During 1986-2007, average Irish living standards rapidly converged to those of the leaders, while also consolidating its position among the most globalized economies, Outsiders began to look to Ireland as a highly successful model against which to evaluate their own growth strategies. But...

Ireland had been considering a break in the long-standing currency link with sterling for some time when the ideal opportunity of a new exchange rate regime – potentially retaining the sterling link while stabilizing other exchange rates – seemed to offer itself in the form of the “zone of...

Despite anchoring the Irish monetary system to a common zone-wide exchange rate and interest rate, EMU has triggered sizable exchange rate and especially interest rate shocks to the Irish economy (albeit not appreciably greater than those experienced under previous exchange rate regimes)....

Partial credit guarantee schemes have experienced renewed interest from governments keen to promote financial access for small enterprises. While the market can find used for partial credit guarantees, the attractions for public policy can be illusory: indeed their most attractive feature for...

We analyze the sources of divergent national inflation rates among EMU member countries. At one level, we review the Irish ‘outlier’ experience; at another, we estimate panel regressions for the 1999-2001 period. We highlight the role played by differential exposure to euro exchange rate...

Although the worldwide growth in dollarization of bank deposits has recently slowed, it has already reached very high levels in dozens of countries. Building on earlier findings that allowed the main cross-country variations in the share of dollars to be explained in terms of national policies...

Although forbearance has been associated with more costly financial crises, a triggerhappy approach to closing weak banks could also precipitate an avoidable systemic collapse. In sophisticated regulatory environments, there can be net benefits from at least occasional acts of forbearance. But...

The history of banking around the world has been punctuated by frequent systemic crises. Not all crises are the same with distinct roles being played at different times by mismanagement, government interference and macroeconomic shocks. This review draws on experience from developing countries...

Overconfidence on the part of bankers and regulators in mechanical risk management models is an important and distinctive driver of bank failures in the current crisis. This paper illustrates the process by drawing on brief case studies of a handful of the biggest failures and losses. There are...

The 2007-8 banking crisis in the advanced economies has exposed deficiencies in risk management and prudential regulation approaches that rely too heavily on mechanical, albeit sophisticated, risk management models. These have aggravated private and economic losses, while perhaps protecting the...