In our recent Economic Policy article (Honohan and Lane, 2003), we argued that the strength of the US dollar 1999-2001 had an important impact on inflation divergence within the EMU and in particular the surge in Ireland’s inflation to over 7%. This hypothesis has been subjected to a grueling...

Conventional PPP-adjusted real output measures, invaluable for making international comparisons of living standards, may greatly exaggerate the productive capacity of poor countries. The equilibrium prices of an hypothetical world of full economic integration provide an instructive basis for...

Like all major currencies, the euro will attract a fringe of hangers-on. Though this need not influence overall policy with regard to the value of the euro, important policy questions arise. Can EMU members gain from cooperative arrangements for influencing or supporting fringe currencies? If...

Intro -- Contents -- Contributors -- Foreword -- Part I Designing Policy for the Financial System -- Looking Back at the World BankÌs World Development Report 1989: Finance and Development -- From Good Bankers to Bad Bankers -- Impact of Early Financial Growth Strategies on Financial Structures...

Intro -- CONTENTS -- Foreword -- Contributors -- 1. Globalization and National Financial Systems: Issues of Integration and Size -- Part I. Macroeconomics and Globalization -- 2. Deposit Dollarization and the Financial Sector -- Part II. Banking -- 3. Bank Efficiency and Financial System Size --...

Intro -- Contents -- Abstract -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Microfinance Penetration -- Non-uniform Development of Microfinance Across Countries -- Microfinance is Too Small to Threaten the Mainstream -- 3. Is Microfinance Different to the Mainstream? -- Differences Related to...

Making Finance Work for Africa takes a panoramic view of Africa's financial systems, both at the large scale ("finance for growth") and the small scale ("finance for all"). Things are changing for the better in African finance. Credit growth is underway after a long pause, solid new...

This paper assesses the benefits and risks associated with dollarization of the banking system. We provide novel empirical evidence on the determinants of dollarization, its role in promoting financial development, and on whether dollarization is associated with financial instability. We find...