This study argues that the political considerations were an important factor behind the crisis of the Brazilian real in January 1999. The divided coalition government and a president facing impending elections eschewed the correction of external misalignments and the fiscal austerity at a time when the markets were already excited by the 1997-98 East Asian and 1998 Russian financial crises. The hypothesis ...
The main objective of this paper is to understand the causes and symptoms of currency crises by reviewing its seminal literature, establishing its determinants, and outlining some of the relevant issues. The paper highlights the need to comprehend the process, which may lead to the inconsistency of the policies and render the situation favourable for a speculative attack. This involves, broadening ...
During the 1990s the Japanese yen proved astonishingly strong despite the persisting recession. This paper tracks the origins of the high yen. It analyses the influence of interest rates, prices and foreign exchange policy on the yen-dollar exchange rate. It comes to the conclusion that real interest differentials can only explain short-term exchange rate changes. Since prices have been exerting their ...
The aim of Japan’s comprehensive financial reform program “Financial Big Bang” was to create an internationally competitive financial sector based on three principles: free, fair and global by 2001. Policy makers encountered two challenges: strengthening competitiveness of the financial sector in the long term, and solving structural problems as soon as possible. Five years after implementation of ...
A popular proposal for reforming social security is to supplement or replace traditional publicly financed benefits with a new system of mandatory defined-contribution private pensions. Proponents claim that private plans offer better returns than traditional social security. To achieve higher returns, however, contributors are exposed to extra risks associated with financial market fluctuations. This ...
Das Papier gibt zunächst einen Überblick über die Ursachen und ökonomischen Kosten der Bankenkrise in Rußland, die im Jahr 1998 ausbrach. Eine Analyse des Verhaltens russischer Banken im Zeitraum 1998 bis 1999 zeigt, daß diese sich relativ konservativ bezüglich ihrer Kreditvergabe verhielten. Dies kann ein überraschendes Ergebnis sein aus folgenden Gründen: Die Bankenaufsicht hatte bisher eine relativ ...