In emerging markets, policies for preventing and managing financial crises should be understood following the standard open economy macroeconomics text treatment. This, however, will prevent us from fully comprehending how to deal with these crises. To deal with financial crises in emerging...

This paper is concerned with the following aspects of Basel 2, the new internationally agreed framework for assessing the capital adequacy of banks: (1) its rationale and origins; (2) the process leading to the agreement, including the way in which problems and criticisms which emerged during...

Do nations have the policy space to deploy capital controls in order to prevent and mitigate financial crises? This paper examines the extent to which measures to mitigate this crisis and prevent future crises are permissible under a variety of bilateral, regional and multilateral trade and...

The current economic crisis, more than previous ones this past decade, has called into question the whole neo-liberal approach to financial management, including the approach the neo-liberal approach to central banking. Central banks focused on commodity inflation miss asset bubbles and credit...

As the world experiences its worst financial crisis since the 1930s, policymakers are increasingly calling for a “Bretton Woods II”. To claim the mantle of the 1944 conference, officials will need to be more creative about global financial reform than they have been so far in the three areas...

This paper examines the 2008 global food price crisis, identifying long- and short-term causes as well as the two factors which distinguish the 2008 food price increases from earlier episodes – speculation and diversion of food crops to biofuels. The paper contends that while most attention...

The threat of climate change requires a rapid transition to a new, low-carbon style of economic development. How will the transition be financed? Most of the global potential for emission reduction is located in developing countries. Achieving this potential, plus adaptation to climate damages,...

There are a number of important reasons why lending by regional or sub-regional development banks can and should play an important and valuable complementary role in the international development architecture. We look at the specific strengths of multilateral, regional and sub-regional...

This paper has three objectives. It discusses the main developments and new issues that have arisen after the Monterrey Conference. It critically reviews the Monterrey Consensus on external debt. It provides a set of recommendations for reviewing the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus, to...

This paper attempts to examine: (i) the factors responsible for this revival and surge in capital flows into developing countries; (ii) the qualitative changes in financial integration that are accompanying this surge; and (iii) the impact that this surge is having on financial volatility and...