Economic theory traditionally suggests that monetary policy can influence the business cycle, but not the long-run potential output. Despite well documented theoretical and empirical consensus on money neutrality in the literature, the role of money as an informational variable for monetary...

This main sections of this annotated bibliography were prepared by the author between 1998 and 2002. The revisions undertaken until January 2006 are selective and do not claim to be complete. The paper has no official character and merely reflects the views of the author. Its purpose is to...

The fact that the use of money enables underground transactions to be kept undetected by the authorities, implies that its variation changes this ability too, thus imposing transaction costs. Variations in money alter in addition the interest rate and hence, the opportunity cost of holding...

This paper explores the relationship between the level of inflation, inflation variability, and output performance in the Venezuelan economy for the period 1951-2002. The paper examines the mechanism through which higher inflation translates into lower non-oil real GDP growth. We find empirical...

Purpose – While in developed economies, changes in monetary policy affect real economic activity in the short-run but only prices in the long-run, the question of whether these tendencies apply to developing countries remains open to debate. In this paper, we examine the effects of monetary...

This document describes the main issues of the New Basel Accord, highlights the roles and organization of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and offers some arguments against some of the criticism that has been voiced against the...

Purpose – A major lesson of the EMU crisis is that serious disequilibria in a monetary union result from arrangements not designed to be robust to a variety of shocks. With the specter of this crisis looming substantially and scarring existing monetary zones, the present study has complemented...

Closer cooperation between neighbouring countries has throughout the ages been part of their respective political agendas. In many regions of the world, the desire to create efficient economic spaces, and eventually perhaps even political union, has been one of the driving forces behind...

We analyze the effects of monetary policy on economic activity in the proposed African monetary unions. Findings broadly show that: (1) but for financial efficiency in the EAMZ, monetary policy variables affect output neither in the short-run nor in the long-term and; (2) with the exception of...

While the MFI model of microfinance is unsustainable, the SHG-Bank Linkage approach can make a positive impact on security and empowerment of the disadvantaged. Much more than microfinance is needed to overcome the problems that have persisted over the last 100 years. The findings from this...