This paper analyzes the bright and dark sides of the financial development process through the lenses of the four fundamental frictions to which agents are exposed-information asymmetry, enforcement, collective action, and collective cognition. Financial development is shaped by the efforts of...

During the 1980s and 1990s, the financial sector was the Achilles heel of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Since then, LAC's financial systems have continued to gain in soundness, depth and diversity, becoming more integrated and competitive, with new actors, markets, and instruments...

The financial systems of the Latin America and the Caribbean region (LAC) are at a crucial juncture. After a history of recurrent instability and crisis (a trademark of the region), they now seem well poised for rapid expansion. Since the last wave of financial crises that swept through the...

This paper analyzes the bright and dark sides of the financial development process through the lenses of the four fundamental frictions to which agents are exposed -- information asymmetry, enforcement, collective action, and collective cognition. Financial development is shaped by the efforts...

This paper analyzes the process of financial development over the last three to four decades from the perspective of the fundamental frictions (agency and collective) to which economic agents were exposed. A comprehensive statistical benchmarking analysis showed that financial development...

During the 1980s and 1990s, financial sectors were theAchilles' heel of economic development in Latin Americaand the Caribbean (LAC). Since then, these sectors havegrown and deepened, becoming more integrated and competitive,with new actors, markets, and instruments springing up and...