The subject of labor unions in Latin America provokes a variety of diverse and strongly held views. While some see unions as a way to protect workers' rights and ensure an equitable distribution of income, others see unions as a drain of productivity or an intrusion of politics into the...

Traditionally, the concept of quality of life has been viewed through objective indicators. Beyond Facts looks at quality of life through a new lens, namely, the perceptions of millions of Latin Americans. Using an enhanced version of the recently created Gallup World Poll that incorporates...

Esta obra es una publicación elaborada por el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo para el diálogo de políticas con las autoridades de la República Dominicana. El objetivo de este trabajo consiste en contribuir a la profundización del análisis de algunos de los temas que integran la agenda...

Veto player theory argues that a higher number of veto players lowers the likelihood of change; in turn, policies that do not change help to sustain commitments but may prevent adaptation to changing circumstances. This paper challenges that claim of veto player theory by arguing that policy...

The understanding of the economic effect of formal institutional rules has progressed substantially in recent decades. These formal analyses have tended to take for granted that institutional arenas such as Congress are the places where decision-making takes place. That is a good approximation...

Este informe presenta el resultado de un estudio de la organización de los servicios de educación en Venezuela, en el marco de un estudio comparativo que comprende estudios de propósito similar en varios países de América Latina. El marco de referencia más general del estudio es el de la...

This paper develops a framework for analyzing different policymaking styles, their causes and their consequences in Latin America, finding that lower institutionalization and greater use of alternative political technologies (APTs) are more likely the lower the cost of using these technologies,...

En la presentación de este trabajo se optado por comenzar con la fuente de conocimiento más obvia, las estadísticas policiales. En la primera parte se analizaron las dificultades de trabajar con ellas y el uso que se ha hecho. En la segunda parte, se analizan los datos que proporciona esta...

Following the research strategy put in practice in the project behind Stein et al. (2008), Policymaking in Latin America: How Politics Shapes Policies, this project will be a collective and interactive process among various country teams and the coordinators. We will build a number of country...

The capacity to sustain policies over time and the capacity to adjust policies in the face of changing circumstances are two desirable properties of policymaking systems. The veto player approach has suggested that polities with more veto players will have the capacity to sustain policies at the...