Hundreds of independent, local, quasi-charitable microcredit societies, or quot;loan funds,quot; were lending to as many as 20% of Irish households in the mid-nineteenth century. Their goal was to relieve poverty by providing credit to the quot;industrious poorquot; at competitive interest rates...

We compare six microcredit organizations of nineteenth-century Europe (credit cooperatives and loan funds) to identify what characteristics were related with successful attainment of the organization's goals. We find that organizations that depended on charity or government for their funding...

This study builds on a survey sent to 23 Bank Superintendencies and Central Banks in the Latin America and the Caribbean during late spring/summer of 1997. The survey contained number of issues related to financial regulation and supervision that could potentially pose obstacles to financial...

In this paper, we develop an endogenous growth model with financial intermediation to examine the effects of financial repression on growth, inflation, and welfare. By limiting the liquidity provision, binding reserve requirements always suppress economic growth while their effect on inflation...

Global financial markets are subject to a complex web of soft law rules and standards called International Financial Regulation. The main rationales/objectives of International Financial Regulation revolve around the protection of investors and depositors and the safeguarding of financial system...

This paper examines the link between financial and economic development at the regional level in the Philippines and focuses on the role played by rural banks in regional economic activity. We apply cointegration panel data analysis on regional banking and economic data for the period 1993 to...

This chapter discusses private equity and venture capital (PE/VC) in Brazil. Firstly, it is shown that PE/VC has a strong impact in the Brazilian capital markets, with PE/VC-backed companies representing close to half the amount raised by initial public offerings (IPOs) in the stock exchanges....