Printed material on currency boards / Online material on currency boards / Web sites of currency boards and currency board-like systems / Printed material on dollarization / Online material on dollarization / Web sites of monetary authorities in dollarized countries / The International Monetary Stability Act / Material on other topics of interest
After you have viewed this site, here are some suggestions for further reading on currency boards, dollarization, and related topics. Check your local university library for the printed material, or order through an online bookseller . The list is limited to what I consider the best recent material. The most important material is in books; the Internet has not yet replaced the library. I welcome suggestions for material to add to the list.
Printed material on currency boards
For a long list, see the currency board bibliography compiled by Matt Sekerke and me. Here's a short list:
Steve H. Hanke, Lars Jonung, and Kurt Schuler, Russian Currency and Finance: A Currency Board Approach to Reform. London: Routledge, 1993, 222 pages. The most thorough recent work on currency boards. Discusses in some detail how to solve problems that may arise in a former socialist country establishing a currency board. An appendix contains a listing of historical episodes of currency boards. You can buy it from me, cheap.
Gerardo della Paolera and Alan M. Taylor, Straining at the Anchor: The Argentine Currency Board and the Search for Macroeconomic Stability, 1880-1935. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001, 275 pages. Interesting both as history and as current events, since Argentine monetary history is more a story of repetition than of progress. Curiously, the authors chose not to link the book solidly to recent work on currency boards or to the recent monetary experience of Argentina.
Tomás Baliño, Charles Enoch, and others, "Currency Board Arrangements: Issues and Experiences." International Monetary Fund Occasional Paper 151, August 1997.
Atish R. Ghosh, Anne-Marie Gulde, and Holger C. Wolf, "Currency Boards: More Than a Quick Fix?" in Economic Policy: A European Forum, issue 31, October 2000. Has some good analysis of data, but the bibliography is quite spotty; for instance, it includes no references at all to material available in print or online from the countries with currency board-like systems.
John Williamson, "What Role for Currency Boards?" Washington: Institute for International Economics , 1995, 44 pages. The most detailed recent criticism of the currency board system. Unfortunately, many of the criticisms lack historical foundation, and Williamson fails to distinguish between orthodox currency board systems and currency board-like systems.
Online material on currency boards
Material on currency boards and currency board-like systems on the personal Web sites of the Bulgarian economist Nikolay Nenovsky, the Hong Kong economist Tsang Shu-Ki, and the Turkish economist Aykut Kýbrýtçýodlu.
Steve H. Hanke, "The Disregard for Currency Board Realities," Cato Journal, Spring/Summer 2000. Analyzes the historical performance of the currency board-like systems established in the 1990s. Hanke, who has been my frequent coauthor on currency boards and dollarization, is Professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He writes regularly for Forbes magazine ( Web site at Forbes magazine ) ( e-mail at Johns Hopkins University ).
Hanke and I wrote some of our best work with Lars Jonung ( Web site, mostly in Swedish) ( e-mail ), formerly Professor of Economics and Economic Policy at the Stockholm School of Economics and currently at the European Commission in Brussels.
The International Monetary Fund has a number of papers on currency boards. Go to their publications search page and type "currency board." Be careful reading material issued by the IMF, though, since the institution and its staff generally fail to distinguish between currency boards and currency board-like systems, tend to compare the performance of currency boards and central banks haphazardly rather than systematically, and omit important facts in discussing some recent currency board-like episodes that I know about from personal involvement.
José Cordeiro, "La segunda muerte de Bolívar" (link to external site) - For Spanish speakers. A Venezuelan proposes a currency board to help solve his country's economic problems.
"The Case Against Currency Boards" by Nouriel Roubini (New York University). Lacks citations, so one cannot verify the author's assertions. Interesting for its use of a technique one might call "Roubini-Houdini": if the author has no evidence to support a criticism, which is often, he claims that events in the near future will support the criticism. Roubini's Web site has much useful information, however.
Web sites of currency boards and currency board-like systems
Argentina (currency board-like 1991-2002, RIP; now a standard central bank): Banco Central de la Republica Argentina
Bermuda: Bermuda Monetary Authority
Bosnia (currency board-like): Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brunei (currency board-like): Brunei Currency Board
Bulgaria (currency board-like): Bulgarian National Bank
Cayman Islands: Cayman Islands Monetary Authority
Djibouti (currency board-like): Banque Centrale de Djibouti
Estonia (currency board-like): Eesti Pank (Bank of Estonia)
Falkland Islands (currency board): no site as of June 2002.
Faroe Islands: Danmarks Nationalbank (Danish central bank; no independent site for Faroe Islands currency board arrangement)
Gibraltar: Financial Services Commission
Hong Kong (borderline: a currency board plus some superfluous elements): Hong Kong Monetary Authority
Lithuania (currency board-like): Bank of Lithuania
Printed material on dollarization
The books that have recently appeared in English are collections of chapters by different writers. The drawback of collections is that they lack the depth and cohesiveness that a keen mind can impart in a unified work. The books in question are Eduardo Levy Yeyati and Federico Sturzenegger, editors, Dollarization: Debates and Policy Alternatives (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2003) (laden with abstract theory; the authors are ignorant of the extensive history of dollarization and, inexcusable since most are Latin Americans, they ignore the extensive body of writing on the subject in Spanish); Dominick Salvatore, James W. Dean, and Thomas Willett, editors, The Dollarization Debate (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003) (broader than the other book simply because it has chapters by more writers; I have an essay in the book); Carl A. Cira and Elisa N. Gallo, editors, Dollarization and Latin America: Quick Cure or Bad Medicine? (Miami: Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida International University, 2002) (conference papers, and as such a mixture of good and bad); and Paul Beckerman and Andres Solimano, editors, Crisis and Dollarization in Ecuador: Stability, Growth, and Social Equity (Washington: World Bank, 2002) (middling quality; it would have been improved by explaining in more detail precisely what Ecuador did to implement dollarization and how dollarization got onto the menu of policy choices in the first place.)
Books I like better, because they are not collections, are available in Spanish. Try Jürgen Schuldt, Dolarización Oficial de la Economía (Lima: Universidad del Pacífico, 1999; particularly recommended for beginners, but all will enjoy it); Gabriel Rubinstein, Dolarización: Argentina en la Aldea Global (Buenos Aires: Nuevohacer Grupo Editor Latinoamericano, 1999); or José Cordeiro, ¿Pesos o Dólares? (Mexico: McGraw-Hill, 2002). These books are hard to find outside their countries of publication, but you can try to order them online.
For a long list, see the dollarization bibliography compiled by Matt Sekerke and me.
Online material on dollarization
Web site of Juan Moreno - Material in English and Spanish from the Panamanian economist who knows more about official dollarization than anyone else.
Euroization in Bulgaria - Web site by two Bulgarian researchers. Much broader than its name indicates; many links.
Papers by Guillermo Calvo - Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland.
Andrew Berg and Eduardo R. Borensztein, "The Pros and Cons of Full Dollarization," IMF Working Paper WP/00/50. A rather narrow discussion that does not seem fully aware of other recent writing on the subject. As with currency boards, search for material on the IMF Web site, but be cautious about what you read.
Zeljko Bogetic, "Official or 'Full" Dollarization: Current Experiences and Issues," Cato Journal, Fall 2000.
Web site on dollarization in Ecuador - by Joyce de Ginatta, a leading advocate.
Some conferences: Dollarization: Fad or Future for Latin America? International Monetary Fund, 24 June 1999; Alternative Exchange Rates for the [Central American] Region, Inter-American Development Bank, 23-24 July 1999; The Search for a Global Monetary Order, Cato Institute, 21 October 1999; Optimal Monetary Institutions for Mexico, ITAM (Mexico City), 3-4 December 1999; Dollarization: A Common Currency for the Americas? Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, 6-7 March 2000; To Dollarize or not to Dollarize? Currency Alternatives for the Western Hemisphere, North-South Institute (Ottawa), 4-5 October 2000; Dollarization and Latin America, Florida International University, 4 March 2002; Euro and Dollarization, Fordham University, 4-5 April 2002.
Because of the interest in dollarization, there are now many papers on the subject available over the Internet. Go ahead, try a Google search and see how many hundreds you will turn up.
Web sites of monetary authorities in dollarized countries
Ecuador: Banco Central del Ecuador - This body retains some residual powers under dollarization.
El Salvador: Banco Central de Reserva de El Salvador - See the remark about Ecuador.
The International Monetary Stability Act
The International Monetary Stability Act was originally introduced in the 106th U.S. Congress (1999-2000) by Senator Connie Mack and Representative Paul Ryan. It proposed that the United States share seigniorage (the profit from issuing dollars) with officially dollarized countries. In the Senate, the bill passed the Banking Committee but was not considered by the full Senate because of problems in enacting budget legislation, which delayed consideration of all other bills. In the House, the bill failed to pass out of the subcommittee. Senator Mack is now retired from the Senate. Mr. Ryan introduced a revised version of the International Monetary Stability Act in July 2001 for the 107th Congress. To see the bill and related material, request H.R. 2617 through Thomas, the U.S. Library of Congress search engine. Be sure to see the listings for the 106th and 107th Congresses, not the current (108th) Congress.
Material on other topics of interest
Books: See "Monetary Economics: A Reading List."
Articles: For articles in economics journals, do a keyword search in EconLit, the electronic version of the Journal of Economic Literature; many university libraries have it. For articles in a broader range of publications, search the online catalog of the Joint Library of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Search under both "currency board" and "currency boards."
Web sites: Here are a few standard sites on various monetary systems.
The International Monetary Fund now publishes many country reports and has links to current data on many countries through its Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board.
The IMF/World Bank Joint Bank-Fund Library, a good source of bibliographical information.
The Bank for International Settlements , which has a page of links to Web sites of most of the world's monetary authorities.
Mark Bernkopf's Central Bank Resource Center .
Central Banking magazine.
Roy Davies's Web site on money past, present and future.
Resources for Economists on the Internet has information on a wide range of topics in economics and finance. Its creator, Bill Goffe, was something of a genius to think of it.
On free banking, start with the Web sites of the three leading writers on the subject, George Selgin, Lawrence H. White, and Kevin Dowd.
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