William Allen

William’s research interests include financial history, monetary policy and public debt management, international liquidity and bank regulation.

He is currently working on a project on the history of the Bank of England intervention in the gilt market from 1928 – 72 and its interaction with monetary policy, whilst also taking on various consultancy roles with IMF.

1970-1972 – London School of Economics, M.Sc. in Economics
1967-1970 – Balliol College, Oxford, B.A. in Mathematics

2004 – present – Various consultancy roles with IMF.
2010 – Specialist Adviser, House of Commons Treasury Committee
2010 – 2011 – Chief Economist, NBNK Investments Ltd.
2007 – 2010 – Chief Economist, Denholm Hall Ltd
2004 – 2007 – Chief Economist, Brevan Howard Asset Management
2004 – 2016 – Visiting Senior Fellow, Cass Business School
1972 – 2004 – Bank of England

Selected publications

‘How forecasts evolve – the growth forecasts of the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England’, National Institute Economic Review no 193, pp 53 – 59, T.C. Mills July 2005.

‘Defining and achieving financial stability’, Journal of Financial Stability, vol 2 issue 2, pp 152 – 172, G. E. Wood, June 2006.

‘Central bank co-operation and international liquidity in the financial crisis of 2008-9’, BIS working paper #310,  R. Moessner, June 2010.

‘Basel III: is the cure worse than the disease?’, Cass Business School Centre for Banking Research, K. Chan, A. Milne and S. Thomas, September 2010,

‘Options for meeting the demand for international liquidity during financial crises’, Bank for International Settlements Quarterly Review, September 2010, pp 51 – 61, R. Moessner

‘Liquidity regulation and its consequences’, Central Banking, vol XXI no 4, pp 33 – 37, November 2010.

‘Banking crises and the international monetary system in the Great Depression and now’, Financial History Review, vol 18 no 1, pp 1 – 20, R. Moessner, April 2011.

‘The international propagation of the financial crisis of 2008 and a comparison with 1931’, BIS Working Paper #348, July 2011, and in Financial History Review, vol 19, no 2, pp 123 – 147, R. Moessner.

‘Reserve creation and reserve pooling in the international monetary system’, World Economics, R. Moessner, June 2014

‘Quantitative monetary policy and government debt management in Britain since 1919’, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, vol 28 no 4, 2012, pp 804 – 836.

‘Central bank swap line effectiveness during the euro area sovereign debt crisis’, Journal of International Money and Finance vol 35, 2013, pp 167 – 178, R. Moessner

International Liquidity and the Financial Crisis (book), Cambridge University Press, January 2013.

Monetary Policy and Financial Repression in Britain 1951 – 59 (book), Palgrave Macmillan, September 2014.

‘Asset choice in British central banking history, the myth of the safe asset, and bank regulation’, Journal of Banking and Financial Economics 2 (4), June 2015, pp 5 – 18.

‘The British attempt to manage long-term interest rates in 1962 – 64’, Financial History Review vol 23, April 2016, pp 47 – 70.