By Steffen Murau and Jens van ‘t Klooster As financial markets are again putting Italy under pressure, the new political party, Italexit per l’ Italia, promises an easy answer: leave the European Union (EU) to regain sovereignty. Economists, lawyers and political scientists regularly assert that joining the euro means giving up all monetary sovereignty. However, […]
Even though monetary sovereignty remains an important reference point in both academic discourse and international politics, it has – throughout past decades – repeatedly been declared “over.” Creeping dollarization subjects states across the world to monetary and financial decisions made in the United States, while local financial systems depend increasingly on globally active mega-banks, asset […]
International sharing of the risk of disasters through insurance markets lies on a spectrum defined by two ideal types: full risk sharing and autarky. The full risk sharing case features 100 percent insurance coverage for losses within a country and a high degree of international reinsurance to spread the risks globally. Domestic full insurance abstracts […]
Whether or to what degree climate-vulnerable developing countries have fiscal space is a key question confronting the international public finance community today. A new technical paper by Toby Melissa C. Monsod, Mary Anne Majadillas and Maria Socorro Gochoco-Bautista for the Task Force on Climate, Development and the International Monetary Fund studies the availability of fiscal […]
The Global Financial Safety Net (GFSN) refers to the set of institutions on the global, regional and bilateral level that provide balance of payments finance to countries in temporary financial distress. The GFSN has expanded tremendously in recent years, yet, this increase in resources has been accompanied by deepening structural and geographical inequalities in the […]
By Lara Merling On April 11, the Boston University Global Development Policy Center co-hosted a panel as part of the 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Spring Meetings Civil Society Policy Forum. The panel, featuring global experts and advocates, explored the IMF’s proposal to establish a Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) as a […]
By Rishikesh Ram Bhandary On Thursday, April 14, the Boston University Global Development Policy Center hosted a webinar discussion on how the International Monetary Fund (IMF) can help mitigate climate risks. The discussion featured members of the Task Force on Climate, Development and the IMF, a consortium of experts from around the world utilizing rigorous, […]
By Kevin P. Gallagher The last time the world economy became defined by financial instability and recession, inequality and right-wing populism, a lack of global leadership and war, leading countries came together in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire to forge a set of principles and institutions to foster stability and prosperity for a greater peace. Eighty […]
By William N. Kring Amidst the backdrop of an enduring pandemic, rising inflation, growing external debt and Russia’s war in Ukraine, finance ministers and central bankers convene in Washington, D.C. this week for the 2022 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. These meetings could not come at a more […]
While the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has long signaled an interest in contributing to combat climate change, 2021 marked a critical juncture in the IMF’s commitment to the cause. Under the leadership of Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF accelerated the mainstreaming of climate change in its operations. Most notably, Georgieva made a concerted effort […]