Central banks can operate with negative equity, and many have done so in history without undermining trust in fiat money. However, there are limits. How negative can central bank equity be before fiat money loses credibility? We address this question using a global games approach motivated by...

We explore the role of financial openness – capital account openness and gross capital inflows – and a newly constructed gravity-based contagion index to assess the importance of these factors in the run-up to currency crises. Using a quarterly data set of 46 advanced and emerging market...

This paper develops a theoretical model for "bazookas," a term coined by US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson in 2008 and since applied to various large-scale public sector support programs for distressed borrowers. The intention behind such programs is to provide so much available financing...

This paper compares the effectiveness of macroprudential policies (MaPs) and capital controls (CCs) in influencing the volume and composition of capital inflows, and the probability of banking and currency crises. We distinguish between foreign exchange (FX)-based MaPs, which may be similar to...

We analyze the relationship between ECB monetary policy and international lending by Dutch financial institutions. Our results suggest that banks hardly change their foreign lending in response to policy changes. We find some evidence in support of the portfolio channel (in response to a...

Based on newly available data, we examine the relationship between macroprudential policies (MaPs) and the Gini coefficient of both market income inequality, i.e. the Gini coefficient of income inequality before redistributive policies, and net income inequality, i.e. inequality after...

Sovereign-bank feedback loops have been at the heart of the euro area crisis and many previous debt crises. We regress a market measure of interdependency – the correlation between sovereign and bank credit default swaps (CDS) – against various fundamental indicators of interlinkages and...

This paper empirically examines the impact of capital flows on credit growth, credit excesses and banking crises using quarterly panel data from 43 advanced (AEs) and emerging market economies (EMEs). Regressions show that gross capital inflows precede credit growth and credit excesses. Both...

Macroprudential policy is increasingly being implemented worldwide. Key questions are its effectiveness in influencing bank credit and substitution effects beyond banking. Our results confirm the expected effects of macroprudential policies on bank credit, both for advanced economies and...

Inequality has been largely ignored in the literature and practice of monetary policy, but is gaining more attention recently. We look at how a decade of unconventional monetary policy (UMP) in Japan affected inequality among households using survey data. Our vector auto regression (VAR) results...