This thesis is a collection of essays on the effects of trade and capital flows in developing countries. Chapter 1 starts with the observation that institutions - contract enforcement, property rights, investor protection, and the like - have received a great deal of attention in recent years. I...

Chapter one is titled "Social Capital and Group Banking." Lending to the poor is costly due to high screening, monitoring, and enforcement costs. Group lending advocates believe individuals are able to select creditworthy peers, monitor the use of loan proceeds, and enforce repayment better than...

This thesis is a collection of three empirical essays on firms, banks, and access to finance. Chapter 1 provides evidence that credit subsidies for exports are substantially misallocated towards financially unconstrained firms. Using loan level data for firms and exploiting an exogenous change...

This thesis studies two strategies that households may use to keep their consumption smooth in the face of fluctuations in income and expenses: credit (borrowing and savings) and insurance (state contingent transfers between households). The first chapter asks why insurance among households in...

(cont.) left on the table" due to underpricing in the IPO allocation is not capital the firm could have raised; instead, it is the empirical regularity associated with obtaining a high quality aftermarket, high equity valuation, and higher proceeds to the issuer. We examine the principal-agent...

This dissertation consists of three essays in the intersection of International Trade and Institutions. The first essay looks at the effect of trade opening on the efficiency of institutions. I argue that part of the reason why some developing economies have not experienced a boost in economic...

This dissertation consists of three essays on the heterogeneous reactions of firms to shocks, with particular empirical applications to the Chilean economy. The first essay presents a model of heterogeneity in an economy with financial constraints. The main issue in the model is to characterize...