Research
Optimal reserve levels in emerging markets
The International Monetary Fund Working Paper "The optimal level of international reserves for emerging market countries: Formulas and applications" presents a model of the optimal level of international reserves for a small open economy that is…
IMF paper on currency unions
Against the background of the theory of optimum currency areas, the IMF paper "Beauty queens and wallflowers - Currency unions in the Middle East and Central Asia" analyzes possible sequences for establishing a currency union (CU) in the Middle East and…
ECB paper on public sector procurement legislation
The ECB Working Paper "National central banks and Community public sector procurement legislation: a critical overview" finds that an examination of the Public Sector Procurement Directive reveals no substantive grounds on which to argue that NCBs should…
Empirical evidence for central bank autonomy
The International Monetary Fund Working Paper "Measures of central bank autonomy: Empirical evidence for OECD, developing, and emerging market economies" presents an update of the Grilli-Masciandaro-Tabellini (GMT) index of central bank (CB) autonomy,…
The measurement of central bank autonomy
The International Monetary Fund Working Paper "The measurement of central bank autonomy: Survey of models, indicators, and empirical evidence" presents a survey of the literature on the measurement of central bank autonomy.
Canadian inflation targets need debate
Canadians need to debate the Bank of Canada's inflation-targeting program, according to an e-brief released Tuesday 17 October by the C.D. Howe Institute, if they wish to set the stage for future improvements.
RBA 'Demography and financial markets' conference
The Reserve Bank of Australia published papers from its 'Demography and financial markets' 23-25 July 2006 conference on 12 October. The G20 workshop brought together academics, policy advisors, private sector participants and representatives from the…
BIS paper on the euro as a reserve currency
The BIS Working Paper "The euro as a reserve currency: a challenge to the pre-eminence of the US dollar?" investigates whether euro financial markets have developed sufficiently to facilitate the emergence of the euro as a reserve currency on par with…
Political instability and inflation volatility
The purpose of this International Monetary Fund Working Paper is to empirically determine the causes of worldwide diversity of inflation volatility.
IMF paper on West African financial integration
The IMF Working Paper "Financial integration in the West African Economic and Monetary Union" assesses the degree of financial integration in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU).
Dallas Fed says monetary policy is losing effect
According to a new paper in the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' Economic Letter series, monetary policy is losing its bite.
Canada paper: macroeconomic effects of inflation
In the Bank of Canada Working Paper "The macroeconomic effects of non-zero trend inflation" the authors study the macroeconomic effects of non-zero trend inflation in a simple dynamic stochastic general-equilibrium model with sticky prices.
Monetary and prudential policies at a crossroads?
The BIS Working Paper "Monetary and prudential policies at a crossroads? New challenges in the new century" argues that financial liberalisation has resulted in subtle but profound changes in the dynamics of the economy and in the challenges faced by…
ECB paper on international portfolio flows
The European Central Bank Working Paper "The geography of international portfolio flows, international CAPM and the role of monetary policy frameworks," says that global equity markets might be more integrated than global bond markets.
Monetary policy in the media
This European Central Bank Working Paper, published 29 September, analyses the coverage which ECB monetary policy decisions receive in the print media, and the determinants of its extent and of its favourableness.
RBNZ paper on open economy inflation targeters
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand Discussion Paper "What do robust policies look like for open economy inflation targeters?" examines the role of the open economy in determining robust rules when the central bank fears various model misspecification errors.
Household savings and wealth in New Zealand
This Reserve Bank of New Zealand paper released on 27 September discusses a range of factors that may account for the decline in saving. The paper was prepared as background for a presentation by Reserve Bank governor, Alan Bollard, to the New Zealand…
BIS's Knight on reserve diversification
In the speech 'International reserve diversification and disclosure' given on 8 September (published 25 Sep) Malcolm Knight of the BIS said powerful arguments can be made for the disclosure of the composition of official foreign exchange reserves.
IMF paper on currency volatility trends
The IMF Working Paper "Common volatility trends in the Central and Eastern European currencies and the euro" asks how much convergence has been achieved between Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies and the eurozone.
Paper on proposed changes to supervisory review
The UK Treasury has issued a discussion paper on proposed changes to the supervisory review process for mergers and acquisitions in the financial sector which considers the rationale for reform of the existing regime.
IMF paper on asset market participation
The IMF Working Paper 'Asset market participation, monetary policy rules, and the Great Inflation' argues that limited asset market participation is crucial in explaining U.S. macroeconomic performance and monetary policy before the 1980s, and their…
Launch of the ECB Statistical Data Warehouse
The European Central Bank launched its Statistical Data Warehouse on the internet on Thursday 21 September. The Statistical Data Warehouse is the ECB's new online data delivery service for statistics.
Technology diffusion within central banking
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Paper "Technology diffusion within central banking: The case of real-time gross settlement" examines the diffusion of real-time gross settlement (RTGS) technology across all 174 central banks.
Paper on governance and the IMF
The Bank of Canada Working Paper "Governance and the IMF: Does the Fund Follow Corporate Best Practice?" identifies governance issues facing the International Monetary Fund that have remained largely ignored by the literature and policy-makers alike.