Several East Asian countries suffered a sudden stop, with massive and unexpected capital outflows, in 1997-98. Latin American countries, in spite of their more checketed financial past, were much less severely hit at the time (of course, several have had crises since). Why this asymmetry between...

Original sin, coupled with other financial imperfections, causes macroeconomic penance of two kinds: adverse shocks have larger and more persistent effects and monetary policy becomes less effective as a shock absorber. But macroeconomic damnation is not inevitable: in some cases, suitable...

This paper studies how the effect of trade openness on economic growth depends on complementary reforms that help a country take advantage of international competition. This issue is illustrated with a simple Harris-Todaro model where output gains after trade liberalization depend on the degree...