The Past and Future of Central Bank Cooperation

by Claudio Borio, Gianni Toniolo, Piet Clement

Overview

This book explores the past and future of central bank cooperation. In today’s global economy, the cooperation between central banks is a key element in maintaining or restoring monetary and financial stability, thereby ensuring a smooth functioning of the international financial system. Or is it? In this book, economists, historians, and political scientists look back at the experience of central bank cooperation during the past century – at its goals, nature, and processes and at its successes and failures – and draw lessons for the future. Particular attention is devoted to the role played by central bank cooperation in the formulation of minimum capital standards for internationally active banks (the Basel Capital Accord, Basel II), and in the process of European monetary unification and the introduction of the euro.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521877794
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/11/2008
Series:	Studies in Macroeconomic History
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Claudio Borio is Head of Research and Policy Analysis at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), where he has worked since 1987 covering various responsibilities in the Monetary and Economic Department. Dr. Borio was formerly a Lecturer and Research Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford and an economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He holds a D.Phil. and an M.Phil. in economics from Oxford and has published extensively in the fields of monetary policy, banking, finance, and issues related to financial stability.

Gianni Toniolo is Research Professor of Economics and History at Duke University, Durham, NC; a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), London; and a member of the Academia Europaea. He was previously Professor of Economics at the University of Rome, Tor Vergata, and at Ca'Foscari, the University of Venice. He is a former President of the European Historical Economics Society. Toniolo's books include An Economic History of Liberal Italy, 1850-1918 (1990); Central Bank Cooperation at the Bank for International Settlements (Cambridge University Press, 2005, with the assistance of Piet Clement); and The International Economy Between the Wars (2008, with Charles H. Feinstein and Peter Temin).

Piet Clement is Head of Library, Archives and Research Support at the Bank for International Settlements. He holds a Ph.D. from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and has published on the history of international cooperation and of the BIS.

Table of Contents

Introduction: past and future of central bank co-operation Piet Clement; 1. One hundred and thirty years of central bank cooperation: a BIS perspective Claudio Borio and Gianni Toniolo; 2. Almost a century of central bank cooperation Richard N. Cooper; 3. Architects of stability? International co-operation among financial supervisors Ethan B. Kapstein; 4. Central banks, governments and the European monetary unification process Alexandre Lamfalussy; 5. The future of central bank cooperation Beth Simmons; 6. Interdependence and co-operation: an endangered pair? Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa.

Editorial Reviews

Central banks play as central a role in economic welfare and financial stability today as they have ever played. And globalization makes cooperation among monetary and financial authorities even more crucial than before. This volume throws valuable new light on the way cooperation has been conducted in the past and on some of the key issues that will confront central bank collaboration in the future.”
- Sir Andrew Crockett, President, JP Morgan Chase International

“This clear and well researched book on 130 years of central bank cooperation will be a unique tool for historians and economists. It doesn't discuss the desirability of cooperation but it explains how it worked (or, in some cases, did not work).”
- Jacques de Larosière, Former President, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

“The worldwide financial crisis of 2007-08 makes this book very timely. Surveying more than a century of experience, the authors demonstrate that central bank cooperation can help to avoid financial crises or limit the economic damage resulting from them. Conversely, non-cooperation can have disastrous consequences. The book is required reading for central bankers, economic policymakers, and all concerned with our defenses against financial and economic debacles.”
- Richard Sylla, Stern School of Business, New York University

"These well-written essays on the past century of the central bank cooperation consider its successes and failures and their implications for the future.... The essays address a timely topic and are not overly technical, making the work accessible to a wide audience. Recommended."
- Choice

"...a nice, short, sensible introduction." - EH.net

From the Publisher