We build a model in which financial intermediaries provide insurance to households against a liquidity shock. Households can also invest directly on a financial market if they pay a cost. In equilibrium, the ability of intermediaries to share risk is constrained by the market. This can be...

Los modelos económicos que analizan el crecimiento hacen un fuerte hincapié en el efecto positivo de la acumulación del capital sobre el desarrollo de las economías. Para ello, deben existir mercados de capitales desarrollados que canalicen adecuadamente los ahorros hacia la inversión. Los...

Institutions are strikingly absent from most economic theory, certainly from growth theory.In standard theory it is simply assumed that the needed institutional environment is there,within which economic agents can make their optimizing decisions. At the same time, indescriptive growth studies,...

The analysis in this paper shows that unpredictable variations in economic productivity may have a positive or negative effect on the average growth rate of output. This theoretical ambiguity result is not solely determined by the value of the elasticity of intertemporal substitution (of...

This study assesses macroeconomic volatility in Costa Rica, based largely on politically weak governments` inability or unwillingness to effect key reforms. Notable problems include volatility-prone fiscal and monetary policy, structurally weak public finances due to large domestic debts and...