Maria Correia

Discusses the evolution of three main streams within the financial distress prediction literature: the set of dependent and explanatory variables used, the statistical methods of estimation, and the modeling of financial distress. Section 1 discusses concepts of financial distress. Section 2 discusses theories regarding the use of financial ratios as predictors of financial distress. Section 3 contains a brief review of the literature. Section 4 discusses the use of market price-based models of financial distress. Section 5 develops the statistical methods for empirical estimation of the probability of financial distress. Section 6 discusses the major empirical findings with respect to prediction of financial distress. Section 7 briefly summarizes some of the more relevant literature with respect to bond ratings. Section 8 presents some suggestions for future research and Section 9 presents concluding remarks.

Young people are the basis for the future health and welfare of their communities. Understanding the critical role of young people to the security of sustainable development, this text draws attention to both the important contributions youth have made to the Caribbean society and the critical challenges they face in assuming socially responsible and productive roles in the years to come. Organized into seven chapters, this report provides an overview of the risks Caribbean youth are facing as well evidence of the protective and risk factors underlying the problems confronting youth in the region and an estimation of costs of risky youth behaviours. It also includes an overview of the policy framework and the types of programmes in place that target youth. The report advocates the prioritization of youth development across all sectors and identifies key principles for moving forward.

While the World Bank has included the issue of alcohol consumption and production on its' agenda for the past ten years, it has not included gender dimensions in the issue. By focusing on alcohol consumption in Latin America and the Caribbean, the instances of death, disease and domestic violence arising from alcoholism were tracked. This study recommends an approach to dealing with the damage done by alcohol consumption and production that goes beyond controlling its' availability. Specifically the measures recommended include: increasing knowledge through research; developing indicators to measure consumption levels and patterns among men and women, and the economic and social consequence of alcohol use; integrating the issue of alcohol use and related problems into consultations with governments and civil society organizations; and investment lending where appropriate, to address the issue.