In this paper we take a comparative look at capital flows to less- developed countries in two eras of financial globalization. The paper extends recent research on the developmental effects of international financial integration, long-term trends in capital mobility and “globalization in...

Would the movement of capital from to poor countries greatly increase, if the commitment to protecting property and allowing capital to move freely were more credible? This paper asks whether the British Empire provided global public goods that supported large-scale development finance before...

Can developing countries enhance credibility with international markets by adopting a hard currency peg? In this paper we review the hypothesis that adherence to the gold standard facilitated the access of peripheral countries to European capital markets in the first era of financial...

In the light of first-hand data from a Beninese urban household survey in Cotonou, we investigate several motives aiming to explain participation in Rotating Savings and Credit ASsociations. We provide empirical findings which indicate that individuals use their participation in a rosca as a...

Subsequent to the economic difficulties of the 1980s, many Latin American governments reluctantly began to introduce market-oriented reform measures. In many cases, the new measures were adopted only as a means of participating in debt-relief programs such as the Brady Initiative. In no case,...

Impacts of the availability of low cost computing power on macroeconometric forecasting and research in Latin America are widespread. One of the most immediate effects of the adoption of microcomputing hardware was more rapid adoption of new econometric estimation techniques. Easier development...

We examine the extent, causes and consequences of the use of foreign currency as a co-circulating medium of exchange and store of value in Latin America. Using new estimates of the amount of foreign currency in circulation in the form of US dollars, we obtain unique measures of currency...

We analyze empirically whether the emergence of China as a large recipient of FDI has affected the amount of FDI received by Latin American countries. For the longest time span possible given data availability (from 1984 to 2001), we do not find a substitution from Latin American inward FDI to...

In this paper we present a solution to the problem of pricing guarantees of minimum returns on pension fund contributions. These guarantees exist by law in Colombia and cover all pension fund contributions made to the country's private pension fund administration companies (AFPs). As of...

Static time series models usually assume stationarity, normality, and independence for the increments of financial rates of return. This paper investigates the empirical characteristics of financial rates of return from Latin American stock and currency markets and documents that their empirical...