Financial globalization, the integration of countries with the global financial system, has increased substantially since the 1970s and particularly with more force since the 1990s. In fact, the gold standard period of 1880-1914 saw a major wave of financial globalization, as cross-border capital flows surged, incorporating countries in the center and the periphery at that time into a worldwide...

Low level of funding for reproductive health (RH) is a cause for concern, given that RH service utilization in the vast majority of the developing world is well below the desired level. Though there is an urgent need to track the domestic and international financial resource flows for RH, the instruments through which financial resources are tracked in developing countries are limited. In this ...

This paper uses a large panel of financial flow data from banks to assess how institutions affect international lending. First, employing a time varying composite institutional quality index in a fixed-effects framework, the paper shows that institutional improvements are followed by significant increases in international finance. Second, cross-sectional models also show a strong effect of init...

As the global financial crisis has shown, reaping the benefits of financial development and international financial integration without incurring large risks remains a key challenge for many countries around the world. The financial system is inherently procyclical, that is, it tends to amplify the business cycle. Faced with a positive shock, financial institutions and markets can behave in the...

This paper investigates the effects of financial development on the intensive and extensive margins of countries exports, at different stages of economic development. The paper develops a partial equilibrium model with monopolistic competition. In this model, firms are heterogeneous in terms of productivity and have access to external liquidity. The effect of financial development on the intens...

Does capital flow from rich to poor countries? We revisit the Lucas paradox and explore the role of capital account restrictions in shaping capital flows at various stages of economic development. We find that, when accounting for the degree of capital account openness, the prediction of the neoclassical theory is confirmed: less developed countries tend to experience net capital inflows and mo...

It has become easier, with the passage of time, to forget what an extraordinary event the Asian financial crisis was. Before the crisis, the countries of east Asia had grown faster, for longer, than any other countries in recorded history. They had transformed their economies and the standard of living of their people in the course of a single generation. In 1960, some of the east Asian countri...