We construct a model to analyse the two types of tender procedures used by the European Central Bank in its open market operations. We assume that the ECB minimizes the expected value of a loss function that depends on the quadratic difference between the interbank rate and a target interest...

This paper test stwo hypotheses for the overbidding behavior of the banks in the fixed rate tenders conducted by the European Central Bank from January 1999 until June 2000. One hypothesis attributes the overbidding to expectations of a future tightening of monetary policy, while the other...

This paper analyses the informational content of financial prices in Spain, mainly from the viewpoint of a central bank. In partiocular, we examine the informational content of domestic yields and yield spreads, foreign-domestic spreads, credit quality spreads, stock prices and excahnge rates on...

This paper explores the interaction between centralized monetary policy and decentralized fiscal policy in a monetary union. Discretionary monetary policy suffers from a failure to commit. Moreover, decentralized fiscal policymakers impose externalities on each other through the influence of...

In this paper, I focus on the stabilization properties of alternative simplified approaches to the conduct of monetary policy and fiscal policy. The paper is motivated by questions of topical interest in New Zealand, for example what the costs might be in terms of lost credibility if the Reserve...

In contemporary New Zealand, microeconomics is in the ascendant over macroeconomics, to such an extent that neither the Reserve Bank nor the Cabinet and Treasury appear to give much attention to shorter-run macroeconomic stabilization as a policy goal. This lecture examines why thoughtful New...

Is commercial banking in the traditional sense obsolete? Are we in fact witnessing the emergence of a fundamentally new era of finance and payments intermediation? These questions are raised in this paper. Instead of a formal analysis, an attempt is made here to approach these questions from a...

We use the ten years of experience in inflation-targeting in New Zealand since 1989 to test whether monetary policy appears to conform to the simple rules that have been recommended for it in the literature. Of the inflation targeting central banks, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has both the...

This paper investigates the views of electronic money operators and innovators on the possibilities and implications of e-money, especially with respect to replacing central bank money as well as technical issues regarding e-money, its implications for the financial industry and central banking....

This essay offers an analysis of actual German and Swiss monetary policy that explains this gap between operation and performance. It shows that neither country's central bank can be called a monetary targeter, according to a strict, formal definition of targeting, and it argues that the...