This paper discusses the reasons for the change in economic policy direction adopted in New Zealand in 1984. The paper briefly outlines the economic history of New Zealand in the period from the early 1970's to 1996. The ultimate test of the success of the economic reforms is whether they have...

The paper considers a model in which limited liability causes an asset substitution problem for banks. The problem can at times become so severe that the current regulatory framework – based on a combination of effectively full deposit insurance, minimum capital requirements and prudential...

Is commercial banking in the traditional sense obsolete? Are we in fact witnessing the emergence of a fundamentally new era of finance and payments intermediation? These questions are raised in this paper. Instead of a formal analysis, an attempt is made here to approach these questions from a...

Using information from a variety of sources, including our own estimates from quarterly data for each of the countries over the period 1972–1997, this paper suggests that the exchange rate will play an important role in the transmission of the impact of monetary policy through to the real...

Using New Keynesian models, we compare Friedman’s k-percent money supply rule to optimal interest rate setting, with respect to determinacy, stability under learning and optimality. We first review the recent literature. Open-loop interest rate rules are subject to indeterminacy and...

The emergence of the New Consensus in monetary policy has been followed by a renewal of interest in central banks’ operating procedures, and specifically in the role of open market operations. There is a general view that overnight interest rates are most effectively controlled by standing or...

The aim of the present analysis is to shed light on the question whether Central Banks should publish their macroeconomic forecasts, and what could possibly be gained in monetary policy if they did so. We show that disclosing the Central Bank’s assessment of the prevailing inflationary...

Monetary policy transmission lags create credibility problems for the inflation-targeting policy maker who acts under discretion. We show that if prices react to monetary policy with a longer lag than output, the welfare maximizing inflationtargeting policy implies no policy stabilization of...

In this paper, we examine the incentives for central bank activism and caution in a two-country open-economy model with uncertainty and learning. We find that the presence of a strategic interaction between the home and foreign central banks creates an additional motivation for caution in...