Why do countries with similar levels of development have such different financial systems? Some countries, such as the US and UK, rely extensively upon capital markets for mobilizing new capital, while others, such as Germany, France, and Japan, rely heavily on bank lending. I argue that the...

The current account reversals, large recessions, and price collapses that define Sudden Stops contradict the predictions of a large class of models in which the current account is a vehicle for consumption smoothing and investment financing. This paper shows that the quantitative predictions of...