This conference discussed a series of papers that–by using a common conceptual framework and building a comparable date set–narrated the history of the 11 largest Latin-American countries since 1960. That period was plagued by macroeconomic crises of a different nature: defaults, devaluations, balance of payment crises, banking crises or sudden stops, to name the most common ones. The events of the last five years made clear that developed economies are in no way immune to these events. While bad macroeconomic fundamentals like chronic deficits and high public debt appear many times as potential causes for the crises, this does not seem to always be the case. Indeed, as a large literature review has shown, expectations and multiplicity may play a key role in these events. The case studies discussed in the conference served as laboratories to test alternative theories and strengthen our understanding of economic crises. This conference was part of a long-run project, funded by the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago.
You can view photos from the event here.