Tiering occurs when an institution does not participate directly in the central payment system but instead settles its payments through an agent. A high level of tiering can be a significant issue for payment system regulators because of the increased credit and concentration risk. This paper...

Real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems often incorporate features designed to economise on liquidity. Such 'hybrid features' have the potential to mitigate the systemic impact of operational disruptions of participants. This paper simulates operational disruptions of participants, using data...

This paper examines the relationship between the inventory cycle and the business cycle. It uses both macro-economic data and data from surveys of individual firms’ actual and expected inventory accumulation. It is argued that over the past decade and a half, the amplitude of the inventory...

There is little doubt that cities can provide many benefits, such as greater employment and business opportunities, which tend to result in higher income and wealth for urban households. In addition, there may be a number of non-pecuniary benefits, including greater access to education,...

The decline in output volatility in a number of countries over the past few decades has been well-documented, though less agreement has been reached about the causes of this decline. In this paper, we use a panel of data from 20 OECD countries to see if there is a role for various indicators of...

In this paper we estimate the effect of particular price incentives on consumer payment patterns using transaction-level data. We find that participation in a loyalty program and access to an interest-free period, both of which lower the price of credit card use, tend to increase credit card use...