The paper investigates interrelations between the dynamics of national central banks' interest rates and international trade within the BRIC countries. It shows that countries with lower interest rates experience growth of the share of machinery industry exports rather than agriculture and food...

What are the macroeconomic consequences of changing aggregate lending standards in residential mortgage markets, as measured by loan-to-value (LTV) ratios? In a structural VAR, GDP and business investment increase following an expansionary LTV shock. Residential investment, by contrast, falls, a...

An important development in Europe was the emergence of nationally circulating commodity money. Asymmetric information between coin producers and users provided rulers with an opportunity to supply a public good: standard universally accepted coins. We describe the development of a sophisticated...

The IMF has been leading efforts to develop and implement Codes of Monetary and Fiscal Transparency. Such Codes aim to increase disclosure of public sector information on the Internet-representing a type of "e-transparency." Do such codes and increased Internet-based public sector information...