Formerly a favourite location for private capital inflows, Brazil was virtually cut off from further bank lending in the 1980s. The country's rating in secondary loan markets plummeted, and foreign direct investment dwindled. New external financing was replaced by an accumulation of interest...

The estimation of probabilities of recessions/weak economic activity based on probit analyses indicates that the development of the German yield spread as well as the development of a weighted average of European yield spreads have been useful predictors for periods of sluggish economic...

We report estimates of long-run and short-run money demand functions in Italy over the period 1861-1980 which are robust in terms of passing a range of diagnostic tests and exhibit a fairly high degree of parameter stability. The results are comparable to those of previous analysis of long-run...

In this paper policy issues related to the operation of monetary policy in a low inflation environment are discussed. The successful reduction of inflation rates in a number of OECD countries in recent years arguably represents a regime shift that is likely to affect the operation of monetary...

For a long time European Economic and Monetary Union was mainly considered an internal European issue and external consequences were largely ignored. In contrast to most previous analyses, this paper looks at a number of international implications of monetary union. It is argued that several...

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to review the issues involved in determining the appropriate speed of adjustment and the sequencing of economic reforms, and to develop a checklist of key guidelines for policymakers as a basis for their decision-making process. Design/methodology/approach...