This paper examines the state of reverse mortgage markets in selected countries around the world and considers the potential benefits and risks of these products from a financial inclusion and economic benefit standpoint.
... See More + Despite potentially increasing demand from aging societies -- combined with limited pension income -- a series of market failures constrain supply and demand. The paper discusses a series of market failures on the supply side, such as adverse selection, moral hazard, and the costly regulation established to address these problems, leading to only a small number of providers, even in developed markets. Demand-side constraints are equally relevant, in particular high non-interest costs, abuse concerns, and the inability of reverse mortgages to cover key risks facing the elderly, particularly health and elder care. In developing countries, constraints are likely to be even higher than in advanced economies, due to high transaction costs and lack of consumer knowledge and protection. The enabling conditions for such markets to develop are outlined, along with examples of regulatory oversight. The paper concludes that these still seem to be largely products of last resort rather than well-considered purchases as part of good retirement planning.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS9134 JAN 30, 2020
The paper makes two main contributions. First, it analyzes net foreign assets and liabilities in selected Arab countries over the past two decades, emphasizing the relative significance of direct versus portfolio investment.
... See More + It distinguishes between foreign direct investment, portfolio equity investment, official reserves, and external debt. Second, the paper examines the effects of policy variables that affect the accumulation of net foreign assets and its components, analyzing how the existence of a sovereign wealth fund, the country's exchange rate regime, and the development of its financial system affect its net foreign assets. The main findings show that the presence of a sovereign wealth fund is positively and statistically significantly associated with foreign direct investment in Arab countries. Financial development (defined as credit to the private sector as a percentage of gross domestic product) is also statistically significant across various regressions. The more financially developed a country is, the more it should invest in riskier assets, such as portfolio assets. But Arab investors are more risk averse than investors elsewhere. Oil-exporting countries tend to invest more in debt assets than in portfolio assets. For oil-importing countries, financial development is the most important determinant of foreign direct investment.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS9103 JAN 06, 2020
This report takes stock of the market for impact investing and examines the conditions that would allow the market to grow and realize its potential.
... See More + Historically, there have always been investors who cared about more than just financial returns. Governments and philanthropists, for example, have set up investment vehicles with mandates to promote social and environmental goals. Over the last decade, impact investing has gained prominence as an approach to investment that aims to achieve both financial returns and social or environmental goals.1 This has created a dynamic but somewhat disorganized market of diverse participants, standards, and concepts. Although still small, the market is attracting considerable interest, and it has the potential to increase in scale, and thereby contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris climate goals.
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Women are significantly underrepresented among the investment decision-makers at private equity and venture capital firms, as well as in the leadership of companies that receive this investment capital.
... See More + Women hold only 10 percent of all senior positions in private equity and venture capital firms globally, and women-led enterprises collected less than 3 percent of global venture capital in 2017 (Preqin 2017; Zarya, 2018). These firms provide a unique and sizable source of capital for entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Although this asset class represents a small portion of total global assets under management, it provides entrepreneurs access to funding when public equity markets and debt may be less viable sources of capital. Private equity and venture capital represent approximately US$3 trillion of more than US dollar 75 trillion global assets under management. Nearly US dollar 800 billion is dedicated to funds investing in emerging markets. Our research examines gender balance, defined as leadership teams with at least 30 percent of men and women, in private equity and venture capital funds and the companies they invest in within emerging markets. Our focus includes East Asia (including Southeast Asia), Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. The authors explore the relationship between gender balance and fund performance, and the roles that general partners, the vehicles investing private equity and venture capital funds, and limited partners, the source of capital, can play in alleviating gender gaps in investment funds and their portfolio companies.
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