Book shelf

Press, 10 March 1984, Page 22

Book shelf

Reviewed by ADRIAN BROKKING “Monetary policy and the New Zealand Financial System” — edited by R. S. Deane, P. W. E. Nicholl, and R. G. Smith. Reserve Bank of New Zealand. 423 pp. $B. This is a comprehensive and authoritative survey of the New Zealand financial system, covering not only the functions of all financial institutions and markets but extending to farm income stabilisation schemes and the Reserve Bank’s econometric model of the economy. About half the book is taken up with a discussion of the money creation process, and of monetary policy and the role of interest rates. The book contains a comprehensive index and bibliography. Much of the material has been previously published in various issues of the Reserve Bank monthly Bulletin, and in the first edition of this book, pub-

lished in 1979. However, the text of the book has been updated and edited to provide a more integrated coverage of all matters pertaining to the financial system.

The book is divided in four parts. The first describes the various financial institutions and reviews recent financial developments.

The second section discusses the workings of the financial system. The third part covers monetary policy in New Zealand, and the final section includes a range of related topics. Most of the material in the book is addressed to a broad audience in non-tech-nical language, and should be quite intelligible to high school pupils and interested laymen. To anyone who is interested in the New Zealand economy and the functioning of the financial markets this book is warmly recommended; at $B.OO it is tremendous value.