective tax rates on domestic prices in an attempt to explain deviations from Purchasing ...

2007

Many observers of the Israeli scene have been perplexed by the country’s apparent resilience to bad political news. The headlines of late seem uniformly dreadful. While the country is still licking its wounds from a botched, if not humiliating war with Hezbollah, the Palestinian territories again slide into turmoil, and the experts rumour yet another conflict with Syria. The U.S. entanglement is Iraq and Afghanistan is only getting deeper, and many speak of an imminent attack on Iran with untold regional consequences. Israeli politicians and public officials – from the president, through the prime minister, to the chief of staff, to the justice minister – have been embroiled in corruption and other scandals. The courageous capitalist media routinely expose government officials as incompetent crooks and the Israelis Parliament as an irrelevant institution. And yet, none of these headlines seem to impact the economy. It’s roaring. Many commentators have been trying to make sense of this apparent puzzle. But their explanations, whether plausible or not, all fall into the same trap: they believe the capitalist media. They rush to explain why the Israeli economy is roaring without ever stopping to ask whether it is roaring.

2014

The history of the Bank of Israel is often told as a story that leads from servitude to independence. According to this conception, the bank was a weak and marginal institution during the developmental period of the state, and it turned into an independent actor in the neoliberal period. This article argues that the portrayal of the bank as marginal during the developing period fails to recognize the essential role it played in contributing to the capacity of the state to allocate credit more effectively. It maintains that that Bank of Israel provided the state with market compatible instruments in order to govern the banking system and depoliticized the allocation of credit. The establishment of the bank had two effects on Israel’s political economy: it enabled the government to weaken its dependence on the Histadrut as an agent of development and it allowed it to nurture linkages with the private sector.

The Impact of Global Financial Crisis on the Palestinian Economy, 2022

This research looked at the overall impact of the global financial crisis on the Palestinian economy from 2005 to 2021, focusing on two periods: the first from the start of the global crisis in the fall of 2008 to December of that year, and the second from December of that year to the end of that year 2011. The findings of this study show that Palestine's strong reliance on the prices of foodstuffs, oil, olive oil, fruits, vegetables, and food items as a whole has resulted in a rise in the prices of oil and gas, commodities, and foodstuffs as a result of the worldwide crisis. We also discovered that the banking and tourist industries were unaffected by the downturn. The information is given in a series of tables with statistical analysis to back it up. This research backs up this theory with solid empirical data. In terms of Palestinian economic growth, it should be highlighted that for the past two decades, the Palestinian National Authority has relied on foreign donations and grants to fund its expenditures. This revenue source has recently dwindled, resulting in the suspension of public worker salary payments as well as a reduction in overall government spending. Large and persistent trade deficits, on the other hand, continue to push the government and the private sector into unsustainable debt. Because there is no national currency in Palestine, both the governmental and commercial sectors rely on foreign reserves. Although the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and the Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA) have so far avoided a systemic currency crisis, existing

Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 1998

... Footnotes: 1 . A notable exception is the survey of corporate governance in several dozen countries, classified according to their legal traditions, by Rafael LaPorta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, Andrei ... 5 . Annual Reports of the Supervision of Foreign Currency, Bank of ...