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 focu...

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Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Maxfield, Sylvia (Author)
Format:	Book
Language:	English
Published:	Princeton, NJ Princeton Univ. Press 1997
Subjects:	Banques centrales - Pays en voie de développement Centrale banken Economische politiek Entwicklungsländer Wirtschaftspolitik Banks and banking, Central > Developing countries Zentralbanksystem Notenbankpolitik
Summary:	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 analysis of a larger sample of developing countries corroborate this investor signaling explanation of broad trends in central bank status
Physical Description:	X, 187 S.
ISBN:	0691026874 0691002436