This paper examines the monetary policy framework of Guyana. Guyana’s monetary Policy is motivated by the IMF’s financial programming model. The quantity of excess reserves in the banking system is seen as critical in determining bank credit and ultimately the external balance and...

This paper examines why commercial banks in Guyana demand non-remunerated excess reserves, a phenomenon that became even more widespread after financial liberalisation. Despite the removal of capital controls, banks do not invest all excess reserves in a safe foreign asset because the central...

The paper shows how democratic elections in a bi-communal society with entrenched ethnic voting results in an elected oligarchy in which elites of one ethnic group control the allocation of scarce economic resources. Using a simple strategic game, the paper shows that the control of resources...

The theory underpinning financial liberalization postulates that unregulated financial markets are growth-augmenting. Guyana has been a model reformer since 1988, implementing market-friendly policies. Growth performance, however, has been subdued. This paper argues that natural entry barriers...

This study explores how shocks in the foreign exchange market influence the allocation of commercial bank assets. A consistent pattern of asset allocation was discovered for Guyanese and Jamaican commercial banks. A positive one standard deviation shock (a surplus) in the foreign exchange market...

This paper notes that a high sterilization coefficient plus a de facto pegged exchange rate indicates the existence of dual nominal anchors. The econometric evidence presented shows that several Caribbean economies with fixed exchange rate regimes also possess high sterilization coefficients....

This paper explores the influence of trader (or cambio) market power in determining the foreign exchange market bid-ask spread. In particular, it presents a theoretical model that incorporates the notion of oligopolistic power into the foreign exchange market. The econometric analysis...

This paper reports aggregate bank excess liquidity preference curves for the pre-crisis and crisis periods. It is argued that the flat curve reflects a threshold lending rate at which point banks accumulate reserves passively. Moreover, the expansion of reserves – when the lending rate...

This study proposes the idea that Guyana’s present government can be categorized as an elected oligarchy. It highlights the existence of several binding constraints (or structural bottlenecks) and demonstrates how these constraints are exacerbated by the elected oligarchy to impair the...

Previous studies have documented the tendency for the commercial banking sector of many developing economies to be highly liquid and be characterised by a persistently high interest rate spread. This paper embeds these stylised facts in an oligopoly model of the banking firm. The paper derives...