This paper examines the effect of employment protection regulation on gross job flows in a sample of developed and developing countries. By implementing a differences-in-differences test we lessen the potentially severe endogeneity and omitted variable problems associated with cross-country...

According to recent research, external factors and political governance considerations are key determinants of capital flows in Latin America. We postulate that corporate governance is a crucial determinant as well. We show that while the region is characterized by relatively low levels of...

We develop a model in which the elasticity of credit to exogenous shocks depends on creditor rights regulations. We show that an increase in creditor protection reduces the elasticity of credit supply to exogenous shocks, and hence the amplitude of the credit cycle. Using an extended set of a...

Recent literature has emphasized the importance of transport costs and infrastructure in explaining trade, access to markets, and increases in per capita income. For most Latin American countries, transport costs are a greater barrier to U.S. markets than import tariffs. The authors investigate...

This paper develops a model showing that inefficient legal protections disproportionately increase financial restrictions for creditors that have less wealth. Due to fixed monitoring costs in equilibrium, banks will not monitor small firms, and therefore these firms will adopt risky technologies...

In recent years, Latin American banking sectors have experienced an accelerated process of concentration and foreign penetration that has prompted diverse views regarding its implications for the competitive behavior of banks and for the financial stability of the system as a whole. Exploiting a...

Migration, while certainly not new, is on the increase all over the world. Indeed, the United Nations estimates that from 1990 to 2000 alone, the number of people who left their countries of origin rose by 14 percent, from 154 million to 175 million. The phenomenon is not only growing, but is...

La Revista Integración & Comercio del BID incluye artículos referidos a las distintas manifestaciones del proceso de integración en América Latina y el Caribe, a la integración hemisférica y, también, a los procesos con igual orientación que se llevan a cabo en otras partes del mundo....

La segunda edición de la serie Instituciones para la gente presenta a los bancos públicos de desarrollo de América Latina y el Caribe frente a un nuevo paradigma. A lo largo de los seis capítulos que lo componen, el estudio aborda el tema desde una perspectiva integral, analizando los...

A pesar de un crecimiento promedio del 2.7 %, entre el año 2000 y el año 2004, la tasa de desempleo promedio en Chile permaneció relativamente alta. La lenta respuesta del desempleo a la recuperación económica ha propiciado un intenso debate sobre las causas de este fenómeno. Este estudio...