Publication:
Territorial Development in Argentina: Diagnosing Key Bottlenecks as the First Step Toward Effective Policy

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (14.2 MB)
1,414 downloads
English Summary (2.72 MB)
475 downloads
Other Files
Spanish PDF (16.03 MB)
443 downloads
Spanish Overview (3.19 MB)
192 downloads
Published
2020
ISSN
Date
2020-07-15
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Argentina’s population and economic activity is highly concentrated in few places, similar to global trends. But unlike countries like South Korea, the concentration of economic activity has not been balanced by successful efforts to improve living standards across the country. How can the government reduce development gaps across the national territory while at the same time supporting growth opportunities within a context of national fiscal deficit? Using a territorial development lens that allows the identification of challenges and opportunities at the sub-national level, this report provides a framework and diagnostics to understand Argentina through three dimensions of scale, specialization, and convergence. Chapter 1 explains the territorial development framework used for the analysis. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the economic geography of Argentina and the challenges the country faces along these three dimensions. Chapter 3 presents a closer look at two provinces, Salta and Jujuy, and puts them under the same lens. Chapter 4 summarizes the key messages of the report, providing benchmarking to compare Argentina to other countries around the world in scale, specialization, and convergence.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2020. Territorial Development in Argentina: Diagnosing Key Bottlenecks as the First Step Toward Effective Policy. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34116 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Territorial Development in Argentina
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020) World Bank
    The National Constitution puts forward an ambitious goal for the Federal Government: a balanced territorial development; this promise has yet to be fulfilled. Within a cooperative federalism structure - where power-sharing does not always lead to clear separation of responsibilities between federal and provincial governments - Argentina struggles with overlaps in responsibilities and lack of defined roles across different government levels, which makes it difficult to coordinate policies to close territorial development gaps.
  • Publication
    Territorial Development Policy : A Practitioner's Guide
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-05-05) Lall, Somik V.
    Policymakers in developing countries are increasingly recognizing the necessity of developing strategies and identifying specific investment programs to reduce spatial differences in living standards within their national territories. Choosing among alternate policy instruments to support spatial convergence is not straightforward. Should the focus be social policies that support human development in lagging regions and promote migration to leading regions? Or infrastructure policies that connect lagging regions with markets in leading ones? Or investment and regulatory policies to create new clusters of economic activity in regions not favored by the market? The 2009 World Development Report (WDR) provides a policy framework for integrating lagging and leading areas within countries, prioritizing and sequencing policy instruments based on the severity of the territorial integration challenge. To operationalize the WDR's policy priorities, this report discusses analytic tools to measure the magnitude of regional disparities and identify where and in what activities specific policies and investments can be most effective. It also highlights potential economic and social tradeoffs of alternative policy instruments for pursuing spatial equity. Country case studies are provided to illustrate how these tools either inform a specific policy debate on territorial development or have been directly used to guide ongoing policy discussions between the Bank and counterparts in national and sub national governments.
  • Publication
    Romania - Functional Review : Regional Development and Tourism
    (Washington, DC, 2011-06) World Bank
    The Functional Review of the Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism (MRDT FR) assesses the key functional strengths and weakness of MRDT with respect to its mandate and recommends actions that can help strengthen its efficiency and effectiveness. The review covers the main general directorates (DGs) and departments of MRDT, as well as related institutions such as URBAN-INCERC and the National Housing Agency. The report has six main chapters in addition to the executive summary: Introduction, Overview of MRDT, Policy Management, Operational Management, Budget and Financial Management, and Public Procurement.
  • Publication
    Long-Term Policy Options for the Palestinian Economy
    (Washington, DC, 2002-07) World Bank
    In light of deteriorating economic relations between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza, and suspended peace negotiations, it is timely at this juncture between the lapsed Interim Period and a final status agreement to examine past experience with a view to assessing the policy choices facing Palestinian policymakers in the future. The post-Oslo experience points to failed economic normalization and income convergence with Israel. Several reasons for these failures have been advanced, including poor implementation of the Paris Protocol, as well as fundamental flaws inherent to the protocol itself. The experience under the Paris Protocol illustrates the degree to which political and economic factors are intertwined; both types of factors need to be addressed in a comprehensive framework. The fact that political pressures from Israeli security concerns introduced severe economic hardship on the Palestinians and threatened newly-gained Palestinian autonomy contributed to the unraveling of the interim agreement. The economic environment of uncertainty, risk, costly transactions, and inadequate legal, regulatory and financial institutions hampered private sector development and especially Palestinian-Israeli partnerships and business networks at the firm level, effectively weakening an important tie that holds civil society together. These factors further undermined Palestinian economic growth, laying the foundation for political crisis and civil conflict. Given the problems associated with the existing policy framework, this analysis examines alternative policy options that will face Palestinian policymakers in the event of a peace agreement with Israel. These future policy choices relate to trade, labor mobility to Israel, and the business environment and associated public-private interactions. In a first stage, each policy area is analyzed separately, that is, in a partial equilibrium context independent of the others without accounting for broader intersectoral relationships. In a second stage, the analysis brings together these separate areas into an integrated framework. A range of assumptions vis-e-vis the nature of borders between West Bank and Gaza and Israel is delineated, tying together the trade, labor and private sector development considerations to measure their combined impact on growth prospects. The analysis develops scenarios to reflect different combinations of future policy options linked to the nature of borders with Israel. This simulation exercise illustrates the relative merits of each scenario, the associated trade-offs, and the prospects for economic growth in the event of a peace agreement and a completion of final status negotiations.
  • Publication
    Assessment of Development Needs of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons in Eastern Sudan
    (Washington, DC, 2011-02-11) World Bank
    East Sudan has received a continuous influx of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees over the last forty years. Mass influxes were witnessed during years when the region experienced natural catastrophes as droughts and floods, or an escalation of tensions and conflict in neighboring countries, mainly Eritrea and Ethiopia. Presently there is still a steady but smaller in numbers influx of refugees, mostly from Eritrea, but with an apparent change in their social composition and expectations. Present day internal population movements relate to more conventional forms of migration within Sudan, that is, households in search of work and economic opportunities. Still, the situation of the large number of IDPs that moved to the area over 15 years ago and are living in camps is precarious and needs urgent attention. Presently there are not the basic conditions required to provide a durable solution to the refugees in a protracted situation in eastern Sudan. To a large extent that also applies to IDPs with long permanence in camps; there are not conditions to achieve self-reliance by most of the displaced population given the situation of their locations in eastern Sudan in terms of natural environment and its capacity to support sustainable agriculture and other urban and rural economic activities. Within the overall mission of the World Bank, its strategic objective in contributing towards the durable solution of forced displacement situations is to bring the affected countries and displaced population back to the path of peace and development, enabling the application of pro-poor policies and fostering economic growth. Under these conditions, the World Bank will be in a better position to engage the affected countries through its regular operations.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

No results found.