This paper studies how financial stress, defined as periods of impaired financial intermediation, is transmitted from advanced to emerging economies using a new financial stress index for emerging economies. Previous financial crises in advanced economies passed through strongly and rapidly to emerging economies. The unprecedented spike in financial stress in advanced economies elevated stress across emerging economies above levels seen during the Asian crisis but with significant cross-country variation. The extent of pass-through of financial stress is related to the depth of financial linkages between advanced and emerging economies. Higher current account and fiscal balances do little to insulate emerging economies from the transmission of acute financial stress in advanced economies, although they may still help dampen the impact on the real economy.

This paper examines the regional distribution of public employment in Italy. It documents two sets of facts. This first is the use of public employment as a subsidy from the North to the less wealthy South.We calculate that about half of the wage bill in the South of Italy can be identified as a subsidy. Both the size of public employment and the level of wages are used as a redistributive device. The second set of facts concerns the effects of a subsidized public employment on individuals' attitudes toward job search, education, "risk taking" activities etc. Public employment discourages the development of market activities in the South.

The authors conjecture that profit-sharing reduces turnover and thus increases expected returns to firm-specific human capital investments, so that the optimal levels of skill acquisition and investment in firmspecific skills rise and ultimately increase productivity. Empirical evidence from NLSYdata on white men in nonunionjobs between 1988 and 1994 supports this hypothesis. Employees participating in profit-sharing plans were less likely than non-participants to separate from their jobs. They also received training more frequently and for longer durations. Finally, the authors show that profit-sharing was related to higher wage growth, indicating a faster rate of skill accumulation.

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This study explores the effects of labor and product market deregulation on employment growth. Our empirical results, based on an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development country sample from 1990 to 2004, suggest that lower levels of product and labor market regulation foster employment growth, including through sizable interaction effects. Based on these findings, the paper discusses a theoretical framework for evaluating deregulation strategies in the presence of reform costs. Optimal deregulation takes various forms depending on the deregulation costs and the strength of reform interactions. Compared with the first-best policy, decentralized decision making can lead to excessive or insufficient deregulation. IMF Staff Papers (2007) 54, 591–619. doi:10.1057/palgrave.imfsp.9450014