It is often argued that a high level of central-band independence coupled with an explicit mandate that the bank aim for price stability are important institutional devices for maintaining that stability. Indeed, a number of countries have recently increased the independence of their central...

Should central banks concern themselves with agricultural policies? Does Europe's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) matter for Central and Eastern Europe? Should ministries of agriculture be abolished, or perhaps be incorporated into ministries of environment or even education and culture? The...

This essay offers an analysis of actual German and Swiss monetary policy that explains this gap between operation and performance. It shows that neither country's central bank can be called a monetary targeter, according to a strict, formal definition of targeting, and it argues that the...

This essay considers strategies that developing and emerging-market economies might use when seeking to exit from currency pegs. It also considers techniques for completing the move to greater flexibility, as well as the scope for adopting inflation targeting as a nominal anchor following an...

The fifteen newly independent republics of the former Soviet Union began 1992 with a functionning ruble area inherited from the Soviet union. Indeed, early that year, the ruble was atop the currency hit parade; no other currency served as sole legal tender across so many national borders. This...