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Beyond Commodities: The Growth Challenge of Latin America and the Caribbean
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016-11-02) Araujo, Jorge Thompson; Vostroknutova, Ekaterina; Brueckner, Markus; Clavijo, Mateo; Wacker, Konstantin M.
Beyond Commodities shows that Latin America and the Caribbean’s growth performance over the last decade cannot be reduced to the commodity boom: growth-promoting reforms that strengthened financial development, increased trade openness and improved infrastructure development also played a significant role and can continue doing so. Based on the econometric analysis of panel data from the 1970-2010 period for 126 countries, the study shows that, while the commodity boom facilitated growth in most of the region, it did not determine it. Domestic pro-growth policies and the maintenance of a sound macro-fiscal framework played a central role in explaining the region’s good performance during last decade. It also shows that new growth “stars” such as Panama, Peru, Colombia and the Dominican Republic emerged during this period. In addition, a benchmarking exercise reveals which policy gaps will lead to the highest potential growth-payoffs for each country and helps identify potential trade-offs. Finally, with the worsening of external conditions, the authors conclude that the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have no choice but to turn their attention to domestic drivers to keep growth going, as the structural reforms agenda remains unfinished.
Left Behind: Chronic Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean
(2016-07-20) Lucchetti, Leonardo; Vakis, Renos; Rigolini, Jamele
One out of every five Latin Americans—about 130 million people—have never known anything but poverty, subsisting on less than US$4 a day throughout their lives. These are the region's chronically poor, who have remained so despite unprecedented inroads against poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean since the turn of the century. This book takes a closer look at the region’s entrenched poor, who and where they are, and how existing policies need to change to effectively assist the poor. The book shows significant variations of rates of chronic poverty across and within countries. The book posits that refinements to the existing policy toolkit —as opposed to more programs—may come a long way in helping the remaining poor. These refinements include intensifying efforts to improve coordination between different social and economic programs, which can boost the income-generation process and deal with the intergenerational transmission of chronic poverty by investing in early childhood development. In addition, there is an urgent need to adapt programs to directly address the psychological toll of chronic poverty on people’s mindsets and aspirations, which currently undermines the effectiveness of existing policy efforts.
Does the Investment Climate Matter? Microeconomic Foundations of Growth in Latin America
(Washington, DC : The World Bank, 2009) Fajnzylber, Pablo; Guasch, J. Luis; López, J. Humberto
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.
Natural Resources : Neither Curse nor Destiny
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007) Lederman, Daniel; Maloney, William F.
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.