This paper provides empirical evidence that the quality of regulatory governance-governance practices adopted by financial system regulators and supervisors-matters for financial system soundness. The paper constructs indices of financial system soundness and regulatory governance, based on...

Financial globalization has increased dramatically over the past three decades, particularly for advanced economies, while emerging market and developing countries experienced more moderate increases. Divergences across countries stem from different capital control regimes, and factors such as...

This policy paper attempts to evaluate the viability of switching from the US dollar to the euro in international oil pricing. If materialised, the switch would not impact only OPEC nations but would also have ramifications for other oil exporting as well as importing nations. It would also have...

This policy paper attempts to evaluate the viability of switching from the US dollar to the euro in international oil pricing. If materialised, the switch would not impact only OPEC nations but would also have ramifications for other oil exporting as well as importing nations. It would also have...

This paper studies the correlation between output growth and lagged stock returns in a panel of emerging market economies and advanced economies. It finds that the correlation is as strong in emerging market economies as in advanced economies. Asset prices therefore contain valuable information...

In this paper, we develop multi-country indices of financial system stress and quality of financial policies and use them in regression analysis of the determinants of financial stress. We find that countries with higher quality of financial policies are better able to contain the effects of...