Alicia García Herrero

Financial stability and the design of monetary policy

This paper builds upon the existing empirical literature on the factors behind financial stability, focusing on the role of monetary policy design. In particular, it analyzes a sample of 79 countries in the period 1970 to 1999 to evaluate the effect of the choice of the central bank objectives and the monetary policy strategy on the occurrence of banking crises. We find that focusing the central bank objectives on price stability reduces the likelihood of a banking crisis. This result is robust, in general, to several model specifications and groups of countries. As for the monetary policy strategy, the results are less clear. For a few model specifications, particularly for the group of countries in transition, the choice of an exchange rate-based strategy appears to reduce the likelihood of a banking crisis. Finally, a large degree of independence of the central bank and locating regulatory and supervisory responsibilities at the central bank seem to reduce the likelihood of a banking crisis.

Latin American Financial Development in Perspective

This paper assesses financial sector development in Latin America, both in the banking system and in the capital markets. After a brief review of the explanatory factors and the definitions of financial development found in the literature, Latin American countries are classified in groups of similar characteristics by using cluster analysis - first worldwide and second within the region - in terms of financial depth and per capita income. In the worldwide exercise, virtually all Latin American countries appear in the same cluster, which argues in favor of a regional dimension in financial development. A comparison of the Asian and Eastern European emerging regions shows that Latin America lags behind Asia in terms of financial development and compares slightly unfavorably with Eastern Europe. In the regional cluster exercise, four relatively homogeneous groups of Latin American countries are found. Stylized facts of the four groups’ banking sectors and capital markets show - in line with the results of the more recent economic literature - that those countries which have deeper financial systems are also those with a more efficient financial system. Although no conclusions on causality can be drawn from this review, it argues in favor of a virtuous circle, in terms of financial depth and efficiency, for countries with the most appropriate structure of the financial system.

Central Banks as Monetary Authorities and Financial Stability

Analyzing ongoing changes in the design of regulatory and supervisory authorities over the banking and financial industry in Europe, this comprehensive Handbook pays particular attention to the role of national central banks, the new financial supervisory authorities and the European Central Bank (ECB).