Latin America's Access to International Capital Markets: Good Behavior or Global Liquidity?

This paper examines Latin America's access to international capital markets from 1980 to 2005, with particular attention to the role of domestic and external factors. To capture access to international markets, we use primary gross issuance in international bond, equity, and syndicated-loan markets. Using panel estimation, we find that sound fundamentals matter. For example, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile's superb performance in capital markets during the early 1990s has been in large part driven by better fundamentals. However, the upsurge in international lending to Latin America starting in 2003 has been mainly driven by a dramatic increase in global liquidity.