We offer an alternative explanation for the fall of Argentina's Convertibility Program based on the country's vulnerability to Sudden Stops in capital flows. Sudden Stops are typically accompanied by a substantial increase in the real exchange rate that breaks havoc in countries that are heavily...

Based on a sample of 56 countries, we find that while fiscal policy in the G-7 countries appears to be broadly consistent with Barro's tax smoothing proposition, in developing countries government spending and taxes are highly procyclical (i.e., government spending rises and taxes fall during...

At the time of writing there were widespread concerns about the health of the U.S. economy. There is conclusive evidence that the pace of growth has slowed, which has prompted the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates on two occasions (a total of 100 basis points thus far). As usual, when faced...

The paper is organized as follows. The next section presents some stylized facts on Mercosur, documenting the evolution of trade in goods within member countries and then highlighting the characteristics of the trade agreement that make smaller Mercosur economies vulnerable to macroeconomic...

The authors of this volume analyze the policies that led to East Asia's economic success, including those affecting human resources, savings, the financial sector, trade and institutions, and examine the lessons these policies carry for Latin America. The genesis of this book was an...

This paper analyzes the relevance of external factors in average quarterly GDP growth for 1990-2006 in the seven largest Latin American countries (LAC7). Modeling the relationship between LAC7 GDP and several external factors, it is found that those factors account for a significant share of...