This paper documents that differences in the early development of institutions in Latin America that led to the consolidation of oligarchic republics in the first decades of the twentieth century, explain the subsequent economic performance in the region. It develops a model with the aim of...

This paper studies the effects of contracting institutions on economic development. A growth model is presented with endogenous incomplete markets, where financial frictions generated by the imperfect enforcement of contracts depend on the future growth of the economy, which determines the costs...

This paper proposes a specific mechanism to explain differences in political institutions based on the asymmetric and uncertain costs of civil conflicts. Asymmetry implies that the net benefit of fighting an insurgency is not shared equally by members of the elite. But uncertainty implies that...

Growing international financial integration has implied greater threat of contagion across borders, requiring quicker response to crises. However, financial—and trade—integration have been accompanied by the spread of democracy and political participation. Do more voices in the political...

This paper evaluates the role of non-structural factors in explaining the degree of pass-through of exchange rate movements to the general price level in the Chilean economy. We review the mechanisms that explain the presence of asymmetries and the results obtained by earlier studies for Chile....

This paper studies how IMF lending affects countries’ bonds maturity. Debt maturity was claimed to be one of the causes of the crisis of recent years: Too much short-term debt would be the seed of self-fulfilling crisis. In turn, one of the goals of the IMF interventions is to prevent crises...

In this paper we analyze the effects of the Term Liquidity Program (FLAP) implemented by the Central Bank of Chile in response to the financial crisis of 2008-9. We find that the announcement related to this policy significantly reduced nominal yields in the policy horizon of two years. These...

The more severe a financial crisis, the greater has been the likelihood of its management under an IMFsupported program and shorter the time from crisis onset to program initiation. Political links to the United States have raised program likelihood but have prompted faster response mainly for...