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International finance

Of One Mind? Closer Coordination of Monetary Policy and Financial Regulation

The Central Bank in Dublin: A responsible conversation needs to be reignited between prudential regulators and monetary policy authorities. (Credit: Infomatique, Flickr Creative Commons)

Recent debate over the optimal form of regulatory architecture for increasingly integrated and interconnected financial systems has largely focused on redefining the balance between regulators and the universe of financial institutions they regulate. This piece identifies a less “fashionable” – though no less significant – contributor to the global financial crisis, that is, the dysfunctional relationship which often existed between financial regulators and monetary policy authorities. The fact that this dysfunction has not been discussed in depth suggests that its negative consequences are no less likely to re-emerge in the future.

Rewriting the script for aid and development

“Are aid workers living a lie?” asks Duncan Green over at Oxfam in a provocative blog post. Summarising the points from a paper in the European Journal of Development Research (gated), he hones in on “the dissonance” between what aid workers actually do and what they report they do.

The aggregate demand crisis in eastern Europe is not over

Ryan Hahn's picture

That's my main takeaway from just-released data based on surveys of over 1,800 firms in eastern Europe. In mid-July 2009, firms in six countries were asked whether they had seen an increase, decrease, or no change in sales from the previous year. The numbers then were not pretty—75% of firms reported a decrease in sales (based on an average of country-level data).

Digging up the data on agricultural markets

Considerable effort and attention has been devoted to market-oriented reforms in the manufacturing and financial sectors and in physical infrastructure. While these are undoubtedly important sectors, there is very little by way of research on agricultural market reforms—loosely defined as deregulation of agricultural markets.

State Financial Institutions: Can They Be Relied on to Kick-Start Lending?

Editor's Note: Heinz P. Rudolph is a senior financial sector specialist in the Financial and Private Sector Development Vice Presidency of the World Bank Group.

This is the 12th in a series of policy briefs on the crisis—assessing the policy responses, shedding light on financial reforms currently under debate, and providing insights for emerging-market policy makers.

How do companies acquire land when looking abroad for their investments?

Identifying a suitable location for investment is among one of the first decisions to be made once a company has committed to entering a local market for an FDI project. Many assume that foreign companies would automatically seek to acquire land in the most secure and legally available option – typically either purchasing freehold from a private seller or in a long term lease from the government.


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