BGP-670: Financial Crises: Concepts and Evidence

This course covers topics on currency, banking, inflation, and debt crises as well as international financial contagion. Issues pertaining to monetary/financial, exchange rate, debt restructuring, and fiscal policy in connection with the antecedents and aftermath of crises are studied at both the theoretical and empirical levels. The role of current account dynamics, international capital flows, financial integration, and world commodity price cycles as these relate to recurring economic booms and busts are analyzed. The empirical evidence studied is global in scope, drawing from the experiences and crises episodes of advanced and emerging market economies across all regions. The historical coverage spans many of the pre-World War II crises episodes to the modern-day emerging market crashes of the 1990s and the unfolding banking and debt crises of the advanced economies.