The book discusses Indian post-independence monetary history in the context of the country’s development and the global changes of the period. The conceptual framework used is the SIIO (Structure, Ideas, Institutions and Outcomes) paradigm. That is, structure and ideas become embedded in institutions and affect outcomes. Narrative history, data analysis and research reports demonstrate the dialectic between ideas and structure with respect to monetary history, aspects of India’s development, and the global institutions and events that impacted monetary choices. The history of the economy and of the global changes that affected it covers a time when major changes took place both in India and internationally. India’s greater openness is important both for it and for the world, but it occurred at a time of major global crises. How did these impact monetary choices and how did the latter help India navigate the crises while maintaining its trajectory towards greater liberalization? The book explores these and other relevant but under-analyzed questions. The initial combination of ideas and structure created fiscal dominance and made monetary policy procyclical. An aggregate supply-and-demand framework derived from forward-looking optimization subject to Indian structural constraints is able to explain growth and inflation outcomes in the light of policy actions. Using exogenous supply shocks to identify policy shocks and to isolate their effects, demonstrate that policy was sometimes exceedingly strict despite the common perception of a large monetary overhang. Surges and sudden stops in capital flow also constrained policy. But the three factors that cause a loss of monetary autonomy—governments, markets and openness—moderate each other. Markets moderate fiscal profligacy and global crises moderate market freedoms and ensure openness remains a sequenced and gradual process. The book argues greater current congruence between ideas and structure is improving institutions and contributing to India’s potential.

This book presents research that applies contemporary monetary theory and state-of-the-art econometric methods to the analysis of the monetary and financial aspects of the Indian economy and the impact of monetary policy on economic performance. Indian monetary policy has attracted significant attention from Indian and international macroeconomists over the last several years. Interest in how monetary policy influences economic performance and how monetary policy is conducted in India is growing. The prospects for further financial sector reform and ongoing inflation in India have sparked new interest in the role of money and monetary policy in India among economists, policy makers and students alike. The book should also interest economists outside India because it studies monetary economics in a major emerging market economy and makes advances in the analysis of how financial market imperfections and structural constraints influence the effects of monetary policy.

While offering many growth-enhancing opportunities, India's ever-increasing integration with the world economy has given rise to a host of new challenges in managing the economy. This book provides an up-to-date empirical assessment of some of India's crucial policy challenges pertaining to its monetary and external sector management.

United States monetary policy has traditionally been modeled under the assumption that the domestic economy is immune to international factors and exogenous shocks. Such an assumption is increasingly unrealistic in the age of integrated capital markets, tightened links between national economies, and reduced trading costs. International Dimensions of Monetary Policy brings together fresh research to address the repercussions of the continuing evolution toward globalization for the conduct of monetary policy. In this comprehensive book, the authors examine the real and potential effects of increased openness and exposure to international economic dynamics from a variety of perspectives. Their findings reveal that central banks continue to influence decisively domestic economic outcomes—even inflation—suggesting that international factors may have a limited role in national performance. International Dimensions of Monetary Policy will lead the way in analyzing monetary policy measures in complex economies.

We examine the strength of monetary transmission in India, using a conventional structural VAR methodology. We find that a tightening of monetary policy is associated with a significant increase in bank lending rates and conventional effects on the exchange rate, though pass-through to lending rates is only partial and exchange rate effects are weak. We could find no significant effects on real output or the inflation rate. Though the message for the effectiveness of monetary transmission in India is therefore mixed, our results for India are more favorable than is often found for other developing countries.

An excellent primer for students wanting to learn macroeconomics and policymaking - Kaushik Basu An important and timely contribution to our understanding of the Indian economy - Raghuram Rajan How to maintain financial stability in India? Quest for Restoring Financial Stability in India is a classic work to understand this critical subject. In this Penguin edition, with a new introduction, Viral V. Acharya, former Deputy Governor of RBI offers a concrete road map for comprehensive improvement of India's economy. Authoritative and definitive, this is a must read for the students and scholars of Indian economy, policymakers and anyone interested in India's finance sector.

This volume provides a comprehensive review of the evolution of banking and finance in India. Analyzing monetary and financial aspects of India's reform, the essays cover a wide range of topical issues-management of the financial sector, the role of central banking, and the impact of the global financial crisis on the Indian economy.