This volume examines issues of economic interest faced by Latin America economies in the late Twentieth-century. The fifteen chapters deal with macroeconomic problems, financial crises, the development of trade and trade agreements and labour issues. Of particular interest are the chapters dealing with Argentina, which provide an absorbing background to the financial crisis faced today.

GUILLERMO A. CALVO Inter-American Development Bank, Washington and University of Maryland, USA
ALESSANDRO CIGNO Universita di Firenze, Florence, Italy
VITTORIO CORBO Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
AFONSO FERREIRA Universidada Federal de Minais Gerais and Centro de Pesquisa em Economia, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
MARCEL FRATSCCHER European Central Bank, Frankfurt, Germany
KOICHI HAMADA Yale University, New Haven, USA
ALICIA HERRERO Banco Central de Espana, Madrid, Spain
TALAN ISCAN Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
ADRIANA KUGLER Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
LUIS MIOTTI Universite de Paris, Paris, France
GRACIELA PINAL Universidad Nacional di Salta, Argentina
CARLOS QUENAN CREDAL, Universite de Paris, France
RANJAN RAY University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia
HERNAN RINCON Banco de la Republica, Bogota, Colombia
T. N. SRINIVASAN Yale University, New Haven, USA
ANDREU SANSÓ Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
VICTOR URQUIDI El Colegio di Mexico, Mexico City
CARLOS WINOGRAD Secretary of State for Competition, Deregulation and consumer Affairs, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Introduction; E.Bour, D.Heymann & F.Navajas PART I: MACROECONOMIC CRISES A Comparison of Currency Crises between Asia and Latin America; K.Hamada Latin American and the External Crisis of the Second Half of the 1990s; V.Corbo Banking Crises in Latin America in the 1990s: Lessons from Argentina, Paraguay and Venezuela; A.Garcia Herrero On the Causes of the Latin American and Asian Currency Crises of the 1990s; M.Fratzscher Contagion in Emerging Markets: When Wall Street in the Carrier; G..Calvo PART II: TRADE AND TRADE AGREEMENTS Preferential Trade Agreements at the Turn of the Century; T.N.Srinivasan The Role of Sub-regional Agreements in Latin American Economic Integration; V.Urquidi International Specialization and Trade Regimes in Argentina 1960-99; L.Miotti, C.Quenan & C.Winograd Testing the Short- and Long-run Exchange Rate Effects on the Trade Balance: The Case of Colombia; H.Rincon External Shocks, Relative Prices and Sectoral Reallocation in a Small Open Economy: Evidence from Mexico; T.Iscan Exchange Rate Pass-through: The Case of Brazilian Exports of Manufacturers; A.Ferreira & A.Sansó PART III: LABOUR AND INCOME DISTRIBUTION The Impact of Firing Costs on Turnover and Unemployment: Evidence from Colombia; A.Kugler Structural Reform and the Distribution Effects of Price Changes in Argentina; F.Navajas Endogenous Child Mortality, the Price of Child Goods and Fertility Decisions: Evidence from Argentina; A.Cigno & G.Pinal Child Labour in Peru: an Empirical Analysis and Modelling Implications; R.Ray