Many countries in the developing world have adopted an approach to monetary policy that focuses on maintaining a low level of inflation, to the exclusion of other important objectives such as employment generation, increasing investment or reducing poverty, despite the widespread evidence that...

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has become a much desired commodity by nations, regions and cities throughout the world. Indeed, governments bid for FDI because it is commonly thought to be an important engine of economic growth, job creation, and technological upgrading. The People's Republic...

The South African Reserve Bank and Ministry of Finance have adopted inflation targeting and the gradual relaxation of exchange controls (along with control of public spending and financial liberalization) as the foundation of their economic policy in an attempt to win the confidence of foreign...

The impact of the post-meltdown Federal Reserve policy of ultra-low interest rates and Quantitative Easing (QE) on income and wealth inequality has become an important policy and political issue. Critics have argued that by raising asset prices, near-zero interest rates and QE have significantly...

This paper examines the effects of intra-financial lending – claims between financial institutions – on aggregate investment and credit to the non-financial sector in the United States. Building on Montecino, Epstein, and Levina (2014) we document a large growth in intra-financial assets...

This paper empirically examines the effects of the Federal Reserve's Large Scale Asset Purchases (LSAP) on bank profits. We use a new dataset on individual LSAP transactions and bank holding company data from the Fed's FRY-9C regulatory reports to construct a large panel of banks for 2008Q1 to...

This paper presents the first set of estimates of the rentier share of income for twenty-nine OECD countries. We define rentier share to mean the income accruing to financial institutions and the holders of financial assets. The years of coverage vary by country, but span the period 1960-2000....

This paper examines the evolution of intra-financial sector lending in the United States, 1950- 2012, presenting estimates constructed from the Federal Reserve's Flow of Funds Accounts. We establish a number of stylized facts concerning the growth and composition of claims between financial...