Banks in the Market for Liquidity

Banks are unique among financial institutions because they are the cheapest source of liquidity in the economy. Banks choose to hold reserves to facilitate settlement of end-of-day net due to positions arising from payments operations. Money market substitutes for bank liabilities do not escape from the cost of reserves since their issuers lean on banks to provide liquidity. Since the cost of reserves falls on all issuers of less liquid liabilities seeking access to payment services, including non-bank intermediaries, reserves cannot represent a tax on the banking system alone.

Building Stability in Latin American Financial Markets

This paper argues that the investor reluctance to make long-term commitments to Latin American financial markets results from experience. In the 1980s, while ex ante real interest rates on Latin American financial assets were usually high, ex-post real interest rates were often highly negative. In the 1990s, policymakers instituted stabilization programs and structural reforms that have improved the environment in which financial markets operate. Based on a review of experiences in the region, this paper shows that, when these opportunities are taken, investor confidence in long-term markets is strengthened.

Towards an Effective Regulatory and Supervisory Framework for Latin America

This paper raises fundamental questions about how banks in Latin America ought to be supervised. The concentration of wealth holders in Latin America and the equity markets` resulting illiquidity permit investors who control banks to subvert the intent of capital requirements, even when the bank itself is subject to rigorous accounting standards. A number of policy implications follow from the analysis. Three of policy recommendations derived from this analysis can be successfully implemented in the short run. Latin American supervisors should focus on: improving the markets that already work in Latin America, which currently are markets for bank liabilities; severely limiting public safety nets for bank liabilities so that risky banks face a high price for raising liabilities; and encouraging macroeconomic policies to play a much more important role in restraining bank risk in Latin America than in the industrial countries.

Mercados financieros y comportamiento del ahorro privado en América Latina

(Disponible en idioma inglés únicamente) Este trabajo complementa estudios anteriores al proponer que el bajo nivel de ahorro en América Latina se puede vincular con la limitada confianza de hogares y empresas en las instituciones financieras nacionales. Estudios anteriores han comprobado la relación entre el ahorro privado y los mercados financieros, bien sea empleando una medida de profundidad financiera o una medida de limitantes del endeudamiento. Este trabajo presenta una perspectiva alternativa al proponer que el nivel de ahorro privado guarda una correlación positiva con la confianza del sector privado en la solidez del sistema financiero, y que este concepto se puede calcular aproximadamente a partir de la proporción de demanda empresarial a activos líquidos de la banca. Los países latinoamericanos tienen niveles de ahorro más bajos que otros países en desarrollo y que la mayoría de los países industrializados. También exhiben los mayores niveles de depósitos empresariales a depósitos familiares entre los tres grupos de países tomados en cuenta en este trabajo. Además, la proporción de depósitos empresariales a depósitos familiares guarda una estrecha correlación con otros indicadores de la fragilidad del sistema bancario.

Long-Term Economic Development Impacts of Highway Projects: Findings from a National Database of Pre/Post Case Studies

ABSTRACT Highway projects can have a wide range of different economic development effects, depending on the type of project, objective, location, surrounding conditions and local business context. Yet most empirical analysis of highway economic impacts to date has been based on highly aggregate statistical studies, anecdotal observations or theoretical predictions. A national database of pre/post case studies offers the potential to more systematically observe and document the nature of local and regional economic impacts, and provide insight into factors affecting them. Real world observations can also serve as a useful complement to model predictions, and also provide a basis for refining them. Accordingly, the Strategic Highway Research Program funded 100 pre/post case studies of the economic impacts of highway and highway/intermodal projects, and assembled them to provide the start for a national database of observed impacts. This paper summarizes findings from the initial analysis of that database, presenting findings on the range of observed job impacts and land development impacts, and factors affecting the nature of those results. Landau, Weisbrod and Winston page 1 INTRODUCTION There are many reasons why pre/post case studies of transportation projects and their economic impacts can be useful --either individually or as a pooled source of data. (1) For policy accountability, they can provide a form of audit assessment of the consequences of past investments. (2) For public information, they can be useful for communications to government officials and the general public regarding the nature of impacts that can actually result from transportation projects. (3) For impact prediction, they can aid initial sketch planning processes by defining the range of likely impacts (for early stage considerations, before further modeling is undertaken). (4) For research, they can provide a rich base of data for further statistical analysis, and those results can also be used to further improve the accuracy of predictive models. (5) For planning, they can be used to identify the types of local factors that need attention to maximize economic impact opportunities and minimize barriers to them. (6) And for public hearings, information on real world experience can be helpful to establish a range of reasonable expectations regarding local impacts, which typically are far less than either the fears of project opponents or the hopes of project proponents. Unfortunately, relatively few pre/post case studies have been conducted on a systematic basis. Reasons likely include the cost of designing, collecting and analyzing such information, as well as fear of embarrassment if outcomes are found to fall short of expectations for project investment that have already been made. To overcome these limitations and enable the advantages noted above, the US Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) funded development of 100 pre/post case studies of the economic development and land development impacts of highway and highway/intermodal projects, along with development of a database and web tool for viewing and using their findings. The project sought to include all major project types, spanning all regions of the continental US and both urban and rural settings. It also included a small number of available English language studies from Canada and abroad, in a format that would enable continuing expansion over time. The full results of that effort are provided in a final report and the TPICS (transportation project impact case studies) web too

Evaluation Research and Institutional Pressures: Challenges in Public-Nonprofit Contracting

This article examines the connection between program evaluation research and decision-making by public managers. Drawing on neo-institutional theory, a framework is presented for diagnosing the pressures and conditions that lead alternatively toward or away the rational use of evaluation research. Three cases of public-nonprofit contracting for the delivery of major programs are presented to clarify the way coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures interfere with a sound connection being made between research and implementation. The article concludes by considering how public managers can respond to the isomorphic pressures in their environment that make it hard to act on data relating to program performance.This publication is Hauser Center Working Paper No. 23. The Hauser Center Working Paper Series was launched during the summer of 2000. The Series enables the Hauser Center to share with a broad audience important works-in-progress written by Hauser Center scholars and researchers

Balancing between coordination, cooperation and competition? A mixed-method approach for assessing the role ambiguity of local sports authorities

In recent years, the subsidiarity principle has been underlined in Sport-for-All policies in countries such as Germany, Austria and Belgium. According to this organising principle, issues need to be handled by the lowest possible political and administrative level, and as close to the citizens as possible. The 2007 decree concerning Sport-for-All policies at the local level in Flanders (Belgium) clearly referred to this. It emphasised the decentralisation of the Sport for All policy, and highlighted the regulatory and coordinating role of local sports authorities. As a consequence, they may face conflicting roles of being coordinator, regulator and provider of mass sport at the local level. In this paper, a mixed-method approach is used to give a closer insight in the role perceptions of local sports authorities in Flanders, and their position towards private sport providers. The results show that local sports authorities consider the coordination and regulation of mass sport in their municipality as their primary task. Yet, it appears that private sport providers also perceive competition from local sports authorities. Moreover, a considerable number of the local sports authorities believe they can combine the roles of provider and coordinator. As there appears to be considerable goal ambiguity, it is necessary for local sports authorities to formulate clear goals. Referring to the principle of subsidiarity, it is argued that sports authorities should only intervene when (non-)profit sport providers are not able to achieve the desirable outcomes with regard to sport and the welfare agenda

What Determines the Formal Versus Relational Nature of Local Government Contracting?

Meeyoung Lamothe is currently an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma. Her research interests include local alternative service delivery arrangements, social service contracting, and nonprofit management. Her recent publications may be found in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, International Journal of Public Administration, and American Review of Public Administration.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline