Professor Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey CON 6.05

This course is available on the BSc in Government, BSc in Government and Economics, BSc in Government and History and BSc in Politics and Philosophy. This course is not available as an outside option. This course is available with permission to General Course students.

A minimum attendance of 80% of the course is required. This course is capped at two groups. The deadline for receipt of applications is Friday 10 October 2014.

A background in political economy would be advantageous.

The course focuses on the role of institutions, ideas and interests in the process and formulation of both (a) monetary policy, and (b) financial stability & regulation. We examine in particular the causal influences of institutions, ideas and interests in independent central banking, financial stability and financial regulation (including times of financial crisis), and the oversight and accountability of independent financial agencies. Focusing predominantly on OECD countries, we draw on theories from economics and political science to analyse both decision making and policy outcomes, using both contemporary and historical perspectives. The course adopts a comparative country perspective, rather than an international relations perspective.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the MT.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the MT.

The full reading list for this course is currently available on Moodle for GV353. This new course will take the readings from the introductory weeks, along with all the weeks covering issues of money and finance.

Blinder, A., The Quiet Revolution: Central Banking Goes Modern (Yale Univ Press, 2004)

M. Artis and F. Nixson, The Economics of the European Union, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007 4rd ed)

Blinder, A., After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead (Penguin, 2013)

Reinhart, Carmen & Rogoff, Kenneth, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly (Princeton University Press, 2009)

Kindleberger, Charles P., Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises (Wiley, 5th Edn., 2005; first edn., 1978)

Schonhardt-Bailey, C., Deliberating American Monetary Policy: A Textual Analysis (MIT Press, 2013)

W. Bernhard et al., The Political Economy of Monetary Institution, Special Issue, International Organization 56 (Autumn 2002)

Presentation (10%) and essay (90%, 3500 words) in the MT.