Finance for growth : Policy choices in a volatile world

If you are in need of suggestion for a gift for the finance minister or central bank governor of an emerging country, this book is your answer. It is beautifully written, without jargon or unnecessary technicalities, but nonetheless firmly based on up-to-the-minute research, much of it undertaken in the World Bank itself. It does not pull its punches, raising cautions on deposit insurance, being against government-run banks, and in favor of allowing in foreign banks. The authors rightly insist that the key to good financial regulation is getting the structure of incentives right, importantly including the incentives for the regulators themselves. I hope that this wise counsel will be widely read and heeded. Finance for Growth is a welcome handbook for all emerging market financial regulators and policy makers. It contains nuggets of valuable policy advice, experience, and choices that have direct practical relevance. A must-read, useful from finance 101 to those confronting financial crises. This volume summarizes what we have learned in the last two decades;it will contribute to avoiding a repetition of some of the policy mistakes, and the costly crises, that we have seen in that period.