| This dissertation is composed of three essays, which analyze empirically the role of the central bank in financial development and financial stability, with particular attention to banking crises. The dissertation focuses on emerging countries, although results are also obtained for industrial countries as a basis for comparison. The last essay in a case study based on the Venezuelan banking crisis of the mid-nineties. All in all, evidence in found in favor of the hypothesis that the central bank plays an important role in the financial system, both as regards its development and its financial stability, measured in terms of the occurrence of banking crises. However, the different aspects and functions of the central bank, as well as the design of monetary policy, are not fully comparable essays and country groups, so that general policy recommendations are hard to draw from this work. |
