Belarusian Economic Research and Outreach Center

Abstract Lowering a borrower's interest rate is one of the most effective ways to reduce a borrower's debt burden. Mortgage refinancing offers a chance to shift debt balances from high‐interest loans into a low‐interest mortgage through “cashing out” some of the home's equity. Using anonymized data on mortgage refinancing behavior, we find that over half of borrowers with high‐interest loans and available home equity do not take advantage of their cash‐out opportunities. While the cash‐out “surcharge” can rationalize this pattern, we leverage a policy change at Fannie Mae that eliminated this surcharge for student‐loan borrowers and find that the presence of a student loan does not significantly affect borrowers' propensity to cash out.

Abstract This study identifies and evaluates some of the major procurement issues met currently by international organizations both in private and public sectors. It deals with strategic procurement decision-making like outsourcing and market globalization, concessions set up, business continuity and contracting typology transformations. Such dynamic changes are deployed in a context of increased concern about the application of liberal procurement principles, which drive towards a series of improvements at the procedures and documentation level. The authors relate this evolution with the Internal Audit consulting perspective, which is still a recent endeavor, but in progress and dynamically expanding. European Union and related Agencies and Institutions are usually spearheading towards this direction offering lessons learned for further consideration.

Abstract This study examines the determinants of births in Belarus in 1996–2007 by using detailed micro‐data from the Belarusian Household Budget Surveys (BHBS). The existing literature offers several explanations of the recent trends in fertility in Belarus and in other former Soviet Union countries. It is often argued that the collapse of the Soviet Union and the concomitant economic instability reduced fertility in the 1990s, while economic growth and stabilization were responsible for its recovery since 2005. We evaluate these and other hypotheses by looking at the determinants of the first, second and third births, separately for women aged below 30 years of age and above 30 years of age. We provide evidence on the presence and the relative importance of the economic determinants, including income and wages, economic uncertainty, maternity and child‐care benefits. Our findings could inform demographic policies in Belarus and in other transitional countries.