Over the next few years, we will see a pronounced increase in the speed at which payment transactions are executed and in the share of cross-border transactions, particularly in the euro area. Counterparty risks and liquidity needs connected with the transfer of funds continue to evolve and to...

We sketch a theoretical framework for comparing the properties of funded LOLR schemes. We construct an idealized lender of last resort and investigate how it formulates policy under alternative public and private governance structures. The alternatives are a (first-best) social utility maximizer...

This study is concerned with the determinants of monetary policy in the ERM countries. We derive a monetary policy rule, an interest rate rule, from a minimization problem faced by the central bank. The loss function trades off costs of interest rate instability against benefits from successful...

In this study, the interaction between the competition-cooperation nexus and regulation in retail payment systems is analysed by applying the main lessons from the theory of network industries. This is justifiable on the grounds that the payment systems industry inherently has many...

Unemployment is now the key issue for economic policy in the OECD and Europe in particular. By examining data from the period 1962–1996 for two highly different small open OECD economies, Finland and New Zealand, in a VEC model this paper seeks to cast light on three questions: the degree to...

The paper stresses on the importance of understanding the operational choices, strategies, and performances of stock exchanges as regular operating firms (Arnold et al (1999), and Pirrong (1999)) Using unbalanced panel data on 49 stock exchanges over the period 1989–1998, the paper traces the...

Finnish payment methods have changed rapidly as payment cards have gained increasing popularity and have, to an extent, replaced cash. This article examines this phenomenon and the trends in cash and electronic payment methods in Finland. It starts with an introduction to the statistical data on...

We study the interaction between private and public funding of innovative projects in the presence of adverse-selection based financing constraints. Government programmes allocating direct subsidies are based on ex-ante screening of the subsidy applications. This selection scheme may yield...

We estimate a standard production function with a new cross-country data set on business sector production, wages and R&D investment for a selection of 14 OECD countries including the United States. The data sample covers the years 1960–2004. The data suggest that growth differences can...

Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) provides a more efficient mechanism for dealing with problem banks operating in more than one European country. In a PCA framework, a bank’s losses are likely to be substantially reduced. This reduction in the losses to deposit insurance and governments will...