Canuto, Otaviano

Person:
Canuto, Otaviano

Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, World Bank

Author Name Variants

Canuto dos Santos Filho, Otaviano

Fields of Specialization

Growth and Poverty, Debt, Trade, Gender, Public Sector Management and Governance, Macro Prudential and Monetary Policies

External Links

Growth and Crisis blog
EconoMonitor
Project Syndicate
VoxEU
Huffington Post

Departments

Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, World Bank

Last updated:February 1, 2023

Biography

Otaviano Canuto is Vice President and Head of the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) Network, a division of more than 700 economists and public sector specialists working on economic policy advice, technical assistance, and lending for reducing poverty in the World Bank’s client countries. He took up his position in May 2009, after serving as the Vice President for Countries at the Inter-American Development Bank since June 2007. Dr. Canuto provides strategic leadership and direction on economic policy formulation in the area of growth and poverty, debt, trade, gender, and public sector management and governance. He is involved in managing the Bank’s overall interactions with key partner institutions including the IMF and others. He has lectured and written widely on economic growth, financial crisis management, and regional development, with recent work on financial crisis and economic growth in Latin America. He speaks Portuguese, English, French and Spanish.

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Publication Search Results

Now showing1 - 10 of 37

The Curious Case of Brazil's Closedness to Trade
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-04) Fleischhaker, Cornelius; Canuto, Otaviano; Schellekens, Philip
Although Brazil has become one of the largest economies in the world, it remains among the most closed economies as measured by the share of exports and imports in gross domestic product. This feature cannot be explained simply by the size of Brazils economy. Rather, it is due to an economic structure reliant on domestic value chain integration as opposed to participation in global production networking. It also reflects more generally an export base that shows lack of dynamism. Opening up and moving toward integration into global value chains could produce efficiency gains and help Brazil address its productivity and competitiveness challenges.
Access to Finance, Product Innovation and Middle-Income Traps
(Elsevier, 2017-06) Agénor, Pierre-Richard; Canuto, Otaviano
Interactions between access to finance, product innovation, and labor supply are studied in a two-period overlapping generations model with an endogenous skill distribution and financial market imperfections. In the model lack of access to finance (induced by high monitoring costs) has an adverse effect on innovation activity not only directly but also indirectly, because too few individuals may choose to invest in skills. If monitoring costs fall with the number of successful projects, multiple steady states may emerge, one of which defined as a middle-income trap, characterized by low wages in the design sector, a low share of the labor force engaged in innovation activity, and low growth. A sufficiently ambitious policy aimed at alleviating constraints on access to finance by innovators may allow a country to move away from such a trap by promoting the production of ideas and improving incentives to invest in skills.
Dealing with the Challenges of Macro Financial Linkages in Emerging Markets
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-10-11) Ghosh, Swati R.; Canuto, Otaviano; Canuto, Otaviano; Ghosh, Swati R.
The 2008 financial crisis has highlighted the challenges associated with global financial integration and emphasized the importance of macro financial linkages. In the financial sector, attention is being directed toward macro prudential regulations that are geared toward the stability of the financial system as a whole. The Third Basel Accord (Basel III) aims to dampen the pro-cyclicality of the financial sector and to reduce cross sectional systemic risks partly by introducing measures to address liquidity and issues of banks being too big to fail. In the macro arena, the facts that price stability was not sufficient to guarantee macroeconomic stability and that financial imbalances developed despite low inflation and small output gaps have highlighted the need for additional tools (macro prudential policies) to complement monetary policy in countercyclical management. Emerging markets face different conditions and have key structural features that can have a bearing on the relevance and efficacy of the measures. The chapters in this volume discuss the challenges of dealing with macro financial linkages and explore the policy toolkit available for dealing with systemic risks with particular reference to emerging markets. This report is organized as follows: chapter one is adapting macro prudential approaches to emerging and developing economies; chapter two is adapting micro prudential regulation for emerging markets; chapter three presents capital flow volatility and systemic risk in emerging markets: the policy toolkit; chapter four presents monetary policy and macro prudential regulation: whither emerging markets; chapter five deals with macro prudential policies to mitigate financial vulnerabilities in emerging markets; chapter six presents sailing through the global financial storm; and chapter seven presents operation of macro prudential policy measures.
The Impacts of Trade Facilitation Measures on International Trade Flows
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-07) de Sá Porto, Paulo C.; Canuto, Otaviano; Morini, Cristiano
This paper analyzes the impacts of selected trade facilitation measures on international trade flows. A gravity model is used to estimate four equations: a pooled cross-section model; a fixed-effects model; a random effects model; and a Poisson maximum likelihood estimator. The contribution of the paper is twofold. First, the analysis uses a recent data set, a panel that includes trade data from 2011 and 2012 for 72 countries. Second, to measure the impacts of trade facilitation measures, the analysis includes dummy variables for the presence of an authorized economic operator program, the existence of a single-window program in the countries in the sample, and the existence of a mutual recognition arrangement between pairs of countries in the sample. The results show that the presence of an authorized economic operator program and the existence of a single-window program will improve countries’ trade performance. By contrast, the existence of a mutual recognition arrangement will not necessarily improve countries’ trade performance. These results suggest that, in general, trade facilitation measures as a whole will help countries improve their trade performance.
Dealing with Dutch Disease
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-06) Brahmbhatt, Milan; Canuto, Otaviano; Vostroknutova, Ekaterina
This note looks at so-called Dutch disease, a phenomenon reflecting changes in the structure of production in the wake of a favorable shock (such as a large natural resource discovery, a rise in the international price of an exportable commodity, or the presence of sustained aid or capital inflows). Where the natural resources discovered are oil or minerals, a contraction or stagnation of manufacturing and agriculture could accompany the positive effects of the shock, according to the theory. The note considers channels through which such natural resource wealth can affect the economy. It also focuses on the development implications of Dutch disease, particularly the potential negative effects related to productivity dynamics and volatility; and concludes with a summary of possible policy responses, including the mix of fiscal, exchange rate, and structural reform policies.
Until Debt Do Us Part : Subnational Debt, Insolvency, and Markets
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-02-13) Liu, Lili; Canuto, Otaviano; Canuto, Otaviano; Liu, Lili
With decentralization and urbanization, the debts of state and local governments and of quasi-public agencies have grown in importance. Rapid urbanization in developing countries requires large-scale infrastructure financing to help absorb influxes of rural populations. Borrowing enables state and local governments to capture the benefits of major capital investments immediately and to finance infrastructure more equitably across multiple generations of service users. With debt comes the risk of insolvency. Subnational debt crises have reoccurred in both developed and developing countries. Restructuring debt and ensuring its sustainability confront moral hazard and fiscal incentives in a multilevel government system; individual subnational governments might free-ride common resources, and public officials at all levels might shift the cost of excessive borrowing to future generations. This book brings together the reform experiences of emerging economies and developed countries. Written by leading practitioners and experts in public finance in the context of multilevel government systems, the book examines the interaction of markets, regulators, subnational borrowers, creditors, national governments, taxpayers, ex-ante rules, and ex-post insolvency systems in the quest for subnational fiscal discipline. Such a quest is intertwined with a country’s historical, political, and economic context. The formal legal framework interacts with political reality to influence the dynamics of and incentives for reform. Often, the resolution of a subnational debt crisis unfolds in the context of macroeconomic stabilization and structural reforms. The book includes reforms that have not been covered by previous literature, such as those of China, Colombia, France, Hungary, Mexico, and South Africa. The book also presents a comprehensive review of how the United States developed its debt market for state and local local governments through a series of reforms that are path dependent, including the reforms and lessons learned following state defaults in the 1840s and the debates that shaped the enactment of Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code in 1937. Looking forward, pressures on subnational finance are likely to continue—from the fragility of global recovery, the potentially higher cost of capital, refinancing risks, and sovereign risks. This book is essential reading for anyone wanting to know the challenges and reform options in debt restructuring, insolvency frameworks, and public debt market development.
Avoiding Middle-Income Growth Traps
(2012-11) Agénor, Pierre-Richard; Canuto, Otaviano; Jelenic, Michael
Since the 1950s, rapid growth has allowed a significant number of countries to reach middle-income status; yet, very few have made the additional leap needed to become high-income economies. Rather, many developing countries have become caught in what has been called a middle-income trap, characterized by a sharp deceleration in growth and in the pace of productivity increases. Drawing on the findings of a recently released working paper (Agenor and Canuto 2012), as well as a growing body of research on growth slowdowns, this note provides an analytical characterization of 'middle-income traps' as stable, low-growth economic equilibrium where talent is misallocated and innovation stagnates. To counteract middle-income traps, there are a number of public policies that governments can pursue, such as improving access to advanced infrastructure, enhancing the protection of property rights, and reforming labor markets to reduce rigidities all implemented within a context where technological learning and research and development (R&D) are central to enhancing innovation. Such policies not only explain why some economies particularly in East Asia were able to avoid the middle-income trap, but are also instructive for other developing countries seeking to move up the income ladder and reach high-income status.
Ascent After Decline : Challenges of Growth
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-02) Leipziger, Danny M.; Canuto, Otaviano
This note examines one of the most fundamental questions to emerge from the Great Recession of 2007-9: how to regrow global economic growth going forward? Although all are painfully aware that it may be 2013 or 2014 before the global economy returns to normalcy, no one is sanguine about medium- to long-term growth prospects. For this reason, the challenging task of 'regrowing growth' will take center stage for politicians and policy makers alike. One point is clear: without a resurrection of strong economic growth in major economies, the likelihood of rapid economic development in poor developing countries is diminished. How various elements will affect growth prospects is less clear, but vitally important. In the terminology of Hausmann and Rodrik (2003), this is a process of discovery and we are in somewhat uncharted territory.
Middle-Income Growth Traps
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-09) Agénor, Pierre-Richard; Canuto, Otaviano
This paper studies the existence of middle-income growth traps in a two-period overlapping generations model of economic growth with two types of labor and endogenous occupational choices. It also distinguishes between "basic" and "advanced" infrastructure, with the latter promoting design activities, and accounts for a knowledge network externality associated with product diversification. Multiple steady-state equilibria may emerge, one of them taking the form of a low-growth trap characterized by low productivity growth and a misallocation of talent -- defined as a relatively low share of high-ability workers in design activities. Improved access to advanced infrastructure may help escape from that trap. The implications of other public policies, including the protection of property rights and labor market reforms, are also discussed.
Monetary Policy and Macroprudential Regulation : Whither Emerging Markets
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-01) Cavallari, Matheus; Canuto, Otaviano
Confidence in combining inflation-targeting-cum-flexible-exchange-rate regimes with isolated microprudential regulation as a means to guarantee both macroeconomic and financial stability has been shattered by the scale and synchronization of asset price booms and busts that preceded the current global financial crisis. This paper has a two-fold purpose. On the one hand, it explores the implications and challenges of acknowledging the need for coordination between monetary policies and macroprudential regulation. On the other, it points out specific challenges currently faced by central bankers in emerging economies, as they cope with policy and regulatory coordination in a context of debt overhang and unconventional monetary policies in advanced economies.