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...

We present a two-step approach of assessing whether major donors of foreign aid have met recent demands for less proliferated and better coordinated aid efforts. First, we calculate Theil indices revealing the concentration of each donor's aid on recipient countries and specific aid sectors....