Fiscal Policy Rules


Book Description

What are fiscal policy rules? What are the principal benefits and drawbacks associated with various fiscal rules, particularly compared with alternative approaches to fiscal adjustment? Can fiscal rules contribute to long-run sustainability and welfare without sacrificing short-run stabilization? If so, what characteristics of fiscal rules make this contribution most effective? And in what circumstances and contexts, if any should the IMF encourage its member countries to adopt fiscal rules? This paper seeks to identify sensible fiscal policy rules that can succeed, if chosen by a member country, as an alternative to descretionary fiscal rules.







Payment Systems, Monetary Policy and the Role of the Central Bank


Book Description

A payment system encompasses a set of instruments and means generally acceptable in making payments; the institutional and organizational framework governing such payments, including prudential regulation; and the operating procedures and communications network used to initiate and transmit payment information from payer to payee and to settle payments. This book, by Omotunde E.G. Johnson, with Richard K. Abrams, Jean-Marc Destresse, Tony Lybek, Nicholas Roberts, and Mark Swinburne, identifies main policy and strategic issues in payment system reform, describes the structure of payment systems in selected countries, highlights areas of consensus, and suggests the direction for future policy analysis.




IMF Staff papers


Book Description

The paper presents a model of optimum currency areas using a general equilibrium approach with regionally differentiated goods. The choice of a currency union depends upon the size of the underlying disturbances, the correlation between these disturbances, the costs of transactions across currencies, factor mobility across regions, and the interrelationships between demand for different goods. It is found that, while a currency union can raise the welfare of the regions within the union, it unambiguously lowers welfare for those outside the union. [JEL F33, F36]




Working Paper Summaries (WP/94/1 - WP/94/76)


Book Description

The IMF Working Papers series is designed to make IMF staff research available to a wide audience. Almost 300 Working Papers are released each year, covering a wide range of theoretical and analytical topics, including balance of payments, monetary and fiscal issues, global liquidity, and national and international economic developments.




Exchange-Rate Policies For Emerging Market Economies


Book Description

With the loss of Soviet control in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the move toward economic liberalization in many developing countries, a huge increase in the number of convertible currencies in the world has occurred. A key aspect of the management of these currencies involves their relationships with the world economy, which is determined




Financial Reforms in Eastern Europe


Book Description

This book presents a model which simulates the effects of financial reforms in transitional economies, which is then applied to Poland for a variety of policy simulations. The authors develop models for households, commerical banks and firms, expanding their enquiry into the government sector, the central banking sector, the external sector and finally the supply side. These sub-sector models explicitly incorporate institutional features specific to the Polish economy. The estimated model is used to simulate the effects of a wide array of financial policies introduced in Poland, and these results are then used to assess the effectiveness of the policies analyzed. This timely and authoritative study sheds new light on how a country's overall economic system responds when it pursues a 'big-bang' approach to marketization.




IMF Staff papers, Volume 41 No. 3


Book Description

This paper focuses on the payments system reforms and monetary policy in emerging market economies in Central and Eastern Europe. The reforms in the payments system are viewed as closely interrelated with the development of money and foreign exchange markets and the instruments of monetary policy used by the central banks. The paper shows that although starting from similar origins, there were significant variations in experiences of the countries studied in transforming their payments systems after the start of the reforms toward a market economy, from which certain lessons can be drawn.




The Payments System and its Effectson Monetary Operations


Book Description

Recent developments and reforms in the Russian payments system are discussed from the perspective of their impact on monetary policy. The large and highly variable payment float in the balance sheet of the Central Bank of Russia has complicated the conduct of monetary policy. However, reforms in late 1992 and early 1993 have been effective, as judged from their impact in reducing the level and variability of float, and have set the stage for medium-term reforms of the payments system. Rapid progress in the implementation of these reforms, and their appropriate coordination with monetary operations, remain critical to meet the emerging needs in money and foreign exchange markets, and to support the transition to indirect methods of monetary control.




The Payments Systems Reforms and Monetary Policy in Emerging Market Economies in Central and Eastern Europe


Book Description

The paper discusses the interrelationships between payments system reform and monetary policy implementation in selected countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The reforms in the payments system are viewed as closely interrelated with the development of money and foreign exchange markets and the instruments of monetary policy used by the central banks. Large and variable float balances created special challenges. The paper shows that while departing from very similar origins, there were significant variations in experiences of the countries studied in transforming their payments systems after the start of the reforms towards a market economy, from which certain lessons can be drawn.