Claudia Buch: Evaluating financial sector reforms - a joint task for academia and policymakers

Since the global financial crisis, major reforms have been launched which aim to enhance the stability of the financial system, making future systemic crises less likely and reducing collateral damage in the real economy. Evaluating the effects of these reforms needs to be part of a structured process that answers three questions: Did the reform cause an outcome? Have reforms had similar effects across markets and jurisdictions? Has the reform achieved its overall objective? Economic research has advanced significantly over the past decades and provides a rich infrastructure that can be used to answer these questions. Based on transparency, international coordination and independent assessments, academia and policymakers can join forces to conduct good policy evaluations.