Even with the sizable Foreign Exchange (FX) holdings and good credit ratings of its top assets, Asia remains vulnerable to various shocks. This paper highlights the limited crossborder asset pledgeability as a significant factor for the lingering vulnerability in Asia. The dichotomy in asset...

The topography of China's financial network is unique. Is it also uniquely robust to contagion? We explore this question using network theory. We find that networks that are more concentrated are less fragile when connectivity is low. However, they remain vulnerable to the occurrence of...

Digitalization and Blockchain have fundamentally transformed the structure of the monetary system. The first wave of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Ripple have failed to gain relevance in terms of their share in monetary transactions. This was due to systemic deficiencies leading...

Aligning investments to the climate and sustainability targets requires the introduction of stable climate-aligned policies. In this regard, a global Carbon Tax (CT) and a revision of the microprudential banking framework via a Green Supporting Factor (GSF) have been advocated. However, our...

This is a top-level and short review (hopefully an eye-opener) of the factors that affect the Dollar-Euro exchange rate in the near future. It seems that the US is better positioned, than the Euro Zone, to face the current illiquidity crisis. Moreover, over the period of this crisis it is...

The last decade has witnessed a great deal of theoretical and empirical research on the relationships between inflation, financial market performance, and economic growth. This paper provides a survey of that literature and presents new cross-country empirical results on this topic. We find that...

The cost of holding international reserves to self insure against foreign currency liquidity runs is typically estimated as the sovereign spread on the risk-free return on reserves paid on the debt issued to purchase them. However, to the extent that reserves lower the probability of a...

The spectacular development of the Spanish mortgage market during the last decade has increased the concern about its financial integration with other capital markets. This paper examines the degree of integration between the mortgage market and two broader capital markets such as the public...

This paper examines whether permanent earnings growth, crucial to stock valuation, increased during the 1990s as suggested by proponents of the 'New Economy. Using Samp;P 500 earnings for 1951-2000, we do not find strong evidence of either a one-time structural break or gradual change. However,...

We examine empirically whether asset prices and exchange rates may be admitted into a standard interest rate rule, using data for the US, the UK and Japan since 1979. Asset prices and exchange rates can be employed as information variables for a standard 'Taylor-type' rule or as arguments in an...