Confiscation of currency has sometimes occurred through the fine print of currency reforms. While only a small fraction of currency reforms worldwide have masked a confiscation, when they don't they are likely to follow a hyperinflationary bout. Thus, one way or another, currency reforms are...

In parts of Africa, only one in five people have access to traditional banking services. In Latin America only one in three do. Claire Alexandre, Ignacio Mas, and Daniel Radcliffe of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation say this need not be the case. The technology exists to make banking...

M-PESA is a small-value electronic payment and store of value system that is accessible from ordinary mobile phones. It has seen exceptional growth since its introduction by mobile phone operator Safaricom in Kenya in March 2007: it has already been adopted by 14 million customers (corresponding...

While expansive literature on central bank independence contains some criticisms to the independent central bank quasi-paradigm, few critical analyses have been undertaken in the years between Friedman (1962) and Posen (1994). The author extends Posen's analysis to developing countries,...

The authors explain the features of an array of futures contracts and their basic pricing relationships and describe a few applications to show how investors and risk managers can use these contracts. Futures - and derivatives generally - allow economic agents to fine-tune the structure of their...