A central proposition regarding effects of different mechanisms of financing public expenditures is that, under specific circumstances, it makes no difference to the level of aggregate demand if the government finances its outlays by debt or taxation. This so-called Ricardian equivalence states...

In countries like the former Soviet Union, where wealth is mainly stored in monetary assets, the behavior of the money-income ratio is a poor indicator of the growth of undesired monetary balances (monetary overhang). In those countries a monetary overhang is primarily a wealth overhang, which...

This paper argues that the IMF's traditional monetary conditionality--a ceiling on net domestic assets of the central bank and a floor on its net international reserves--should be adapted in IMF-supported adjustment programs with countries that have a framework of explicit inflation targets for...