Optimal Currency Areas: A Review of the Recent Literature Staff Working Paper 1999-16 Robert Lafrance, Pierre St-Amant This paper surveys the recent literature on optimal currency areas (OCAs). Topics that are covered include theoretical developments in the context of general-equilibrium models and empirical work on shocks asymmetry and adjustment mechanisms. Issues relating to the endogeneity of OCA criteria, the role of exchange rate flexibility in promoting greater macroeconomic stability, and the links […] Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Exchange rate regimes JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, F, F3, F33
The Liquidity Trap: Evidence from Japan Staff Working Paper 1997-4 Isabelle Weberpals Japanese economic activity has been stagnant since the collapse of the speculative asset-price bubble in 1990, despite highly expansionary monetary policy which has brought interest rates down to record low levels. Although several reasons have been put forward to explain the sustained weakness of the Japanese economy, none is more intriguing from the viewpoint of a central bank than the possibility that monetary policy had been largely ineffective because the Japanese economy entered a Keynesian "liquidity trap." Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): International topics, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, E5, E51, E52