In the seven decades since World War II, how has international banking changed and evolved to the present day? A new journal article by Non-Resident Senior Fellow Robert N. McCauley, Patrick McGuire and Philip Wooldridge explores the structural and cyclical factors behind the international banking industry, including its evolution in the 1950s, the role of regulatory arbitrage […]
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) provides a global public good when it lends emergency balance of payments support to countries that otherwise could not access such financing at comparable terms. No country borrows from the IMF lightly, and only does so as a last resort in the face of an economic crisis. In exchange for […]
Do central banks rebalance their currency shares? The answer matters, as the dollar’s predominant role in large official reserve holdings means widespread rebalancing requires central banks to buy (sell) a depreciating (appreciating) dollar, stabilizing its value against other major currencies. In a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, Menzie D. Chinn, Hiro Ito and Robert N. […]
By: Paula Torrez-Ortiz The Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI) within the Boston University Global Development Policy Center works to advance policy-relevant research on international financial, trade and development institutions that play a leading role in global economic governance. As part of this work, the GEGI research team has released four interactive research projects that serve […]
By Rebecca Ray The triple crisis of public health, the global economy, and climate change are looming for the world, but focusing their havoc on developing countries in particular. While low and middle-income countries (LMICs) have faced wave after wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic also made foreign capital and hard currency scarce, necessitating […]
By Katie Gallogly-Swan The debt crisis is far from over in the Global South. While international capital has partially returned to developing and emerging economies, in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) debt service is impeding crisis response as third waves of COVID-19 devastate recovery efforts and exacerbate scarring to economies already squeezed by severe […]
A debt crisis is looming in the Global South, compounded by the threat of climate change. World leaders such as Kristalina Georgieva, David Malpass, the Biden administration and 23 former Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors have added their voices to a growing chorus calling for comprehensive debt relief linked to a green and inclusive […]
By Özlem Ömer and Jeronim Capaldo The proposed trade agreement between the European Union and the South American trade bloc MERCOSUR poses serious risks to economic development. But one wouldn’t know that from economic projections and most existing studies of the subject. As is traditional in trade policy rhetoric, projections of the EU-MERCOSUR agreement rule […]
By Jake Werner A major crisis shakes a society, exerting pressure that aggravates existing cracks in its foundations and forces to the surface flaws that previously went largely unnoticed. A healthy response requires grappling with newly exposed dysfunctions and injustices and taking action to repair and heal the underlying causes. But those seeking such reforms […]
The original Maastricht regime designed the Eurozone’s fiscal segment in a way that sought to keep member states’ treasury budgets balanced by disciplining them through market forces, reducing the overall volume of public indebtedness, prohibiting monetary financing and avoiding situations where the Eurozone treasuries would bail each other out. In a new journal article, Andrei […]