Working Papers
January 1, 0001
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January 1, 0001
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January 1, 0001
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1997
March 1, 1997
Financial Liberalization and Money Demand in Asean Countries: Implications for Monetary Policy
Description: This paper examines the impact of financial market development and liberalization on money demand behavior in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand since the early 1980s. The empirical results indicate continuing instability in the interaction of money growth, economic activity, and inflation. Rapid growth and ongoing changes in financial markets suggest that policy needs to be guided by a wider set of monetary and real sector indicators of inflationary pressures. The feasibility of alternative policy frameworks--including nominal exchange rate targets, and inflation targets--is discussed in the context of the substantial and sustained increase in foreign capital inflows.
March 1, 1997
Inflation Targeting in Practice
Description: In recent years, an inflation targeting framework for monetary policy has been adopted in a number of industrial countries. This paper discusses the practical issues that have arisen under the operation of the new framework, and highlights five features of the framework: the assignment of the target, the interaction with other policy goals, the definition of the target, accountability and the role of inflation forecasts. The economic performance of the inflation targeting countries thus far is summarized.
March 1, 1997
Informational Efficiency, Interest Rate Variability, and Central Bank Operations
Description: It is shown how the frequency of central bank intervention in financial markets can affect the incentives for economic agents to acquire information, which will be reflected in market prices and thus become available to policy makers. The optimal frequency of intervention, and therefore the optimal interest rate variability, will balance the desirability of attaining given operational targets against the benefits of encouraging informational efficiency. The ability of the central bank to send clear signals of its own intentions will also depend on market informational efficiency.
March 1, 1997
The Tax Treatment of Government Bonds
Description: In their effort to finance fiscal deficits at a reasonable cost, governments compete with other users of financial capital. Governments, however, are in the unique position that they are the only debt suppliers that can determine the taxation of debt instruments they issue. Following an overview of the current tax treatment of government bonds in OECD countries, this paper argues that—on purely economic grounds—there are no reasons for exempting interest on government bonds. Administrative difficulties in capturing interest on many other debt instruments in the tax net may, however, provide a rationale for doing so.
Notes: The paper presents the present provisions of taxation of interest from government bonds in OECD countries.
March 1, 1997
Debt Relief for Low-Income Countries and the HIPC Initiative
Description: The paper describes the debt burden of low-income countries and the traditional mechanisms that have been implemented by the international community to alleviate this burden. While these mechanisms are sufficient to reduce the external debts of many heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) to sustainable levels provided these countries implement sound economic policies, they are likely insufficient for a number of countries. To deal with these cases, the World Bank and the IMF have jointly proposed and implemented the HIPC Initiative. The paper describes this Initiative and suggests that it should enable HIPCs to exit from the debt rescheduling process.
March 1, 1997
Possible Effects of European Monetary Union on Switzerland: A Case Study of Policy Dilemmas Caused by Low Inflation and the Nominal Interest Rate Floor
Description: This paper examines the possible effects on Switzerland of asset preference shifts in favor of Swiss-franc-denominated assets that could result from EMU. Alternative policy responses to temporary and persistent asset preference shifts and the consequent pressures for exchange rate appreciation are examined. Simulations of a stylized macroeconomic model of the Swiss economy indicate that monetary policy is likely to be the most effective tool for stabilizing output in the short run, but at the cost of a temporary increase in inflationary pressures. The simulations highlight the dilemmas faced by policymakers in an environment with low inflation and nominal interest rates.
March 1, 1997
Broad Money Demand and Monetary Policy in Tunisia
Description: The development of empirical foundations to the conduct of monetary policy in Tunisia is the central concern of this paper. Finding stable money demand functions, it broadly corroborates the choice of monetary aggregates as intermediate targets of monetary policy by the Tunisian Central Bank. It finds, however, a lower income elasticity than the one currently applied by the Central Bank and proposes a different methodology for defining monetary growth targets. The paper also finds that both interest rates and reserve money are feasible operating targets and suggests that the Central Bank orients its monetary policy more towards transparent operating targets.