This volume integrates financial theory, particularly financial contracting theory, into macroeconomics. The role of financial contracts in reducing the conflict between the various factors of production within the firm is described, particularly their influence upon the pricing, employment, production, and financing decisions of firms during various stages of the business cycle. Dr. Krainer takes an unconventional approach to the subject of financial institutions and markets: by applying financial theory to macroeconomic topics, he portrays a different view of how the financial system interacts with the economy.

The present book avoids the fantasy recipes that abound in technical analysis and focuses instead on those that are statistically correct and can be understood by newcomers as well as appreciated by professionals. The described protocols and techniques will prove invaluable in analyzing market behavior and assisting in trading decisions.

The algorithms used in the technical analysis of financial markets have changed beyond recognition.This book offersa more efficient technical analysis - one that is not satisfied with protocols that just seem to be fine, but which requires that they are indeed fine, verifying this through simulations on the PC, serious statistical counts, and so on. "

In all countries debt and deficits of the public sector are at the heart of economic policy debate. Debt and deficits pose major problems, all the more pressing in Europe because of the Maastricht criteria for entry into European Monetary Union. And in the developing world debt has been associated with major financial crises. This volume, arising from an International Economic Association conference at the Bundesbank, sees academics and policy makers debate the key issues and their implications in theory and practice.

Free banking is a term that refers to the total deregulation of the banking industry. It signifies an absence of such constraints as reserve requirements, capital requirements, government deposit insurance, and limitations on branching. Above all, it means that private banks would be allowed to issue their own currency. This book takes a fresh approach to that controversial topic. Sechrest proposes that free banking constitutes the final vindication of Say's Law, that the optimal monetary goal, monetary equilibrium, can only be achieved under free banking, that the monetarist and Austrian business cycle theories are complementary, and that the most likely form of free banking will be that in which banks issue specie-convertible notes and hold fractional reserves.

After defining free banking the author explains why he adopts the well known White-Selgin model. He then discusses the key characteristics of laissez-faire banks, which form the basis for a formal model, complete with graphs, which may be used in the classroom. The unique relationship between the market for money and the market for time that exists under free banking suggests that business cycles will be minimized under such a regime. That relationship also leads to the insight that the Austrian and monetarist cycle theories are really two sides of the same coin. New evidence is presented that leads the author to the conclusion that both Lawrence White's portrayal of Scottish free banking and the traditional image of American free banking are exaggerated. Three different basic models of free banking are then reviewed in detail and critiqued. Finally, the author suggests both some possible topics for future research and that free banking is desirable socially and politically as well as economically.

"Central bankers worldwide welcome the recent increase of research on payment systems. This volume, providing an expert overview on this timely subject, should be required reading for us all". - Erkki Liikanen, Governor of the Bank of Finland Monetary policy has been at the centre of economic research from the early stages of economic thought, but payment system research has attracted increased academic attention only in the past decade. This book's succeeds in merging these two so far largely separated fields. Innovative and groundbreaking, Schmitz and Woods initiate research on the interdependence of institutional change in the payments system and monetary policy, examining the different channels via which payment systems affect monetary policy. It explores important themes such as: conceptualization and methods of analysis of institutional change in the payments system determinants of institutional change in the payments system - political-economy versus technology empirics of institutional change in the retail and in the wholesale payments systems - policy initiatives and new technologies in the payments system implications of institutional change in the payments system for monetary policy and the instruments available to central banks to cope with it. The result is an accessible overview of conceptual and methodological approaches to institutional change in payment systems, and a comprehensive and yet thorough assessment of its implications for monetary policy. The insights this timely book provides will be invaluable for researchers and practitioners in the field of monetary economics.

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the problems that the current working of capital markets are generating on both developed and developing economies. It pays special attention to the reasons explaining the unstable and volatile working of international financial markets and to the consequences of that behaviour on both the economic performance of the involved countries and on the economic policies implemented.

Why did France, with its strong sense of national identity, want to give up the Franc for the Euro? This book, by a former British diplomat in Paris, draws on new archive evidence to explore France's drive for European Economic and Monetary Union, and how unresolved Franco-German tensions over its design led to crisis.

The combined collapse of Iceland's three largest banks in 2008 is the third largest bankruptcy in history and the largest banking system collapse suffered by any country in modern economic history, relative to GDP. How could tiny Iceland build a banking system in less than a decade that proportionally exceeded Switzerland's? Why did the bankers decide to grow the system so fast? How did businesses tunnel money out of the banking system? And why didn't anybody stop them? Bringing Down the Banking System answers these questions. Gudrun Johnsen, Senior Researcher with Iceland's Special Investigation Commission, tells the riveting story of the rise and fall of the Icelandic banking system, describes the commission's findings on the damaging effects of holding company cross-ownership, and explains what we can learn from it all.

This volume contains the proceedings of a conference held in 1990 on the theme of Exchange Rate Regimes and Currency Unions. The papers are all devoted to theoretical and empirical analyses of systems of fixed and flexible exchange rates, to the role of central bank behaviour and other government policies in such systems, to the prospects, workings and effects of a European monetary system, and to topics of capital mobility and economic integration in general.

Looking at historical cross-country interactions, this book examines the role of the US in the world economy. Illustrating that US shocks tend to have a global nature and that Monetary Union only partially shelters the Euro area from its external environment, the book argues that the US should fully assume its responsibility, minimizing shock transmission.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 2005. The Irish Report is a scarce document, known to comparatively few economists. This reprint of the Report and of portions of the Minutes of Evidence, set against the historical background, will not only be of interest to the student of monetary theory and of monetary history, but also help to give perspective on some present-day problems of monetary and exchange policy, particularly in the countries of the sterling area. The Irish Report was frequently cited in the pamphlet literature of the time, and in Parliamentary debate, and discussed in detail the exchange situation between Ireland and England.

Money and the Space Economy Contributor list Pietro Alessandrini Leslie Budd Gordon Clark Sheila Dow Richard T. Harrison Alan Hudson Roger Lee Colin Mason Jane Pollard David J. Porteous Barney Warf Neil Wrigley Alberto Zazzaro Money is central to understanding the space economy. Not only does money itself have its own geographies, but these in turn help to shape the geographies of economic activity more generally. Across the global economy banking systems and money markets are being restructured. A new economic geography of money and finance is emerging, reflecting, among other things, the momentous changes that are taking place in the world's financial systems, particularly the impact of globalisation, deregulation, privatisation and technological change. Money and the Space Economy brings together leading geographers and economists working on money to highlight the changing geographies of banking, the forces underpinning and threatening international financial centres, the relationship between financial systems, business and the local economy, and the financial causes and consequences of the retreat of the state. With case studies drawn from United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, Money and the Space Economy redraws the map of local, regional, national and international financial spaces. Economic Geography/Business/Finance/Social Science

This book puts forward the view that rational expectations have a key role in formulating economic policy and in determining economic activity, prices, interest rates, and employment rates. Arguing that economic policy crucially depends upon expectations about future government policies, the author supports his thesis by drawing on monetary theory as well as on the actual experiences of several post-World War II countries.

This book pulls together papers presented at a conference in honour of the 1981 Nobel Prize Winner for Economic Science, the late James Tobin. Among the contributors are Olivier Blanchard, Edmund Phelps, Charles Goodhart and Marco Buti. One of the main aims of the conference was to discuss what potential role monetary policy has on economic activity and unemployment reduction in three key currency zones - the United States, European Union and Japan.

Approximately two years ago, the Guido Carli Association charged a group of distinguished economists with studying various aspects of the international monetary system and proposing ways to improve it. The studies were presented at a conference in Florence, Italy, on June 19, 1998 and their edited versions are published in this volume. Ideas for the Future of the International Monetary System consists of two parts: Part I contains the studies commissioned by the Carli Association - those by Dominick Salvatore; Koichi Hamada; Forrest Capie; Michele Fratianni, Andreas Hauskrecht and Aurelio Maccario; Jurgen von Hagen and Ingo Fender, Michael Artis, Marion Kohler and Jacques Melitz; Barry Eichengreen; Michele Fratianni and Andreas Hauskrecht; Paolo Savona and Aurelio Maccario; and Elvio Dal Bosco - and the comments by Paul De Grauwe and William Branson, and the editors' conclusions. Part II contains three papers presented at the Florence conference, by Antonio Fazio, Carl Scognamiglio, and Alberto Predieri.

Well-known for its engaging, conversational style, this text makes sophisticated concepts accessible, introducing students to how markets and institutions shape the global financial system and economic policy. Principles of Money, Banking & Financial Markets incorporates current research and data while taking stock of sweeping changes in the international financial landscape produced by financial innovation, deregulation, and geopolitical considerations. It is easy to encourage students to practice with MyEconLab, the online homework and tutorial system. New to the Twelfth Edition, select end-of-chapter exercises from the book are assignable in MyEconLab and preloaded problem sets allow students to practice even if the instructor has not logged in. For more information about how instructors can use MyEconLab, click here.

This volume assesses the current state of play for Middle East and North African countries, in the light of wider work on inflation targeting, and provides lessons from the evolution of monetary policy in Europe.

The growing disparity between the developed and the developing countries has once again rekindled the debate about the relative merits of foreign investment as means whereby the developed countries can help the devel oping countries in both achieving a reasonable rate of growth and also from preventing the widening gap between the North and the South from widening even further. This renewed interest in the debate was most sharply highlighted at the recently concluded North-South economic summit conference at Cancun, Mexico. There, the United States took the position that massive increases in foreign aid were neither practical nor the best means of ensuring continuing and satisfactory growth in the developing countries. Rather the solution was to be found in depending on a free market economy and on inflows of private foreign investment. Behind these views, of course lie the more fundamental questions: for example, what should be the role of multinational corporations in the developing countries since they constitute the main source of foreign private investment? Should there be greater cooperation between the public sectors of the North and the South? What is the best means of bridging the economic gap between the North and the South: through direct transfers of wealth from the North to the South or through raising South's growth rates via the transfer of technology and the inflow of investment by multinationals? These questions are of fundamental importance and have wide ranging implications, not only for the economic"

Real exchange rate changes - resulting either from shifts in nominal exchange rates or increases in costs that are asymmetric across countries - are the primary focus of this text. The book shows how exchange rates and local production costs are passed through into import prices. It is found both analytically and empirically for OECD countries that pass-through is incomplete and the degree of pass-through depends on country and industry characteristics such as production share, market structure, product attributes and demand features. The book also investigates the implications of exchange rate changes for profits, investment and the entry/exit decisions of firms. The main finding is that even though the exchange rate changes have a limited impact on price competitiveness, they do matter for location and investment decisions.

The Federal Reserve Bank held its Eleventh Annual Economic Policy Conference on November 14 and 15, 1986. The topic of the conference was Financial Risk: Theory, Evidence and Implications; this volume contains the papers and discussants' comments that were presented at this conference. As the reader will note, these papers cover the broad aspects of financial risk, from some key general concepts to specific domestic and international financial risk problems. And, of equal importance, they provide some interesting insights into reasons for the continuing turmoil in domestic and international financial markets that we have witnessed in recent years. ix I RISK: A GENERAL OVERVIEW 1 DIFFERENCES OF OPINION IN FINANCIAL MARKETS Hal R. Varian The standard models of financial markets such as the Sharpe-Lintner mean- variance model or the Rubinstein-Breeden-Litzenberger contingent con- sumption model both assume more-or-Iess homogenous probability beliefs.! There has been some work on extending the mean-variance model to allow for differences in beliefs across agents; see Jarrow (1980), Lintner (1969), Mayshar (1983), and Williams (1977). Differences in beliefs in contingent commodities models have received much less attention. The major references are Rubinstein (1975, 1976a), Breeden and Litzenberger (1978), Hakansson et al. (1982), and Milgrom and Stokey (1982).

Contents:
1. Fiscal federalism and EMU: an appraisal Philip Whyman and Mark Baimbridge Part 1: Theory of fiscal federalism 2. An essay on fiscal federalism Wallace E. Oates 3. The political economy of EMU and the EU Stability Pact Ralph Rotte Part 2: Development of EU budgetary measures 4. The development of EU budgetary measures and the rise of structural funding Jeffrey Harrop 5. The development of the EU budget and EMU Brian Ardy Part 3: EMU and fiscal federalism 6. Stabilisation in EMU: a critical review Robert Ackrill 7. Fiscal and monetary policies Edward M. Gramlich and Paul R. Wood Part 4: A global perspective 8. Australia's federal experience Jeff Petchey and Graeme Wells 9. Fiscal federalism in Switzerland: a public choice approach Christoph A. Schaltegger and René L. Frey 10. Fiscal institutions, regional adjustment and convergence in Canada's currency union: lessons for EMU Tracy R. Snoddon