"This paper studies the causes and consequences of informality and applies the analysis to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. It starts with a discussion on the definition and measures of informality, as well as on the reasons why widespread informality should be of great concern. The...

The authors examine if observed asset prices in Latin America depart significantly from fundamentals-determined levels. These departures, or bubbles, are found to be equally determined by both country-specific and common external variables, contrary to previous studies that found that local...