Finance for development : Latin America in comparative perspective /

Stallings (Brown Univ.), the best of her generation of Latin American political economists and one of the few with public sector experience, and Studart (Inter-American Development Bank) have produced a pathbreaking book that explores the protean role of domestic and international finance in economic growth and crises in an era of globalization. By providing a solid literature survey of the subject, this book also offers first-rate comparative perspectives on Latin America and East Asia and provides more insights and cogent cross-regional perspectives than other volumes on the topic. The "new crises" in Latin America come in two forms, currency crisis and banking crisis, which the authors attribute to financial sector liberalization and the opening of capital markets as a new source of financing. Detailed case studies illustrate the experiences of Chile, Mexico, and Brazil with financial liberalization. Latin America still struggles to calibrate a proper role for the state in development. The authors explain why Latin America has lagged behind East Asia in developing financial systems and conclude with a "policy agenda" to strengthen Latin America's financial sector. The book is superbly written, cogently argued, almost jargon free, full of well-chosen empirical data, and a timely contribution to the literature. ^BSumming Up: Essential. Public, academic, upper-division undergraduate and up, and professional collections. E. Pang Colorado School of Mines