This paper examines El Salvador’s transition to official dollarization by comparing aspects of this regime to the fixed exchange rate regime prevailing in the 1990s. Commercial bank interest rates are analyzed under an uncovered interest parity framework, and it is found that dollarization...

This paper presents the seventh survey of developments in international and national monetary law and practice involving special drawing rights (SDRs), currencies, and gold. The IMF has adopted three published decisions on surveillance over the exchange rate policies of members since the...

We study equity price volatility in general equilibrium with news shocks about future productivity and monetary policy. As West (1988) shows, in a partial equilibrium present discounted value model, news about the future cash flow reduces asset price volatility. We show that introducing news...

This paper summarizes the IMF advice on the ruble area as it was presented to the national authorities in Russia, the Baltic countries, and other states of the former Soviet Union in 1991-93. In the course of doing so, the paper corrects some misperceptions that have arisen about the IMF''s...

Banking sector problems have affected many IMF member countries, and measures to remedy these problems as well as to prevent their recurrence deeply concern central bankers and policymakers. the papers and comments published in this volume and edited by Charles Enoch and John H. Green were...

A payment system encompasses a set of instruments and means generally acceptable in making payments; the institutional and organizational framework governing such payments, including prudential regulation; and the operating procedures and communications network used to initiate and transmit...

Globalization operates not only by reducing domestic pressures on inflation but also by reducing the scope of domestic authorities to influence the pace of inflation. First, as markets are integrated, the common, cross-border sources of inflation increase, reducing the extent of...

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...

The likely enlargement of euro-area membership will radically change the environment under which monetary policy will be made in the euro area. Within less than a decade, the number of member countries in the euro area could more than double, with the vast majority of accession countries being...

Exchange rate targeting is considered the best policy option in dollarized economies when wages and prices are indexed to the exchange rate. Croatia is a highly dollarized economy, but empirical investigation conducted in this paper shows that exchange rate pass-through has been low after...