bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
How to Change Behavior to Improve Maternal and Neonatal Health in Rural Areas of Latin America
Authors: García Prado Ariadna
Published: March 2024

The objective of this paper is to review the most relevant, recent and rigorous literature on strategies to promote changes in demand for maternal and neonatal health services in rural areas of Latin America and to identify the strategies with most impact and lowest cost. The evidence shows that: i) covering direct expenses increases the use of prenatal care and institutional delivery and appears to be costeffective; ii) community interventions have positive impacts on indicators related to social norms (contraceptive use and institutional delivery); iii) monetary incentives have moderate impacts on use of prenatal care but lead to very few changes in institutional delivery or contraceptive use, while non-monetary incentives do increase institutional delivery at a much lower cost; iv) sending reminders to women could increase the use of prenatal and postpartum visits in a cost-effective way; and v) postpartum and puerperium visits need to be promoted.
Country Program Evaluation: Trinidad and Tobago 2011-2015
Authors: Hernández María José , Fryer Michelle , Vargas María José , Fajgenbaum Jose , Maciel Odette , Molina Adriana , Scholl Lynn , Pires Jose Claudio Linhares , Stone Leslie F. , Fevre Chloe
Published: March 2024

As part of its 2015-16 work plan, the Office of Evaluation and Oversight (OVE) prepared the evaluation of the Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB) country program with Trinidad and Tobago for the period January 2011-December 2015. This evaluation is OVE's third for the country.
Evaluation of Public-Private Partnerships in Infrastructure
Authors: Michelitsch Roland , Szwedzki Roni , Sembler Jose Ignacio , Haarsager Ulrike , Carbajo José , Murcia Juan Felipe , Seiwald Raphael , Oliveira Patricia , Funes Aguilera Rocio , Cabrera Maria , Sadeghi Patricia
Published: March 2024

This evaluation assesses the work done by the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDBG) on public-private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The evaluation comes at a unique time for IDBG given the recent merge-out of private sector operations into the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC). The change in strategic focus of the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), which used to have a PPP focus area, may also create new opportunities and challenges in terms of skills, organization, and coordination among different parts of the IDBG.
Background Note: Management's Implementation of OVE Recommendations
Authors:   Office of Evaluation and Oversight
Published: March 2024

This note presents the results of the first full validation of recommendations made by the Office of Evaluations and Oversight (OVE), endorsed by the Board and tracked in the Recommendations Tracking System (ReTS). It looks at the relevance and implementation of management's actions in response to the recommendations monitored through the ReTS between 2013 and 2016.
Country Program Evaluation: Brazil (2011-2014)
Authors: Marto Ricardo ,   The Economist Group, Martin Lucia , Alonso Pablo , Crespo Anna Risi Vianna , Puerta Juan Manuel , Sadeghi Patricia , Verner Dorte , Pires Jose Claudio Linhares , Celse L'Hoste Margareth , Stone Leslie F. ,   Inter American Development Bank
Published: March 2024

This document presents an evaluation by the Office of Evaluation and Oversight (OVE) of the Country Program of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB, or the Bank) with Brazil over the period 2011-2014. This Country Program Evaluation (CPE) is the fourth independent evaluation of the Bank's program with Brazil. The CPE reviews the Bank's program in light of the country context and the applicable strategic documents, and it looks in-depth at the results of a sample of all operations approved between January 2011 and December 2014 and approved previously but disbursed (at least 70%) in this period.
Facilitating Trade in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Implementation Policy Agenda
Authors: Staples Brian Rankin
Published: March 2024

The purpose of this note is to provide insight and contribute to the discussion on trade facilitation implementation issues of relevance to Latin American and Caribbean countries.Identifying and sequencing trade facilitation needs from the perspective of the entire value chain supports the objective of trade facilitation itself: enhancing a country's ability to seamlessly dock into the network of global value chains, and allowing global value chains to integrate efficiently into a country. In this sense, it can be argued that trade facilitation should result in business facilitation that not only encompasses the reform and modernization of border agencies, but also requires improving the efficiency and effectiveness of business-to-business importing and exporting processes, and comprises private sector training and capacity building, leading to improved overall predictability in international commerce.
Country Program Evaluation: Brazil (1993-2003)
Authors:   Inter American Development Bank
Published: March 2024

This report (RE-298) summarizes OVE's evaluation of the IDB's program in Brazil during 1993-2003. The paper starts with a selective, brief analysis of background that is needed to inform the evaluation. It includes an assessment of the programming process and the relevance and coherence (hence the implied value-added) of the Bank's activities and approach. It also analyzes the composition and the efficiency of delivery of the program, investigates evaluability and the tracking of results, and assesses the prospects and the efficacy of the program in delivering results. Finally, the document provides a conclusion and distills recommendations for consideration by the Bank.
Job Security and the Age-Composition of Employment: Evidence from Chile
Authors: Montenegro Claudio E. , Pagés Carmen
Published: March 2024

This paper develops a simple model to analyze the impact of tenure-based severance payments on firms' hiring and firing decisions. The findings are that under certain conditions, this feature leads to a Last-in First-out firing policy. Also, reforms that increase the slope of the severance-tenure profile tend to increase the probabilities of dismissal of low tenure workers.
Patterns of Crime Victimization in Latin America
Authors: Gaviria Alejandro , Pagés Carmen
Published: March 2024

In this paper we draw a profile of the victims of crime in Latin America. We show that- at least for the case of property crime - the typical victims of crime in Latin America come from rich and middle class households and tend to live in larger cities. We also show that households living in cities experiencing rapid population growth are more likely to be victimized than households living in cities with stable populations. We offer various explanations to these facts, and while we cannot yet provide definite answers to some of the questions raised by this paper, we are at least able to reject some plausible hypotheses. On the whole, our results imply that urban crime in Latin America is, to an important extent, a reflection of the inability of many cities in the region to keep up with the increasing demands for public safety brought about by a hasty and disorderly urbanization process.
The Political Economy of Productivity in Brazil
Authors: Mueller Bernardo , Pereira Carlos , Alston Lee J. , Melo Marcus André
Published: March 2024

This paper explores the link between Brazil's political institutions and its disappointing productivity and growth in recent decades. Although political institutions provide the president with incentives and the instruments to pursue monetary stability and fiscal discipline they simultaneously raise the costs of achieving those very objectives. The insulation of certain expenditures from presidential discretion necessitates the use of other policy options, such as high taxation levels and cuts in unprotected expenditures, which put a drag on productivity and growth. In a context of robust checks and balances and interest group fragmentation, a state overburdened by constitutional entitlements has resorted to massive increases in taxation. The resulting environment possesses both essential elements for sustainable economic growth and distortions that conspire against its realization. While some improvements in productivity and growth have occurred in the past decade, the pace has been slow and incremental.
Inequality and Institutions
Authors: Chong Alberto E. , Gradstein Mark
Published: March 2024

This paper presents theory and evidence on the relationship between inequality and institutional quality. We propose a model in which the two dynamically reinforce each other and set out to test this relationship with a broad array of institutional measures. We establish double causality between better institutional quality and a more equal distribution of income, but also demonstrate that the link from the latter dominates the former. These results are shown to be robust to various specifications and different data sources that cover various time-spans.
Household Savings and Income Distribution in Mexico
Authors: Attanasio Orazio P. , Székely Miguel
Published: March 2024

Following the 1994 financial crisis, the rate of saving of the Mexican economy fell from 21.7 percent to 19.8 percent of GDP. The decline was associated with a reduction in the rate of external saving from 6.9 to 0.5 percent between 1994 and 1995. The overall reduction was not more dramatic because it was almost fully compensated by an increase in private saving from 11.3 percent to 15 percent of GDP during these years.
Sibling Correlations and Social Mobility in Latin America
Authors: Gaviria Alejandro , Dahan Momi
Published: March 2024

In this paper, social mobility is measured by looking at the extent to which family background determines socioeconomic success. Roughly speaking, social mobility can be measure by means of two distinct types of correlations: intergenerational correlations and sibling correlations.
Unemployment Insurance: Case Studies and Lessons for Latin America and the Caribbean
Authors: Mazza Jacqueline
Published: March 2024

This study examines unemployment insurance (UI) for its potential application and implications for Latin American and the Caribbean economies. It surveys current experience with unemployment insurance programs through case studies and draws lessons learned in particular for the Latin American and the Caribbean region.
The Evolution of Urban Concentration around the World: A Panel Approach
Authors: Gaviria Alejandro , Stein Ernesto H.
Published: March 2024

In this paper, we use a panel approach to study population growth in major cities around the world. We find that major cities grow faster in relatively backward economies and in more volatile, faster-growing economies. We also find that the effects of trade policy on the growth of major cities hinge heavily on geography. While population growth in major cities located at or near ports does not change after an upsurge of trade flows, population growth in landlocked major cities tends to slow down after the same event. On the other hand, we do not find any effect of political regime on the population growth of major cities. Finally, we find some evidence that, other things being equal, larger cities tend to grow at smaller rates.
The New Wave of Capital Inflows: Sea Change or Tide?
Authors: Fernández-Arias Eduardo
Published: March 2024

This paper was prepared for the Seminar The New Wave of Capital Inflows: Sea Change or Tide? Annual Meetings of the Board of Governors, Inter-American Development Bank and Inter-American Investment CorporationWill capital inflows boom again in Latin America as countries recover from the 1998-99 recession? And will they bust again shortly thereafter, repeating the cycle of the past? Is there something fundamentally different about the new wave of capital inflows to alter this historical pattern, a sea change in the way the region is financially linked to international capital markets? Or is nothing really new under the sun and will the new wave of capital inflows be just another tide, bringing in its wake a capital withdrawal and a financial market drought? This paper addresses these important issues, over which there is much controversy.
Economics Reform and Wage Differentials in Latin America
Authors: Behrman Jere R. , Birdsall Nancy , Székely Miguel
Published: March 2024

This paper develops and applies a new approach to the estimation of the impact of economy-wide reforms on wage differentials, using a new high-quality data set on wage differentials by schooling level for 18 Latin American countries for the period 1980-1998. The results indicate that reform overall has had a short-run disequalizing effect of expanding wage differentials, although this effect tends to fade over time. This disequalizing effect is due to the strong impact of domestic financial market reform, capital account liberalization and tax reform. On the other hand, privatization contributed to narrowing wage differentials, and trade openness had no effect on wage differentials. Technological progress, rather than trade flows, appears to be a channel through which reforms are affecting inequality. The paper also explores the effects of reforms on wage levels; tentative results suggest that reforms have had a positive effect on real average wages, but a negative effect on the wages of less-schooled workers. Keywords: reform, inequality, wages, trade, distribution
Are You Being Served?: Political Accountability and Quality of Government
Authors: Boix Carles , Adserà Alícia , Payne J. Mark
Published: March 2024

This paper explores, both formally and empirically, the political accountability mechanisms that lie behind the varying levels of public corruption and of effective governance taking place across nations. The first section develops a principal-agent model in which good governance is a function of the extent to which citizens can hold political officials accountable for their actions. Although policy-makers may have strong incentives to appropriate parts of the citizens' income, well-designed institutions (those increasing both informational flows and elite competitiveness) boost political accountability and reduce the space left for the appropriation of rents. The following sections of the paper test the model. The presence of democratic mechanisms of control and an increasingly informed electorate, measured through the frequency of newspaper readership, explain considerably well the distribution of corrupt practices and governmental ineffectiveness in three types of data sets: a large cross-section of countries in the late 1990s for which an extensive battery of governance indicators has been recently developed by Kaufmann et al. (1999a); a panel data set for the period 1980-95 and about 100 nations on corruption and bureaucratic quality based on experts' rankings; and corruption data for the cross-section of US states in the period 1977-95.
Towards Effective Social Insurance in Latin America: The Importance of Countercyclical Fiscal Policy
Authors: Braun Miguel , Di Gresia Luciano
Published: March 2024

Latin America is a volatile, crisis-prone region, with limited and inadequate social insurance. Therefore, the long-term as well as the recent poor suffer significantly during crises. Furthermore, social spending is procyclical in the region, but less so than total spending, indicating that the effectiveness of compensatory social policies designed to protect those vulnerable to crises is constrained by adjustments during recessions. The causes of procyclical fiscal policy lie in the political constraints on saving during expansions, combined with limited creditworthiness during recessions, and enhanced by economic volatility and a low share of automatic stabilizers in the budget. We evaluate policy options to reduce procyclicality of fiscal policy, such as stabilization funds, fiscal rules and reform of budget institutions, and argue in favor of integrated policy proposals based on more country-specific analysis, such as the Fiscal Responsibility Law in Brazil.
Fiscal Sustainability in Emerging Market Countries with an Application to Ecuador
Authors: Díaz Alvarado Carlos , Panizza Ugo , Izquierdo Alejandro
Published: March 2024

This paper surveys the recent literature on fiscal sustainability, with particular emphasis on emerging market countries. It discusses the main elements that differentiate emerging market countries from industrial countries and then discusses how probabilistic models can help to evaluate fiscal sustainability in an uncertain environment. Based on this discussion, the paper uses Ecuador to illustrate an application of the probabilistic model, and of the framework to evaluate the impact of shocks to current account financing on sustainability.
Bank Ownership and Performance
Authors: Micco Alejandro , Panizza Ugo , Yañez Mónica
Published: March 2024

This paper builds a new dataset on bank ownership and bank performance covering approximately 50,000 observations for 119 countries over the 1995-2002 period. The paper then uses the dataset to reassess the relationship between bank ownership and bank performance, providing separated estimations for developing and industrial countries. It is found that, while ownership is strongly correlated with performance in developing countries, that ownership is not correlated with performance in industrial countries. In particular, the paper suggests that state-owned banks operating in developing countries tend to have lower profitability and higher costs than their private counterparts, and that the opposite is true for foreign-owned banks (which tend to be characterized by higher profitability and lower costs). We also find that, in developing countries, the entry of foreign banks plays a useful role by making domestic banks more efficient in terms of overhead cost and spreads, although we do not find any effect on profitability of domestic banks.
Why are Latin Americans so Unhappy about Reforms?
Authors: Panizza Ugo , Yañez Mónica
Published: March 2024

The objective of this paper is to use opinion polls to document Latin Americans' increasing discontent with reforms and to explore possible explanations for this trend. We test four possible explanations for the rejection of reforms. The first focuses on a change in political orientation. The second focuses on a change in political activism on the part of those who oppose reforms. The third focuses on trust in political actors. The fourth focuses on the economic situation. There is also an important set of explanations for the rejection of reforms that we do not consider in this paper.
Global Factors and Emerging Market Spreads
Authors: Levy Yeyati Eduardo , González Rozada Martín
Published: March 2024

This paper shows that a large fraction of the variability of emerging market bond spreads is explained by the evolution of global factors such as risk appetite (as reflected in the spread of high yield corporate bonds in developed markets), global liquidity (measured by the international interest rates) and contagion (from systemic events like the Russian default). This link has remained relatively stable over the history of the emerging market class, is robust to the inclusion of country-specific factors, and helps provide accurate long-run predictions. Overall, the results highlight the critical role played by exogenous factors in the evolution of the borrowing cost faced by emerging economies.
Public Debt around the World: A New Dataset of Central Government Debt
Authors: Jaimovich Dany , Panizza Ugo
Published: March 2024

Commonly used datasets on the level of public debt provide incomplete country and period coverage. This paper presents a new dataset that includes complete series of central government debt for 89 countries over the 1991-2005 period and for seven other countries for the 1993-2005 period. The data set can be found at: http://www.iadb.org/res/pub_desc.cfm?pub_id=DBA-005
The Gender Wage Gap in Chile 1992-2003: From a Matching Comparisons Perspective
Authors: Ñopo Hugo R.
Published: March 2024

This paper analyzes the evolution of the gender wage gap in Chile during the period 1992 to 2003 using the decomposition approach developed in Ñopo (2004). This approach, which decomposes the wage gap into four additive elements, stresses the need for comparisons inside the common support for the distributions of observable characteristics of individuals. Also, it allows an analysis of the distribution of unexplained differences in wages (not only the averages). The results suggest that, besides the high educational attainment of females, there are noticeable gender wage gaps in Chile favoring males. These unexplained differences in wages, which move around 25 percent of average female wages, show no clear tendency during the period of analysis. The wage gaps are higher at the highest percentiles of the wage distribution, among those with higher educational attainment, among directors and among part-time workers. The technique also detects some evidence of a glass-ceiling effect in Chilean labor markets, such that for some occupations and particular combinations of observable characteristics, there are highly paid males but not females.
The Educational Gender Gap in Latin America and the Caribbean
Authors: Galiani Sebastián , Piras Claudia , Ñopo Hugo R. , Duryea Suzanne
Published: March 2024

This paper analyzes the evolution of gender differences in school attendance and attainment in Latin America and the Caribbean, for both adults who left the educational system and children in school. For individuals 21 years old and above the paper uses a cohort analysis of school attainment. The results indicate that the schooling gap has closed for the cohort born at the end of the 1960s. Since then, the gap has reversed such that within the cohort born in 1980, females have, on average, ¿ of a schooling year more than males. During the four decades of birth cohorts of our analysis (1940-1980) the gender gap in attainment has moved in favor of females at a pace of 0.27 years of schooling per decade. A decomposition exercise suggests that the changes in the schooling gap are mainly explained by the educational attainment of females at the higher levels, rather than improvements in the early years of education. An analysis of attendance and attainment among girls and boys between 6 and 18, for Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru (the countries that have not closed the gap in adult schooling attainment) reveals noticeable gender differences, favoring boys, only among older children of the lowest income quintiles and indigenous ethnicity.
Corporate Governance in Latin America
Authors: Chong Alberto E. , López-de-Silanes Florencio
Published: March 2024

This paper analyzes recent trends in Latin Americas institutional development regarding to investor protection. In spite of the underdevelopment of the regions financial markets, there is slow movement towards legal reforms intended to protect investors and make regional markets more attractive to investors; current inadequacies in the regions legal institutions generate high levels of ownership concentration, poor access to external equity financing, and narrow equity markets. The evidence in this paper, based on firm-level data for six countries, shows that, like legal protection of investors, appropriate firm-level corporate governance is linked to lower costs for capital, better valuation, performance, and dividend payments across countries. Firms can compensate for their countries legal deficiencies by distinguishing themselves through improved corporate governance practices, thus increasing transparency and limiting potential conflict between large and minority shareholders. Firms can additionally look for capital by issuing ADRs, as they have in recent years, although this practice undermines local capital markets. In the end, firms and regulators must improve their governance structures and shareholder protections if they are to meet the improved benchmarks of developed nations brought about by Asian, European, and U.S. scandals in recent years.
Corporate Governance and Firm Valuation in Colombia
Authors: Pombo Carlos , Gutiérrez Luis H.
Published: March 2024

This paper studies the separation of ownership and control of 108 listed companies in Colombia from 1996 to 2002, finding that voting rights are greater than cash flow rights because of indirect ownership across firms. The paper also examines the association of various ownership and control measures and separation ratios with a firms value and performance for the same sample of companies that traded their stock from 1998 to 2002. Large blockholders were found to exert a positive influence upon a firms valuation and performance, which validates the positive monitoring approach of large shareholders, but this relationship is not monotonic. The paper further reports results from a 2004 survey which suggests that Colombian firms have been slow to improve their corporate governance practices.
Gender Segregation in the Workplace and Wage Gaps: Evidence from Urban Mexico 1994-2004
Authors: Calónico Sebastián , Ñopo Hugo R.
Published: March 2024

This paper analyzes the evolution of gender segregation in the workplace in Mexico between 1994 and 2004, using a matching comparisons technique to explore the role of individual and family characteristics in determining gender segregation and wage gaps. The results suggest that the complete elimination of hierarchical segregation would reduce the observed gender wage gaps by 5 percentage points, while the elimination of occupational segregation would have increased gender wage gaps by approximately 6 percentage points. The results also indicate that the role of occupational segregation in wage gaps has been increasing in magnitude during the period of analysis, while the role of hierarchical segregation in the determination of wage gaps has been decreasing.
Systemic Sudden Stops: The Relevance of Balance-Sheet Effects and Financial Integration
Authors: Mejía Luis Fernando , Izquierdo Alejandro , Calvo Guillermo A.
Published: March 2024

Using a sample of 110 developed and developing countries for the period 1990-2004, this paper analyzes the characteristics of systemic sudden stops (3S) in capital flows and the relevance of balance-sheet effects in the likelihood of their materialization. A small supply of tradable goods relative to their domestic absorption?a proxy for potential changes in the real exchange rate?and large foreign-exchange denominated debts towards the domestic banking system are claimed to be key determinants of the probability of 3S, producing a balancesheet effect with non-linear impacts on the probability of 3S. While financial integration is up to a point associated with a higher likelihood of 3S, beyond that point financial integration is associated with a lower likelihood of 3S.
Information, Externalities and Socioeconomics of Malaria in Honduras: A Preliminary Analysis
Authors: Avilés Maria Victoria , Cuesta José A.
Published: March 2024

This paper explores how different levels of knowledge correlate with desirable preventive and curative practices against malaria in Honduras. The paper additionally analyzes information externalities associated with non-specific malaria health services, communicational campaigns and organized community networks. Using the 2004 ENSEMAH survey, the analysis tests for statistical differences in the means of behavioral variables and an index of household malaria knowledge, finding that the adoption of desirable prevention and treatment behaviors correlates with proficient levels of knowledge. Differences in behavior across groups with distinctive levels of proficiency were found statistically significant. Also, while information externalities exist, they nonetheless do not deliver adequate levels of knowledge proficiency to induce desirable anti-malaria behavior.
Education and Democratic Preferences
Authors: Chong Alberto E. , Gradstein Mark
Published: March 2024

This paper examines the causal link between education and democracy. Motivated by a model whereby educated individuals are in a better position to assess the effects of public policies and hence favor democracy where their opinions matter, the empirical analysis uses World Values Surveys to study the link between education and democratic attitudes. Controlling for a variety of characteristics, the paper finds that higher education levels tend to result in rodemocracy views. These results hold across countries with different levels of democracy, thus rejecting the hypothesis that indoctrination through education is an effective tool in non-democratic countries.
How Much Are We Willing To Pay to Send Poor Adolescents to School?: Simulating Changes to Mexico`s Oportunidades in Urban Areas
Authors: Bouillon César P. , Yáñez-Pagans Patricia , Azevedo Viviane
Published: March 2024

Although Mexicos Conditional Cash Transfer Program Oportunidades has increased overall school enrollment, many adolescents do not attend school, especially in urban areas. This paper simulates the effects of changes in program design using a simple parametric method based on a simultaneous probability model of school attendance and child labor. The paper also provides alternative non parametric simulation results by extending Todd and Wolpins (2006) method to incorporate changes in working hours when attending school. The results indicate that eliminating or reducing school subsidies for primary education and increasing transfer for older students is a cost-effective way to raise overall school enrollment in urban areas. Increasing school attendance of 16-year-olds to 80 percent or more, however, would require a quadrupling of scholarships. This suggests that complementary interventions are needed.
Veto Players and Policy Trade-Offs: An Intertemporal Approach to Study the Effects of Political Institutions on Policy
Authors: Tommasi Mariano , Scartascini Carlos , Stein Ernesto H.
Published: March 2024

The capacity to sustain policies over time and the capacity to adjust policies in the face of changing circumstances are two desirable properties of policymaking systems. The veto player approach has suggested that polities with more veto players will have the capacity to sustain policies at the expense of the ability to change policy when necessary. This paper disputes that assertion from an intertemporal perspective, drawing from transaction cost economics and repeated game theory and showing that some countries might have both more credibility and more adaptability than others. More generally, the paper argues that, when studying the effects of political institutions on policy outcomes, a perspective of intertemporal politics might lead to predictions different from those emanating from more a-temporal approaches.
The Persistent Gender Earnings Gap in Colombia, 1994-2006
Authors: Peña Ximena , Ñopo Hugo R. , Hoyos Alejandro
Published: March 2024

This paper surveys gender wage gaps in Colombia from 1994 to 2006, using matching comparisons to examine the extent to which individuals with similar human capital characteristics earn different wages. Three sub-periods are considered: 1994-1998; 2000-2001; and 2002- 2006. The gaps dropped from the first to the second period but remained almost unchanged between the second and the third. The gender wage gap remains largely unexplained after controlling for different combinations of socio-demographics and job-related characteristics, reaching between 13 and 23 percent of average female wages. That gap is lower at the middle of the wage distributions than the extremes, possibly due to a gender-equalizing effect of the minimum wage. Moreover, the gap is more pronounced for low-productivity workers and those who need flexibility to participate in labor markets. This suggests that policy interventions in the form of labor market regulations may have little impact on reducing gender wage gaps.
Income Distribution and the Public-Private Mix in Health Care Provision: The Latin American Case
Authors: Maceira Daniel
Published: March 2024

Recent literature on Latin American countries shows that private expenses as a share of the total expenditures in health tend to be higher the lower the nation's level of economic development. This paper considers a discrete choice model of product differentiation, where consumer choice is based on a price-quality tradeoff. Physicians are involved in a dual-job holding structure, working as agents in the official sector while they maximize profits in a fragmented private sector.
Sudden Stops, the Real Exchange Rate and Fiscal Sustainability: Argentina's Lessons
Authors: Talvi Ernesto , Izquierdo Alejandro , Calvo Guillermo A.
Published: March 2024

This paper offers an alternative explanation for t he fall of Argentina's Convertibility Program based on the country's vulnerability to Sudden Stops in capital flows. Sudden Stops are typically accompanied by a substantial increase in the real exchange rate that wreaks havoc in countries that are heavily dollarized in their liabilities, turning otherwise sustainable fiscal and corporate sector positions into unsustainable ones. In particular, we stress that the required change in relative prices is larger the more closed an economy is in terms of its sup ply of tradable goods. By contrasting Argentina's performance relative to other Latin American countries that were also subject to the Sudden Stop triggered by the Russian crisis of 1998, we identify key vulnerability indicators that separated Argentina from its peers. This document also provides an explanation for the political maelstrom that ensued after the Sudden Stop, based on a War of Attrition argument related to the wealth redistribution conflict triggered by the Sudden Stop and fiscal collapse. This framework also provides elements to rationalize the banking crisis that accompanied the fall of Convertibility.
Clusters and Comparative Advantage: Implications for Industrial Policy
Authors: Rodríguez-Clare Andrés
Published: March 2024

Industrial agglomerations or 'clusters' arise in the presence of industry-specific and local externalities, also called Marshallian externalities. The standard argument is that such externalities may justify a policy of infant-industry protection to allow and encourage clusters to emerge. This paper explores that argument and shows that different policy implications emerge under a more realistic modeling of clusters. In particular, rather than distorting prices to promote clusters in 'advanced' sectors that may exhibit strong clustering possibilities, countries should focus instead on promoting clustering in current sectors that have demonstrated the strongest comparative advantage. Import substitution is not a proper way to achieve such a goal.
Creditor Protection and Credit Volatility
Authors: Micco Alejandro , Galindo Arturo
Published: March 2024

This paper studies the relationship between creditor protection and credit volatility. During the negative phase of the business cycle, credit contracts more in countries with poor creditor protection. For similar shocks to business conditions, credit is more volatile in countries where creditors are weakly protected. We test this idea using a dataset on legal determinants of finance in a panel of data of aggregate credit growth for a sample of 139 countries during the period 1990-2003. We find support for the view that better legal protections significantly reduce the impact of exogenous shocks on credit. The results are statistically and economically significant and robust to alternative measures of creditor protection, the inclusion of variables that reflect different stages of economic development and the restriction of our sample to only developing countries.
A Tale of Two Tariff Commissions and One Dubious ¿Globalization Backlash?
Authors: Meardon Stephen
Published: March 2024

During much of the previous era of globalization, from the 1860s until the First World War, U.S. tariffs were surprisingly high. Present-day economic historians have suggested that U.S. protection as the result of a backlash against globalization that was the beginning of its decline. They have also argued that the backlash holds a lesson for the present: specifically, that we must attend to the distributive inequities that globalization engenders, or else globalization will again plant the seeds of its own destruction. I show that U.S. tariffs were not the product of backlash. A history of economic ideas in the nineteenth century United States, centered on two tariff commissions in 1866-1870 and 1882, reveals that the ideas debated in intellectual and policy circles alike bore no trace of globalization backlash. The important feature of U.S. intellectual and tariff policy history is not globalization backlash, but rather the absence from most historical accounts of certain thinkers and ideas that were crucial to the debate. Accordingly, the lesson that history holds for the present is not that we must attend to globalization's inequities. (That lesson is likely to stand or fall apart from history.) Instead it is that we need to attend to the /idea/ of backlash, which has a foothold in history that is deeper than the evidence. The lesson implies that to understand the present and future of globalization, what are required are histories of ideas.
Real Exchange Rates, Dollarization and Industrial Employment in Latin America
Authors: Montero José Manuel , Galindo Arturo , Izquierdo Alejandro
Published: March 2024

This paper uses a panel dataset on industrial employment and trade for 9 Latin American countries for which liability dollarization data at the industrial level is available. It tests whether real exchange rate fluctuations have a significant impact on employment, and analyze whether the impact varies with the degree of trade openness and liability dollarization. Econometric evidence supports the view that real exchange rate depreciations can impact employment growth positively, but this effect is reversed as liability dollarization increases. In industries with high liability dollarization, the overall impact of a real exchange rate depreciation can be negative.
Discrimination in Latin America: An Elephant in the Room?
Authors: Chong Alberto E. , Ñopo Hugo R.
Published: March 2024

This paper surveys evidence on discrimination in Latin America and shows that there is a widespread perception of discrimination, especially against the poor, the uneducated and those who lack connections. The channels through which discrimination occurs may be built on the basis of economic factors. However, while perception surveys may be informative, they are less than ideal at helping pinpoint the extent and mechanisms related. Recent experimental evidence suggests little room for discriminatory practices in the region. This puzzle, where individuals perceive discrimination is in the air, but few act discriminatorily, is consistent with an explanation about stereotyping that vanishes when information flows operate well.
Fiscal Policy and the Business Cycle Associated with Exchange Rate-Based Stabilizations: Evidence from Uruguay's 1978 and 1991 Programs
Authors: Talvi Ernesto
Published: March 2024

The initial stages of exchange rate-based stabilizations have been generally characterized by a consumption boom, a deterioration of the trade balance and the current account, and an appreciation of the real exchange rate. It is only at the later stages that the economy falls into recession. Tax revenues are linked to consumption (through the VAT, sales taxes, and import tariffs), and the consumption boom should therefore generate an endogenous increase in tax revenues. Furthermore, since many countries that have attempted these programs were heavily indebted, the appreciation of the real exchange rate should generate an endogenous reduction in real interest payments. The endogenous improvement in the fiscal balance that may occur due to forces unleashed in the initial stages of an exchange rate-based stabilization program turn it into an inappropriate measure of fiscal performance. This paper documents the links between the business cycle associated with exchange-rate based stabilizations and the behavior of tax revenues, government expenditures, and the fiscal deficit.
Macroeconomic Volatility in Latin America: A View and Three Case Studies
Authors: Caballero Ricardo J.
Published: March 2024

After decades of trial, error, and occasional regress, the pieces of a successful Latin American economic model can be seen scattered among the leading economies of the region. The most traditional macroeconomic maladies of the emerging world, such as chronic fiscal imbalances and monetary gimmicks, are gradually being left behind. Many of these economies have made significant progress in their regulatory and supervisory frameworks and, at times, have been leaders beyond Latin American boundaries in allowing private sector co-participation in a wide array of ex-public sector activities. Despite these significant efforts, several structural sources of volatility remain, and new ones have emerged as a result of the new and otherwise better economic environment.
Developing an Issues-Based Approach to Special and Differential Treatment
Authors: Breckenridge Amar
Published: March 2024

Trade liberalization is a positive sum game from which all can benefit. Well-defined rules, and the mechanisms of making binding commitments and concessions, are beneficial to increasing the stability of reforms.
Integral Policies of Poverty Reduction: The Challenge of Effectiveness
Authors: Engel Wanda
Published: March 2024

The objective of this work is to analyze the contribution of the Integral Policies in the increase of the effectiveness of the poverty reduction policies.
Conclusions and Final Recomendations: Remuneration of Senior Managers in the Public Sector - An Analisys of the Latin American Countries
Authors: Carrillo Laura , Marconi Nelson , Cavalieri Claudia Helena
Published: March 2024

This study sought to compare and analyze salaries paid to senior managers in the public sector in some Latin American countries.
The Trans-Generational Impact of Education: A Quantitative View of 10 Countries
Authors: Verdisco Aimee , Rama Germán
Published: March 2024

This note speaks to the progress made in expanding access of education as well as to the challenges that remain. Drawing on household survey data from ten countries, it presents quantitative information to show that, compared with the recent past, access to education has become more universal and coverage, particularly at the secondary level, has been extended to previously excluded populations.
Institutional Rigidities and Budget Flexibility: Origin, Motivation and Effects on Budget
Authors: Moya Andrés , Bonilla Jorge Alexander , Echeverry Juan Carlos
Published: March 2024

The paper discusses the magnitude of commitment in the legal and contractual budget that different governments need to stand by during each fiscal year and realize the gaining momentum.
IIRSA Economic Fundamentals
Authors: Mesquita Moreira Mauricio
Published: March 2024

This paper revisits IIRSA's economic fundamentals, looking at the motivation behind regional integration, the importance of transport versus policy related trade costs, and the likely impact of the initiative on regional disparities and growth.
Trade Liberalization, Income Distribution and Poverty: The Poultry Production Case Study in Brazil
Authors: Bacchi Miriam Rumenos Piedade , Ferreira Filho Joaquim Bento de Souza , Carvalho Thiago Bernardino de , Miranda Sílvia Helena Galvão , Da Cunha Filho Joaquim Henrique
Published: March 2024

This report analyses the poultry production and chicken meat markets in Brazil, and the importance of trade liberalization in these markets for poverty alleviation. The main objective is to address whether and to which extent trade liberalization in the sector could help to improve the poverty situation in Brazil.
Payment Mechanisms for the Management and Conservation of Natural Resources in the Tourism Sector in the Caribbean
Authors: Chaves Luis G.
Published: March 2024

This document was commissioned by the Environment Network of the Regional Policy Dialogue for the V Hemispheric Meeting celebrated November 30th, 2006.
Towards an Evaluation of Regional Integration in Latin America in the 1990s
Authors: Ffrench-Davis Ricardo , Devlin Robert
Published: March 2024

The decade of the 1990s has witnessed a wave of regional integration initiatives in Latin America: more than 14 agreements -free trade areas or customs unions- since 1990 with a handful more in varying degrees of negotiation (see Table 1). However, this was not just a Latin American phenomenon, as regionalism has more than ever become a global trend (Mistry [1996]). Indeed, now Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong are the only World Trade Organization (WTO) members which are not signatories to at least one preferential trade agreement (WTO [1995]). Regional integration is not new to Latin America. Economic integration played an important role in the region¿s early Post-War economic history. The 1960s and 1970s saw a number of very ambitious initiatives inspired by the successful Western European experience (Ffrench-Davis, Muñoz and Palma [1994]). Indeed, at its peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the topic of integration was hard to avoid in the discussion of Latin American development. However, disillusionment with integration processes had clearly set in by the late 1970s and the discussion of regional integration was all but silenced by the external crisis of the early 1980s.
Agricultural Liberalization in Multilateral and Regional Trade Negotiations
Authors: Kutas Géraldine , Fuchsloch Ian , Jank Marcos Sawaya
Published: March 2024

Agriculture is a strategic issue for the Western Hemispheric countries for both regional and multilateral trade negotiations. However, because of their diversity, countries in the region sometimes pursue different or even conflicting objectives regarding the liberalization of agricultural trade. This work provides an overview of the forces in favor of and against agricultural trade negotiations. It also measures the level of tariff protection and subsidies according to different methods and introduces new indicators to evaluate tariff protection in bilateral and regional trade agreements. Finally, it displays a list of the most sensitive agricultural products in the Western Hemisphere based on the type of trade barriers they face and provides policymakers with specific recommendations.
Leveraging Efforts on Remittances and Financial Intermediation
Authors: Orozco Manuel , Fedewa Rachel
Published: March 2024

This report seeks to analyze the efforts among financial institutions to leverage the relationship between financial intermediation and remittance transfers. The impact of family remittances has been highlighted in the literature as an important one for development. A development impact is one that addresses issues relating to the distribution of wealth and overall improvements in the quality of people's lives. More recently, policy recommendations have stressed the importance of linking remittances to financial intermediation as a strategy to harness the development impact of such earnings. This paper attempts to identify emergent trends in the remittance and finance world that potentially point to a deepening connection between remittances and development vis-à-vis financial intermediation. It is a case study analysis of nine financial institutions, and focusing on three basic indicators: institutional ability to provide remittance transfers to its clients and community, to offer low cost remittance services, and to compliment transfer services with other financial services.