The ongoing political decentralization in Asia, with central governments devolving to local governments the responsibilities of delivering key development projects and public services, calls for sound local government finance. Local government finance in the region exhibits several problems:...

The study analyses financial cycles based on a global sample of 34 advanced and developing countries over the period 1960Q1 to 2015Q4. We use dynamic factor models and state-space techniques to estimate financial cycles in credit, housing, bond and equity markets, as well as aggregate...

This article combines theory and historical narratives to shed new light on the politics surrounding the making of central bank independence in contemporary Britain. Its central argument is that Gordon Brown’s decision to rewrite the British monetary constitution in May 1997 constituted an act...

This paper investigates the credit channel in Germany and the United Kingdom. The financial systems of these two countries show substantial structural differences, which leads one to expect that their real sectors respond differently to changes in monetary policy. To the extent that this is the...