Coping with Capital Surges: The Return of Finance to Latin America
  • 1995/278 pages

Coping with Capital Surges:

The Return of Finance to Latin America

Ricardo Ffrench-Davis and Stephany Griffith-Jones, editors
Hardcover: $49.95
ISBN: 978-1-55587-562-6
Paperback: $29.95
ISBN: 98-1-55587-581-7
Private capital flows to Latin America have increased dramatically since 1989, approximately doubling in volume each year. This book examines the possible causes and consequences of the new—and unforeseen—wave of investment, from both the borrower and the lender perspectives.

The authors first analyze foreign direct investment, securities, and bank lending, considering the motivations of investors in the U. S., Europe, and Japan, as well as the regulations affecting them. They then turn to the features of capital flows, their macroeconomic impact, and policy responses in three recipient countries: Argentina, Chile, and Mexico.

An important theme of the book is that, while the return of private capital flows to Latin America is to be welcomed, the mutual benefits will be sustainable only if governments in both source and recipient countries more effectively monitor and supervise the flows and, equally important, adequate macroeconomic measures are undertaken in the recipient countries.

Ricardo Ffrench-Davis is principal regional adviser at the ECLAC and postgraduate professor of international economics at the University of Chile. He previously served as deputy manager and later director of research (1990–1992) at the Central Bank of Chile, and in 1976–1990 was vice-president and researcher at the Center for Economic Research on Latin America (CIEPLAN). He has published extensively in international economics, development strategies, foreign debt, and Latin American economies. Stephany Griffith-Jones is Financial Markets Program Director at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University. Formerly head of Credit at the Central Bank of Chile and adviser on Latin America to Barclays Bank International (U.K.), she is author or editor of eleven books and has published numerous articles on finance, macroeconomic policies, and Latin American and East European economies.
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