DISCLAIMER: Staff Discussion Notes (SDNs) showcase policy-related analysis and research being developed by IMF staff members and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in Staff Discussion Notes are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

This paper analyzes market reactions to the 2013-14 Fed announcements relating to tapering of asset purchases and their relationship to macroeconomic fundamentals and country economic and financial structures. The study uses daily data on exchange rates, government bond yields, and stock prices for 21 emerging markets. It finds evidence of markets differentiating across countries around volatile episodes. Countries with stronger macroeconomic fundamentals, deeper financial markets, and a tighter macroprudential policy stance in the run-up to the tapering announcements experienced smaller currency depreciations and smaller increases in government bond yields. At the same time, there was less differentiation in the behavior of stock prices based on fundamentals.

Despite the absence of pulmonary symptoms in four individuals, all patients had parenchymal abnormalities. Small pulmonary nodules were the most common finding, identified in nine patients. These nodules ranged in size from 2 to 5 mm in five patients, with larger nodules ranging up to 15 mm seen in four patients. In one patient, the only parenchymal abnormality was a single 5-mm focus of ground-glass attenuation. No relationship was seen between either the presence of pulmonary symptoms or the presence of peripheral eosinophilia and the severity of parenchymal disease. No additional significant findings were identified.

The topic of CEO compensation has been highly debatable. The financial crisis of 2008 further prompted public and media to question executive compensation practices in the United States. This study investigates the effect of the financial crisis on CEO compensation and also examines various determinants of CEO compensation. Using a sample of Fortune 500 firms and 2241 observations, we find that financial crisis has a small but significant effect on CEO compensation. Firm performance, firm size, and CEO duality were found to have a significant effect on CEO compensation both pre and post-crisis. One major difference found between pre and post-crisis was in the composition of pay. While cash compensation decreased significantly post-crisis, equity-compensation increased.

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