This paper offers a "panoramic" analysis of the history of financial crises dating from England's fourteenth-century default to the current United States sub-prime financial crisis. Our study is based on a new dataset that spans all regions. It incorporates a number of important credit episodes...

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- LIST OF TABLES -- LIST OF FIGURES -- LIST OF BOXES -- PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- PREAMBLE: SOME INITIAL INTUITIONS ON FINANCIAL FRAGILITY AND THE FICKLE NATURE OF CONFIDENCE -- PART I. Financial Crises: An Operational Primer -- PART II. Sovereign External Debt...

Detailed country-by-country chronologies are an informative companion piece to our paper "Exchange Arrangements Entering the 21st Century: Which Anchor Will Hold?," which provides a comprehensive history of anchor or reference currencies, exchange rate arrangements, and a new measure of foreign...

This paper provides a comprehensive history of anchor or reference currencies, exchange rate arrangements, and a new measure of foreign exchange restrictions for 194 countries and territories over 1946-2016. We find that the often-cited post-Bretton Woods transition from fixed to flexible...

We've been assured that the recession is over, but the country and the economy continue to feel the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, and people are still searching for answers about what caused it, what it has wrought, and how we can recover. This selection from the best-selling book This...