 ALTERNATIVE MONETARY SYSTEMS AND THE QUEST FOR STABILITY: CAN A FREE BANKING SYSTEM DELIVER IN SOUTH AFRICA?Adrian Saville, Maureen Bader and Zane Spindler South African Journal of Economics, 2005, vol. 73, issue 4, 674-693 Abstract: Once in a while you will stumble upon the truth but most of us manage to pick ourselves up and hurry along as if nothing had happened. Winston Churchill Abstract Since the early 1900s central banking has developed into the most widely adopted monetary regime by sovereign states. Yet, there is a broad raft of evidence which shows that central banking systems have been less successful in delivering macroeconomic stability than alternative monetary systems. The argument is pronounced in the case of emerging economies, a set of countries which includes South Africa. Against this backdrop, this paper reviews the case for central banking in South Africa. Our results lead us to explore various alternatives to central banking, including Dollarisation and monetary union. However, because these systems are not without their own vulnerabilities, we consider a third alternative regime, free banking. We argue that, despite being an almost completely forgotten system, free banking has the capacity to improve South Africa's monetary system and enhance the country's macroeconomic stability. Date: 2005 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:sajeco:v:73:y:2005:i:4:p:674-693 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article South African Journal of Economics is currently edited by Philip A. Black More articles in South African Journal of Economics from Economic Society of South Africa Contact information at EDIRC. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.