By Alan Finkelstein Shapiro and Victoria Nuguer Registering a business in Latin America is not for the faint of heart. Multiple procedures -- ranging from establishing by-laws and a legal structure to registering the company with authorities -- have to be carried out. Labyrinthine bureaucracies have to be negotiated. Lawyers and accountants are often hired to avoid … [Read more...] about When Lower Barriers to Firm Creation Translate Into More Resilient Economies
Victoria Nuguer
Victoria Nuguer is a Research Economist in the Inter-American Development Bank’s Research Department. She holds a Ph.D. from École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne in Switzerland and a bachelor’s degree from the Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina. Prior to joining the Bank in May 2017, she spent nearly three years as a Research Economist in the Bank of Mexico. Victoria’s main research agenda focuses on building dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models to explain key financial transmission mechanisms in closed and open economies. For closed economies, she has focused on the propagation of financial shocks from the housing sector to the rest of the economy. Regarding open economies, Victoria has studied the international transmission of financial shocks from advanced to emerging economies through the bank lending channel. Recently, she has been working on understanding the strategic interaction between monetary and macroprudential policies and on the role of trade credit when firms set prices in emerging economies.
Fighting Inflation With Better Communication
As the chair of the United States Federal Reserve from 2006-2014, Ben Bernanke liked to say that monetary policy is 98% talk and only two percent action. In other words, what the central bank says is hugely important. It can affect households, firms, and market expectations, and, in turn, impact the economy. That message could not be more important when considering inflation … [Read more...] about Fighting Inflation With Better Communication
When Focusing on the Interest Rate is Not Enough
Before the financial crisis of 2008, most governments lacked an institutional framework for handling financial policy. Central banks focused on monetary policy. They mostly used interest rates to influence inflation and output, believing such a focus could guarantee economic stability. But when it came to financial policy they were inclined to trust the invisible hand of the … [Read more...] about When Focusing on the Interest Rate is Not Enough
How the Financing of Firms Affects Prices
Firms in the developed world rely heavily on bank credit. But firms in developing countries, and particularly those in Latin America, rely much more heavily on trade credit--i.e. credit from their suppliers --and that has immense implications for pricing decisions and inflation. Most studies that have looked at inflation in emerging economies have examined the role of domestic … [Read more...] about How the Financing of Firms Affects Prices
Reducing Volatility from Cross-Border Banking Flows
How can emerging markets protect themselves from abrupt shifts in cross-border banking flows? That has been a fundamental question for economic policymakers in recent years, including those entrusted with banking supervision in regions like Latin America and the Caribbean. In a study made available online in May, Gabriel Cuadra and I examine the issue, focusing on how … [Read more...] about Reducing Volatility from Cross-Border Banking Flows