This paper examines the questions of whether and how feudal rulers were able tocredibly commit to preserving monetary stability, and of which consequences theirdecisions had for the efficiency of financial markets. The study reveals that princes were usually only able to commit to issuing a...

This paper develops a theoretical model of dynamic decision-making of a monetarypolicy committee with heterogeneous members. It investigates the optimal transparency,and the optimal way of transmitting information of committees, by analysing the effectsdifferent communication strategies have on...

We consider a simple extension of the basic new-Keynesian setup in which we relaxthe assumption of frictionless financial markets. In our economy, asymmetricinformation and default risk lead banks to optimally charge a lending rate above therisk-free rate. Our contribution is threefold. First,...

This paper examines the impact of monetary policy on UK firms’ access to bank and market finance whenallowance is made for differences in firm-specific characteristics. A theoretical model determines the cut-off valuesfor project profitability that would allow firms to access bank or market...