Increasing Indebtedness, Institutional Change and Credit Contracts in Peru

* We are in debt to a number of persons that helped us during this research. First, we t thank IEP and CEPES for providing a congenial place to work and discuss our hypotheses and progress. In these two institutions we thank Cecilia Blondet, IEP's Cajavilca for their support. We give special thanks to Hildegardi Venero for her wonderful assistance at the research stage. Second, we thank the entire working group, led by Marco Pagano and Tullio Jappelli, for their comments and suggestions. Third, we want to acknowledge all the people in public and private institutions who gave us their time and opinions while conducting long interviews. Special thanks to all NGOs, CMACs and CRACs managers that shared with us their experiences. Without them this research could never be done. Finally, we want to thank Mateo Canziani and Ana Isabel Alvarado who shared with us the last research stage. The results and opinions in this paper, however, are completely our responsibility. The views and interpretations in this document are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Inter-American Development Bank, or to any individual acting on its behalf. The Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) publishes the Latin American Economic Policies Newsletter, as well as working paper series and books, on diverse economic issues. To obtain a complete list of OCE publications, and to read or download them, please visit our Web Site at: