Financial Stability in Open Economies

Do financial frictions call for policy cooperation? This paper investigates the implications of financial frictions for monetary policy in the open economy. Welfare analysis shows that there are long-run gains which result from cooperation, but, dynamically, financial frictions per se do not require policy cooperation to improve global welfare over business cycles. In addition, inward-looking financial stability, namely eliminating inefficient fluctuations of loan premiums in its own country, is the optimal monetary policy in the open economy, irrespective of the existence of policy coordination.