Using a comprehensive database on bank credit, covering 135 developing countries over the period 1960–2011, we identify, document, and compare the macro-economic dynamics of credit booms across low- and middle-income countries. The results suggest that while the duration and magnitude of...

This article investigates returns and volatility linkages among stock markets, including emerging Asian (e.g., India, China, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Philippine, and South Korea) stock markets and developed (e.g., United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and Singapore) stock markets. During the sample...

This paper investigates the empirical significance of push- and pull factors of different types of capital flows - FDI, portfolio and "others" (including loans) - to emerging market and developing economies. Based on an extensive quarterly mixed time-series panel dataset for 32 emerging market...

New indices for developed and emerging markets are analyzed for stocks, bonds and bills over the past 300 years. Indices for commodity markets covering 1000 years and indices for real estate covering over 100 years are also provided. Bull and bear markets for fixed income are studied going back...

This paper presents an in-depth analysis of developments in the microfinance sector before and after the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008 by comparing them with developments in traditional banking sectors of emerging market economies and developing countries. The findings indicate that...

We test the existence of the balance sheet channel of monetary policy in a middle-income country. Firm-level data scarcity and quality, in such a context, make the identification of this channel a steep challenge. To circumvent this challenge, we use panel instrumental variables estimation with...

This paper investigates whether the effect of bank lending shocks has changed over time using a sign-restriction Vector Autoregression approach. To the extent to which the effect of bank lending shocks depends critically on firms' ability to access alternative sources of financing, the rapid...

How do oil price movements affect sovereign spreads in an oil-dependent economy? I develop a stochastic general equilibrium model of an economy exposed to co-moving oil price and output processes, with endogenous sovereign default risk. The model explains a large proportion of business cycle...

During the last few years, there has been a widespread debate about the role of asset prices in the determination of monetary policy. Monetary authorities have traditionally used a Monetary Conditions Index, which is a weighted average between the interest rate and the exchange rate, in order to...

This paper studies the relationship between banks' holdings of domestic sovereign securities and credit growth to the private sector in emerging market and developing economies. Higher banks' holdings of government debt are associated with a lower credit growth to the private sector and with a...