This paper makes three points. The first is that external imbalances between Member States are relevant for the performance of a monetary union when the latter is not backed by a strong political commitment and a solid political framework. Eurozone policymakers have ignored these inter-member...

The authors (A&F) reply to Andrea Terzi's comment on their previous paper, published in the December 2015 issue of this Review. Andrea Terzi's two main objections to A&F analysis are: that diverging current-account (CA) balances enhanced the fragility of the member countries of the euroarea, but...

Recent studies of monetary policy in developing countries document a weak bank lending channel based on aggregate data. In this paper, we bring new evidence using Uganda's supervisory credit register, with microdata on loan applications, volumes and rates, coupled with unanticipated variation in...

We examine trends in bank competition since the early 2000s. The Lerner index-arguably the most commonly used measure-shows evidence of a marked increase in market power in advanced economies, especially after the global financial crisis. But other frequently used indicators of banking sector...

The transmission of monetary policy to credit aggregates and the real economy can be impaired by weaknesses in the contracting environment, shallow financial markets, and a concentrated banking system. We empirically assess the bank lending channel in Uganda during 2010–2014 using a...