The paper studies the causes of the current financial crisis and considers proposals for mitigation and prevention of future crises. The crisis is was the product of a ‘perfect storm’ bringing together a number of microeconomic and macroeconomic pathologies. Among the microeconomic systemic...

The traditional current account can be an inaccurate measure of the change in the net foreign asset (NFA) position. Using gross asset and liability positions at the country level, a number of 'valuation effects' have been identified which contribute to changes in NFA but do not enter the...

Capital formation is a key driver of the growth of potential output. With continuing widespread capital controls and persistently small inward FDI the volume of capital formation in India is constrained by domestic saving. The national saving rate in India (the sum of the saving rates of...

This 2003 Institute for Fiscal Studies Lecture addresses two sets of issues relevant to current and prospective future E(M)U members: the consequences of the Stability and Growth Pact for fiscal-financial sustainability and macroeconomic stability, and some risks associated with operational...

The Paper discusses how the EU accession countries should pursue full membership in the EMU: adopt the euro. The key messages are the following: 1) Even the largest of the accession countries is too small, too open and too vulnerable to speculative attacks to be a viable optimal currency area....

The paper considers the pros and cons for Canada of monetary union between Canada and the U.S. The current Canadian monetary arrangements, a flexible exchange rate and an inflation target, are contrasted both with a unilateral adoption by Canada of the U.S. dollar and with a full, formally...

Policy-makers’ incentives to undertake costly reform depends on the international monetary system. We consider the effect of monetary regimes on labour market reform. We find international negotiation of monetary policy produces less reform than non-cooperation. Reform is lowest of all with...

In the first decade of its existence the EMS passed through three phases of realignments: full accommodation, partial accommodation and zero accommodation of inflation differentials. To what extent, however, does the new freedom of capital movements within the EC rule out such gradual...

Many recent papers suggest that the basic flex-price target zone model does not perform well empirically. This paper derives some of the testable implications of a sticky-price target zone model in order to determine whether the assumption of perfect price flexibility explains the empirical...