The paper surveys the literature on the effects of finance on productivity growth. In both the theoretical and empirical literature, there is no consensus regarding the contribution of financial liberalization and financial development to growth. Focusing on the direct channels of growth, the...

This study examines foreign exchange intervention based on novel daily data covering 33 countries from 1995 to 2011. We find that intervention is widely used and a highly effective policy tool, with a success rate in excess of 80 percent under some criteria. The policy works very well in terms...

Using panel data of 192 countries from 1970 through 1999, and 195 currency crisis episodes, this study examines the effect of membership in a currency union on the probability of experiencing a currency crisis. Both parametric and non-parametric estimates suggest that membership in a currency...

This paper revisits the definition of monetary policy autonomy and develops a new method to identify autonomy regimes for a set of countries. Compared to the traditional identification approach, which only focuses on correlations among domestic and foreign interest rates, monetary policy...

A recent study by Grilli and Kaminsky (1991) argues that real exchange rate (RER) behavior is likely to be dependent on the particular historical period rather than on the nominal exchange rate arrangement itself. This paper reexamines RER behavior using alternative data sets, as well as...

We use the demise of silver-based standards in the 19th century to explore price dynamics when a commodity-based money ceases to function as a global unit of account. We develop a general equilibrium model of the global economy with gold and silver money. Calibration of the model shows that...

The reduction of global imbalances observed during the climax of crisis is incomplete. In this context, currencies' realignments are still proposed to ensure global macroeconomic stability. These realignments are based on equilibrium rates derived from equilibrium exchange rate models. Among...

In an open economy with endogenous risks, financial development and capital account liberalization reduce the volatilities of home equity and bond prices, and appreciate the home currency at the stochastic steady state. Financial development lowers the equilibrium real interest rate when...

This study examines foreign exchange intervention based on novel daily data covering 33 countries from 1995 to 2011. We find that intervention is widely used and an effective policy tool, with a success rate in excess of 80 percent under some criteria. The policy works well in terms of smoothing...