Loans, risks, and growth

In Paraguay, banks are the center of the financial sector and provide the main source of external financing for corporations and small companies. Therefore, their behavior as credit providers has important effects on business investments. This paper presents a model that illustrates this fact and explains how it can be applied to any less-developed economy with a similar financial sector. In this model, the financial sector (bank loans) affects the long-run growth of the economy through the changes in the probability of loans repayment and other risks. In addition it is shown that governments have an important double role in the financial sector, providing adequate regulation and reducing specific identified market failures.