Asset inflation, as distinguished from ordinary inflation, the latter referring to rising prices of consumer goods, wholesale commodities, or the national-income deflator, is a phrase not in use in the west, but current in Japan. There are times when assets rise in price in an inflationary way,...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial development and economic growth. In particular, the authors examine the impact of financial development on the growth of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in China. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) multiple...

This paper elucidates the key debates surrounding the optimal design of financial systems and institutions: bank-based versus market-based; universal versus specialized banking; relationship versus arms-length banking. The paper also examines the historical pattern of financial system development...

The turbulence in East Asia, the contagious effects on financial markets of other emerging economies and even on the major world stock markets, and the renewed instability in exchange rates are, I think, warnings of trouble in a world in which capital is free to flow as never before around the...

The present issue of PSL Quarterly Review includes three articles: by Mario Sarcinelli, on the need for structural regulations on financial institutions in order to avoid a new systemic crisis; by Mario Tonveronachi, on the limits of the official regulatory responses to the current crisis; by...

This paper reviews recent developments in macro and finance on the relationship between financial risk and the real economy. We focus on three specific topics: the term structure of uncertainty, time variation - and specifically the long-term decline - in the variance risk premium, and time...

This paper addresses the question of whether and how easy monetary policy may lead to excesses in financial and real asset markets and ultimately result in financial dislocation. It presents evidence suggesting that periods when short-term interest rates have been persistently and significantly...

In this paper I estimate a New Keynesian Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium model for the Euro Area, which closely follows the structure of the model developed by Smets and Wouters (2003, 2005, 2007), with the addition of the so-called financial accelerator mechanism developed in Bernanke,...