Latin American Development Forum
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This series promotes debate and disseminates knowledge and analysis on economic and social development issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. Books in this series discuss economic growth, structural reforms, social security, globalization and its social effects, poverty reduction strategies, macroeconomic stability and capital flows, financial systems and market reforms, and more. Sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and the World Bank, the series seeks to convey the excitement and complexity of the most topical issues in the region. Titles in this peer-reviewed series are selected for their relevance to the academic community and represent the highest quality research output of each institution.
Items in this collection
1 - 10 of 12
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Publication
Does What You Export Matter? In Search of Empirical Guidance for Industrial Policies
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012)Does the content of what economies export matter for development? And, if it does, can governments improve on the export basket that the market generates through the shaping of industrial policy? This book considers these questions by reviewing relevant literature and taking stock of what is known from conceptual, empirical, and policy viewpoints. A large literature answers affirmatively to the first question and suggests the characteristics that distinguish desirable exports. More prosaically, but no less controversially, goods which are intensive in unskilled labor are thought to promote 'pro-poor' or 'shared growth,' whereas those which are skilled-labor intensive are thought to generate positive externalities for society as a whole. Concerns about macroeconomic stability have led to a focus on the overall composition of the export basket. This book revisits many of these arguments conceptually and, wherever possible, imports heuristic approaches into frameworks where, as more familiar arguments, they can be held up to the light, rotated, and their facets examined for brilliance or flaws. Second, the book examines what emerges empirically as a basis for policy design. Specifically, given certain conceptual arguments in favor of public sector intervention, do available data and empirical methods allow for actually doing so with a high degree of confidence? In asking this question, the book assumes that policy makers are competent and seek to raise the welfare of their citizens. This assumption permits sidestepping the debate about whether government failures trump market failures generically: In this sense, the book attempts to 'give industrial policy a chance.' -
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Breeding Latin American Tigers : Operational Principles for Rehabilitating Industrial Policies
(Santiago, Chile: United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and Washington, DC: World Bank, 2011)The specific structure of the book is as follows: chapter one reviews the current situation of Latin America, which historically has been a laggard in economic performance. Chapter two introduces the first principle: the urgency of developing a medium- to long-term strategy for productive transformation based on industrial policies. Chapter three focuses on the principle that strategies for productive transformation with modern industrial policies should rest on effective, locally grown public-private alliances. Chapter four introduces and illustrates principles 3-6, which focus on the 'how' of public sector leadership in the public-private alliance and the formulation and execution of strategies. Chapter five presents and illustrates principles 7-11, which are concerned with the public sector management of support programs and incentives. Chapter six shifts the focus to Latin America. It reviews the past and current nature of development strategies in the region, pointing to their strengths and weaknesses as tools for guiding productive transformation. In chapter seven, the author follow the path of principles 3-11 to critically evaluate the nature of public sector leadership in strategy execution and the modes for managing programs and incentives. Finally, chapter eight presents our central conclusions, which suggest that while some countries in Latin America have been planting the seeds of these 11 principles gleaned from our extra-regional success cases, they still have considerable work to do. -
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Does the Investment Climate Matter? Microeconomic Foundations of Growth in Latin America
(Washington, DC : The World Bank, 2009)This book aims to fill that gap by using extensive and new firm-level data. It provides an alternative, albeit complementary, approach to previous studies of the determinants of the region's growth performance, which are mostly based on cross-country regressions using aggregate data. This book uses the information contained in enterprise surveys performed in 16 Latin American and Caribbean countries, covering more than 10,000 firms. These data are complemented with information from household surveys, as well as from enterprise surveys performed in other regions of the world. The analysis in this volume covers topics that have also been stressed by other authors, such as the need to make progress in the areas of financial sector development, export promotion, and innovation policy. The book's contribution in this regard is to inform the corresponding policy debates with evidence on the effect of different policy environments on firm performance. Overall this book will contribute to identifying some of the underlying factors that are driving Latin America's lackluster growth performance. In particular, objective is to improve our understanding of the policies that could have a larger influence on increasing growth and productivity in the region, by means of improving the environment in which firms invest and operate. -
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The Impact of Private Sector Participation in Infrastructure : Lights, Shadows, and the Road Ahead
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008)As numerous countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and elsewhere are moving toward a second phase of private participation in infrastructure programs mostly through public-private partnership schemes and other countries are just beginning the process, several concerns remain from the outcomes of the first phase. These concerns are making governments cautious in moving forward. The Impact of private sector participation in infrastructure addresses these concerns and brings clarity to the debate on the impact of private participation in infrastructure. The assessment of this impact may be one of the most emotional policy issues in economics, as it is clouded in a mist of myths, perceptions, and reality. This book analyzes the impact and sorts out the truth from the myths. The authors take a systematic and hard look at the facts (i.e., data) in Latin America, where starting in the late 1980s, many governments brought private sector participation into the delivery of essential utilities services. Although there are many assessments of this experience, none was able to rely on systemic, cross-country, and time-series data, and practically all of them did not save rare exceptions account for what would have happened in the absence of interventions (the counterfactual). This book does just that. It brings together an all encompassing database from the 1980s to the first decade of this century and develops an effective and robust methodology, accounting for the counterfactual, which tests and estimates the impact of reform on an exceptionally wide set of outcome indicators. As a result, this book presents the most in-depth study to date of the private sector participation experience in Latin America, and it substantially advances the existing literature by offering robust econometric analysis. -
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The State of State Reform in Latin America
(Palo Alto, CA : Stanford University Press, 2007)This book examines four major areas of institutional reform: a) political institutions and the state organization; b) fiscal institutions, such as budget, tax and decentralization institutions; c) public institutions in charge of sectoral economic policies (financial, industrial, and infrastructure); and d) social sector institutions (pensions, social protection, and education). In each of these areas, the authors summarize the reform objectives, describe and measure their scope, assess the main outcomes, and identify the obstacles for implementation, especially those of an institutional nature. -
Publication
Investor Protection and Corporate Governance : Firm-Level Evidence Across Latin America
(Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007)This book holds that the crucial failure of corporate governance is the expropriation of outside investors, be they shareholders or creditors, by those who are in control of firms. The problem of expropriation, also known as tunneling, often takes on enormous proportions. Billions of dollars of wealth are siphoned away from outside investors to controlling shareholders and their private company allies. The expropriation prevents investors from devoting funds in the corporate sector, thus leading to low valuations of corporate assets, stunted capital markets, and slowed economic growth. Low valuations and underdeveloped financial markets are only two of the symptoms of investor expropriation. Other symptoms include concentrated corporate ownership, large spreads between cash flow ownership and the voting rights of dominant shareholders, pyramids, and low dividend payments. When financial markets exhibit these symptoms, the likely underlying problem is investor expropriation. The essays collected in this volume put together a compelling picture showing that many of the symptoms of investor expropriation and poor corporate governance are present in Latin America. The evidence is loud and clear in every chapter of this book. But there are also benefits to collecting this detailed proof. The evidence suggests recipes for improvement as well. The message of this book is as unambiguous as is its analysis: a critical goal in the agenda of financial reform in Latin America must be improvement in corporate governance through legal reform. -
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Natural Resources : Neither Curse nor Destiny
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)This volume studies the role of natural resources in development and economic diversification. It brings together a variety of analytical perspectives, ranging from econometric analyses of economic growth to historical studies of successful development experiences in countries with abundant natural resources. -
Publication
Emerging Capital Markets and Globalization : The Latin American Experience
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)The book should stimulate a vigorous discussion on how to best revise the reform agenda for capital market development in emerging economies going forward. This effort should involve not only country authorities but also academics and advisers from multilateral agencies such as the World Bank. The complexities highlighted in the book invite intellectual modesty, eclecticism, and constant attention to country specificity. While it does not provide detailed policy prescriptions, the book does point to issues that cannot be ignored and puts forward provocative questions for the policy debate. The policy discussion in the book is particularly interesting with respect to the following aspects: internationalization of stock markets and local currency debt markets. This paper contains the following headings: whither capital market development; developments in capital markets; factors behind the development and internationalization of capital markets; and whither the reform agenda. -
Publication
Privatization in Latin America : Myths and Reality
(Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005)Privatization is under attack. Beginning in the 1980s, thousands of failing state-owned enterprises worldwide have been turned over to the private sector. But public opinion has turned against privatization. A large political backlash has been brewing for some time, infused by accusations of corruption, abuse of market power, and neglect of the poor. What is the real record of privatization and are the criticisms justified? This report evaluates the empirical evidence on privatization in a region that has witnessed an extensive decline in the state's share of production over the past 20 years. The book is a compilation of recent studies that provide a comprehensive analysis of the record of and accusations against privatization, with important recommendations for the future. Seven countries are investigated: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. -
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Keeping the Promise of Social Security in Latin America
(Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005)Nations around the world (both large and small, rich and poor) are engaged in debate over how to reform their social security systems and care for the aged. For many countries this debate requires speculation on hypothetical scenarios, but in Latin America a rich body of experience on social security reform has been accumulating for more than a decade (for Chile, more than two decades). This report, entitled, Keeping the Promise of Social Security in Latin America, takes stock of those reforms, evaluates their successes and failures, and considers the lessons that can be drawn for the future of pension policy in the region. The authors draw on a series of background papers and surveys commissioned specifically for this inquiry, as well as existing research conducted by themselves and other pension experts. In the debate on pension reform there is no orthodoxy, as reflected in major differences of opinion among leading experts. Despite more than a decade of experience with pension reform in Latin America, although undoubtedly a major step forward, reforms are still works in progress. This report furthers enrich the policy dialogue that is of crucial importance to the future of the region.