Freeman (1996) formulates a model in which payment arrangements based on intermediated debt that is settled using money can achieve higher welfare than direct money payment achieves. Freeman finds that a monetary authority can sometimes further improve welfare, and achieve efficiency, by...

CAPITAL ACCUMULATION HAS BEEN EMPHASISED AS THE MAJOR FACTOR GOVERING THE RATE OF DEVELOPMENT. THIS STUDY THEREFORE AIMS EXPLORING IN THE LIGHT OF PAST TRENDS, THE ROLE AND SCOPE OF COMMERCIAL BANKS AS FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES IN MOBILIZING DOMESTIC SAVINGS FOR DEVELOPMENT AND THE CONSTRAINTS IN...

The structural vector autoregression (SVAR) has become a central tool for research in empirical macroeconomics. Because the vast majority of these models are exactly identified, researchers have traditionally relied upon the informal use of prior information to compare alternative...

This paper investigates the (re-) establishment of central banking in West Germany after 1945 and the history of the Bundesbank Act of 1957. The main focus is on the early emphasis on the ‘independence’ of the central bank, which, together with a ‘stability-orientation’ in monetary...

This paper presents an estimated model with learning and provides evidence that learning can improve the fit of popular monetary DSGE models and endogenously generate realistic levels of persistence. The paper starts with an agnostic view, developing a model that nests learning and some of the...

This paper challenges the time-inconsistency case for central bank independence. It argues that the time-inconsistency literature not only seriously confuses the substance of the rules versus discretion debate, but also posits an implausible view of monetary policy. Most worrisome, the...

Should one think of zero nominal interest rates as an undesirable liquidity trap or as the desirable Friedman rule? I use three different frameworks to discuss this issue. First, I restate Cole and Kocherlakota's (1998) analysis of Friedman's rule: short run increases in the money stock -...

THIS PAPER DERIVES AND ESTIMATES A BARRO-TYPE REDUCED-FORM EQUATION FOR DOMESTIC REAL OUTPUT FROM A SIMPLE STRUCTURAL MODEL OF AN OPEN DEVELOPING ECONOMY IN WHICH MARKETS CLEAR CONTINUOUSLY AND EXPECTATIONS ARE RATIONAL. THE FORM IN WHICH OPEN ECONOMY VARIABLES APPEARED WAS EXPLICITLY DERIVED...

Most prices and interest rates display fluctuating levels that embody extractable energy and equivalent amounts of money. Such fluctuations are also associated with varying degrees of uncertainty. Shannon's derivations of spectral entropy and information content offer computational techniques...

Central banks do not operate in a vacuum. In this paper we analyse the fac-tors leading to external pressure or public support for European monetary policy. Moreover, based upon the findings for the Deutsche Bundesbank, some additional les-sons are drawn for the ECB. External pressure on the ECB...