Does democracy induce financial development? There are good theoretical reasons to believe this to be the case. However, the evidence adduced to support this claim has, to this point, been mixed. In this paper, we try to make sense of this fact by unpacking democracy. We posit that only...

This paper argues that the dominant policy paradigm on financial development is increasingly insufficient to address big emerging issues that are particularly relevant for financial systems in Latin America. This paradigm was shaped over the past decades by a fundamental shift in thinking toward...

The paper documents the major trends in financial development in Latin America and the Caribbean since the early 1990s. The paper compares trends in Latin America and the Caribbean with those in Asia, Eastern Europe, and advanced countries and compares countries within Latin America and the...

Many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean now publish financial stability reports. They use FSRs as a tool for financial surveillance and communication. This study reviews their latest issues to assess their content, quality, and transparency, and the extent to which the country's...