Since the start of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, research on central banking has gained momentum due to unusual levels of central bank activism and unconventional monetary policy measures in many countries. While these policies drew significant attention to advanced economy central banks, there has been much less academic focus on central banking in emerging economies. This book extends the research on the political economy of central banking by focusing on the emerging economies in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the European periphery. Central banks are at the heart of economic policymaking, and their decisions have a significant impact on the social and economic well-being of citizens. Adopting an interdisciplinary political economy perspective, the contributions in this book explore the reciprocal relations between politics, economics, and central banks, and how the global and domestic political economy contexts influence central bank practices. The chapters employ diverse theoretical perspectives such as institutional and organizational theory, developmental state resource dependency, and gender studies, drawing on disciplines ranging from politics, international relations, public policy, management, finance, and sociology. This book will appeal to academics and students of central banking, political economy, and emerging economies, as well as professionals and policymakers engaged with central banks, monetary policy, and economic development.

This book addresses the urgent need to examine central bank policies in response to the global supply and demand shock brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, asking whether central banks are doing enough to address inequalities and concerns around climate change and emerging technologies. Adopting an interdisciplinary, critical perspective, the contributors to this volume provide novel theoretical, methodological, and empirical insights on central banks around the world, including in advanced, emerging and developing economies. The chapters in this book explore the evolution of central bank mandates, the policy tools central banks are utilizing, why and how monetary policy takes different shapes (including unconventional monetary policy), the key dynamics influencing central bank policies, how central banks are adapting to the new realities and addressing emerging challenges, and how monetary policy is perceived in the wider economic policy framework. With novel theoretical approaches and diverse empirical evidence from a variety of countries, this book will appeal to readers interested in central banking, monetary policy, the economics of the pandemic and political economy.

Central banks can shape economic growth, affect income distribution, influence a country's foreign relations, and determine the extent of its democracy. While there is considerable literature on the political economy of central banking in OECD countries, this is the first book-length study focused on central banking in emerging market countries. Surveying the dramatic worldwide trend toward increased central bank independence in the 1990s, the book argues that global forces must be at work. These forces, the book contends, center on the character of international financial intermediation. Going beyond an explanation of central bank independence, Sylvia Maxfield posits a general framework for analyzing the impact of different types of international capital flows on the politics of economic policymaking in developing countries. The book suggests that central bank independence in emerging market countries does not spring from law but rather from politics. As long as politicians value them, central banks will enjoy independence. Central banks are most likely to be independent in developing countries when politicians desire international creditworthiness. Historical analyses of central banks in Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and Thailand, and quantitative analyses of a larger sample of developing countries corroborate this investor signaling explanation of broad trends in central bank status.

Since the beginning of the 2000s, emerging market economies, or middle-income countries, have embarked on major changes in their domestic financial systems. These changes – in which central banks have been key players – are shaped by the process of financialisation, which can generally be characterised by the dominance of financial considerations in the conduct of major agents (banks, non-financial corporations and households). As a consequence of the emerging markets crisis at the end of the 1990s, a new phenomenon in global financial markets emerged: a massive accumulation of foreign reserves in emerging economies. This has had important consequences for the global economy in which developed economies are the major beneficiaries. Based on Marxist political economy, this book studies the trends towards financialisation in emerging economies, focusing on the effects of the reserve accumulation in their international and domestic spheres. It argues that reserve accumulation has been the very catalyst of financialisation, being related to the subordinated position of emerging economies in the international monetary system. The chapters explore how these trends were exacerbated by the 2008 global financial crisis as well as the extraordinary monetary measures undertaken by the major central banks to deal with the effects of this. Foreign investors invested an enormous amount into emerging economies between 2010 and 2012 and emerging-market financial assets have doubled since 2008. To conclude, the book discusses how the US monetary policy normalisation has added more complexity to these trends since 2013 by putting pressure on emerging markets related to the level of global liquidity. This book provides essential reading for students and scholars of finance, economics and political economy who are interested in the unfolding of the subordinated financial integration of emerging economies into global financial markets.

Theories and practices in central banking and monetary policy have changed radically over recent decades with independence and inflation targeting as the new keywords. This book offers interesting perspectives on the drivers of this development and its implication. It addresses contemporary questions on accountability, transparency and objectives for monetary policy as well as current policy problems related to globalization and financial imbalances. The book is topical, insightful and well written a must for everybody with an interest in central banking and monetary policy. Torben M. Andersen, University of Aarhus, Denmark The number of central banks in the world is approaching 180, a tenfold increase since the beginning of the twentieth century. What lies behind the spread of this economic institution? What underlying process has brought central banks to hold such a key role in economic life today? This book examines from a transatlantic perspective how the central bank has become the bank of banks. Thirteen distinguished economists and central bankers have been brought together to evaluate how central banks work, arrive at their policies, choose their instruments and gauge their success in managing economies, both in times of crisis and periods of growth. Central banks have gained greater independence from government control over the last 20 years. This widespread trend throws up new questions regarding the foundations, prerogatives and future of this economic institution. This book provides a better understanding of the current financial crisis through the in-depth study of the central bank. Researchers in the fields of monetary theory, monetary policy and central banking will find this volume of great interest. It will also appeal to students of economics, political economy, banking and finance, as well as economists, academics, and public policy advisers and analysts.

"This book addresses the urgent need to examine central bank policies in response to the global supply and demand shock brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, asking whether central banks are doing enough to address inequalities and concerns around climate change and emerging technologies. Adopting an interdisciplinary, critical perspective, the contributors to this volume provide novel theoretical, methodological, and empirical insights on central banks around the world, including in advanced, emerging and developing economies. The chapters in this book explore the evolution of central bank mandates, the policy tools central banks are utilizing, why and how monetary policy takes different shapes (including unconventional monetary policy), the key dynamics influencing central bank policies, how central banks are adapting to the new realities and addressing emerging challenges, and how monetary policy is perceived in the wider economic policy framework. With novel theoretical approaches and diverse empirical evidence from a variety of countries, this book will appeal to readers interested in central banking, monetary policy, the economics of the pandemic and political economy"--

There has been fierce debate about the optimal sequencing of economic reforms in emerging market economies. Many economists argue that for market-oriented systems to operate effectively, a reasonable degree of monetary stability is necessary. Rampant inflation, a common challenge for emerging economies, greatly reduces the chances that market-oriented reforms will be successful. In this comprehensive volume, a group of policy-oriented economists from North America, Europe, and the former Soviet Union explore the causes of monetary instability in reforming economies and evaluate alternative institutional mechanisms designed to reduce inflationary pressures. Considering the latest theoretical and empirical research–as well as the experiences of former Communist countries, including Russia and the erstwhile Soviet republics–the contributors view inflation as a political issue and make a case for the creation of strong political institutions. They argue that although government actions that stimulate inflation tend to have low costs or even benefits in the sort run, they impose heavy costs on the economy in the longer term. Consequently, there is a strong need to develop institutional mechanisms to help ensure that decision makers place appropriate emphasis on the long-run consequences of policy actions.