A core–periphery framework for understanding the place of Latin America in the global architecture of finance

Abstract

This paper contributes to the understanding of subordinate financialisation in emerging and developing economies by setting out a novel core–periphery framework that elucidates the place of Latin America in the global architecture of finance. This framework builds on the centre–periphery financial model of uneven regional credit and economic growth, originally proposed by Victoria Chick and Sheila Dow in 1988. In the era of deregulated financial flows and market-based credit, the core–periphery relationship has become a three-level hierarchical system, in which Latin American nations occupy a subordinate place. The key drivers of this structural shift within these nations have been the liberalisation of cross-border financial flows and investment, the deregulation of banking and the adoption of private pension systems. These drivers’ adoption can be traced to both push and pull factors: specifically, recurrent financial crises requiring external intervention (especially by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)), and the possibility of engaging with the financial instruments and megabanks driving the globalisation of finance. Participating in this hierarchical system has required importing elements of the financial architecture that evolved in the 1980s in advanced economies and has also arguably deepened this region’s financial dependency and vulnerability.