No abstract

work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC-IGO BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/ legalcode) and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed.Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC-IGO license.Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Inter-American Development Bank, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.http://www.iadb.org 2017 Abstract 1Guyana is a country with abundant mineral wealth. Extractive industries, along with agriculture, drive the economy. Mining poses several inherent challenges due to its negative impact on the environment, its relatively high level of capital intensity compared to other main productive activities, and the heavy enforcement demands on understaffed and underfunded regulatory institutions, especially when the vast majority of miners are highly dispersed artisanal, small, medium-scale (ASM) miners. This paper surveys recent developments and trends in the Guyanese gold mining sector, the most important of the five mining subsectors, and analyses the issues surrounding the transition to more environmentally sustainable mining practices. Perverse incentives exist between maximizing private profits, honoring government royalty payments, generating gainful employment, on the one hand, and overcoming the economic and cost constraints of complying with environmentally responsible and sustainable practices in the ASM sector, on the other. The paper makes recommendations on how to better align incentives, especially to bridge the financing and knowledge gaps, to permit optimal extraction of the resource, promote environmental sustainability, and improve public-private collaboration.JEL Classification: Q32, Q33, Q38

Utilizing the method of generalized least squares (GLS), the paper investigates the factors which determine bid-ask spread in the foreign exchange (FX) market of Guyana. The econometric exercise is based on a rich dataset of trading volumes as well as the buying and selling exchange rates for each cambio (or trader) from January 2000 to December 2007. The main findings are: (i) a positive relationship between a measure of market power and spread; (ii) a positive relationship between hoarding of FX and spread; and (iii) a strong positive association between risk and spread. The key contribution of this paper to the literature is the evidence that traders have the ability to influence the BAS , and by extension the exchange rate.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it estimates the sterilization coefficients for several Caribbean countries. Second, it contributes to the literature by providing a conceptual framework for understanding why regional economies with fully pegged exchange rate regimes have not allowed the money supply to be endogenous to capital flows. This paper notes that a high sterilization coefficient plus a de facto pegged exchange rate indicates the existence of dual nominal anchors.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a simple theoretical model to explain this phenomenon. The model combines the liquidity preference of commercial banks with an augmented uncovered interest parity equation.FindingsThe econometric evidence presented shows that several Caribbean economies with fixed exchange rate regimes also possess high sterilization coefficients. Given open capital accounts in the various economies, the paper argues that this finding contravenes the money neutrality thesis, which holds that only one nominal anchor can prevail in the long term.Originality/valueThe model emphasizes that the interest rate formation and liquidity preference of oligopolistic commercial banks – the dominant financial institutions in a post‐liberalized setting – prevents counteracting capital movements when monetary policy changes above or along a threshold or bank mark‐up interest rate.

Starting in 2004 the Guyanese foreign exchange rate has been remarkably stable relative to earlier periods. This paper explores the reasons for the stability of the rate. First, the degree of concentration in the foreign exchange market has increased, thus making the task of moral suasion relatively straightforward once this policy tool comes to bear on the dominant trader (s). Second, long-term or non-volatile capital inflows make the exchange rate less susceptible to sudden reversal. Third, commercial banks, the dominant foreign exchange traders, have large outlays of assets in domestic currency, thus their desire for exchange rate stability. The econometric exercise is consistent with the notion that trader market power has contributed to lower volatility in the G$/US exchange rate. The paper also presents a model that analyzes monetary policy effects in the presence of a mark-up or threshold interest rate.