Evolution and Procedures in Central Banking

by Edited by David E. Altig , Bruce D. Smith

• ISBN13: 9780521814270
• ISBN10: 0521814278
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-09-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This volume collects the proceedings from a conference on the evolution and practice of central banking sponsored by the Central Bank Institute of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. The articles and discussants' comments in this volume largely focus on two questions: the need for central banks, and how to maintain price stability once they are established. The questions addressed include whether large banks (or coalitions of small banks) can substitute for government regulation and due central bank liquidity provision; whether the future will have fewer central banks or more; the possibility of private means to deliver a uniform currency; if competition across sovereign currencies can ensure global price stability; the role of learning (and unlearning) the lessons of the past inflationary episodes in understanding central bank behavior; and an analysis of the most recent experiment in central banking, the European Central Bank.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I. Operational Issues in Modern Central Banking: 1. Laboratory experiments with an exceptional Phillips curve Jasmina Arifovic and Thomas J. Sargent

Commentary James Bullard and Christopher A. Sims

2. Whither central banking? Charles Goodhart

Commentary Donald L. Kohn and Mark Gertler

Part II. Monetary Union: 3. Monetary policy in unknown territory: the European Central Bank in the early years Jü

rgen von Hagen and Matthias Brü

ckner

Commentary Stephen G. Cecchetti and Vitor Gaspar

4. International currencies and dollarization Alberto Trejos

Commentary Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel and Ross Levine

Part III. Private Alternatives to Central Banks: 5. Banking panics and the origin of central banking Gary Gorton and Lixin Huang

Commentary John H. Boyd and Edward J. Green

6. Establishing a monetary union in the United States Arthur J. Rolnick, Bruce D. Smith and Warren E. Weber

Commentary Neil Wallace and Bruce Champ

7. Currency competition in the digital age Randall S. Kroszner

Commentary Jeremy C. Stein and Jeffrey M. Lacker.