The differential response of cash reserves of member banks and nonmember banks not subject to the 1936-37 increase in reserve requirements is estimated to determine whether the 1937-38 recession was caused by the increase in reserve requirements. We identify 17 states that maintained constant...

The degree to which bankruptcy is permitted to play a role in the allocation of capital is a key distinction between the Asian state-directed financial regime and the Western market-directed version. The paper discusses the two approaches to finance and argues that a major problem with the bank...

In most countries' experience, the course of financial liberalization—much like the course of true love in Shakespeare—"never did run smooth." The process of reforming an economy from one where the government takes the lead in allocating financial and real resources to one where market...

Interest rate targeting is widely used by central banks to pursue price stability; however, the variation in inflation policy outcomes between central banks such as the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan despite a common policy instrument framework suggests interest- targeting has...

The Bank of Japan permitted a ten-year period of deflation (1995-2005) which appears to have ended in 2006. The deflation, as well as the preceding disinflation, adversely affected the financial and real sectors of the economy that in turn, made it difficult to recover from the collapse of asset...

The paper presents a simple, realistic, and cost-effective methodology for estimating net fiscal impacts that does not require input-output or structural model frameworks. The methodology is most appropriate for projects in rural areas where analytical methods are constrained by limited data....