We explore the links between trust and a broad range of financial structure and development measures. Our base sample is a cross section of 48 countries and the analysis covers the period 1980-1994. We use a new World Bank data set that provides the most comprehensive coverage of financial...

This paper develops a model showing that inefficient legal protections disproportionately increase financial restrictions for creditors that have less wealth. Due to fixed monitoring costs in equilibrium, banks will not monitor small firms, and therefore these firms will adopt risky technologies...

A recent survey has shown that the major problem faced by firms in Latin American countries is difficulty in accessing financial markets. Figure 1 summarizes the findings of the Business Environment Survey on obstacles faced by firms.

(Disponible en idioma inglés únicamente) Proponemos que los bancos extranjeros pueden representar un elemento de compensación cuando sus receptores son países en desarrollo. Se formula un modelo de cartera para mostrar que es posible que un banco internacional más diversificado puede...

This policy note focuses on provisioning practices in Latin America, a supervisory tool that if well designed can contribute to strengthen both micro and macro prudential regulation. For that purpose this note briefly explains the importance of an adequate regulatory regime for provisioning...

This paper explores the links between labor formality, access to credit and firm performance in Colombia using Annual Manufacturing Survey data for the period 2000-2009. A significant though small relationship is found between access to credit and informality. The results suggest that a 10...

This database for Revelation of Expectations in Latin America (REVELA) was updated to March 2009. It includes data on inflation, growth, fiscal deficit, interest rate and other variables for each country in Latin America and the Caribbean from 2006 to 2010.

REVELA analiza las expectativas de los mercados sobre crecimiento e inflación para algunos países latinoamericanos. Los valores analizados representan los resultados de encuestas en el sector privado realizadas por los Bancos Centrales de cada país y bajo sus propias metodologías. Dichos...

REVELA analiza las expectativas de los mercados sobre crecimiento e inflación para algunos países latinoamericanos. Los valores analizados representan los resultados de encuestas en el sector privado realizadas por los Bancos Centrales de cada país y bajo sus propias metodologías. Dichos...

Since the eruption of the global financial crisis in 2008 international setting bodies and local regulators around the world have been hard at work designing and implementing new regulatory frameworks to deal with the regulatory deficiencies that were exposed during the crisis. In particular,...