The authors suggests that banks that are more forthcoming on basic balance-sheet items exhibit lower stock price volatility. About 600 banks in thirty-one countries over the 1993-2000 period are covered. The authors find that higher values of their disclosure index are associated with...

This paper assesses empirically the key drivers of private capital flows to a large sample of emerging market economies in the last decade. It analyzes the effect of the global financial cycle, measured by the VIX, on capital flows and investigates the role of fundamentals and country...

This paper sets out general principles for the design of financial stability frameworks, starting from an analysis of the objectives and tools of financial regulation. The paper then offers a comprehensive analysis of the costs and benefits of the two main models that have emerged for modern...

A number of countries are reviewing their institutional arrangements for financial stability to support the development of a macroprudential policy function. In some cases, this involves a rethink of the appropriate institutional boundaries between central banks and financial regulatory...

This paper uses mortgage data to construct a measure of terms on which households access to externalfinance, and relates it to consumption at both the aggregate and cohort levels. The Household ExternalFinance (HEF) index is based on the spread paid by risky borrowers in the mortgage market....

Significant attention is paid by policymakers in the UnitedKingdom to the relationship between house prices, thebusiness cycle, and inflation, on account of the pronouncedprocyclical pattern of house prices. Are house prices asymptom of macroeconomic conditions? Or are thereimportant feedback...