This special edition of Ensayos Sobre Política Económica (ESPE) is devoted to research papers dealing with the topic of monetary policy and financial stability in small and open economies. Colombia and other Latin-American countries lie within this classification.

The importance of this topic relies mainly on the economic events that occurred around the world in the last five years, in which financial stability problems and their subsequent active monetary-policy responses have been the center stage. The decisions made by the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and de European Central Bank in order to confront the 2008-2009 crisis are well known and are useful as future guidance. Although it is not clear whether developing, small-open economies should respond with similar strategies, some of the actions taken are indeed applicable. In fact, many developing countries suffered severe financial crises (Russia, Colombia and South Asian) during the late 1990's and the implemented policies at that time can be regarded as an anticipation of those recently applied by developed economies.