This paper proposes a framework to analyze the functioning of the inter-bank liquidity market and the occurrence of liquidity crises. The model relies on three key assumptions: (i) liquidity provisioning is not verifiable -it cannot be contracted upon-, (ii) banks face moral hazard when...

The purpose of this paper is to cast a new light on the present state of global current account imbalances. As a first step, we compute the world distribution of current account balances, in order to highlight its historically-unprecedented pattern, both in terms of the size of imbalances, its...

The world distribution of current account balances has been steadily drifting away from “normality” since 1997. This puzzling development has occurred in parallel with large scale accumulation of official foreign reserve assets in emerging Asia and commodity exporting countries, and a...

Les réserves de change accumulées par certaines économies d’Asie émergente dépassent les montants justifiés par des motifs d’assurance. Reflet de stratégies de change mercantilistes, elles peuvent être le symptôme d’une croissance déséquilibrée.