We estimate real estate's exposure in Chile to five weather risks, including labor productivity loss due to heat, fires, floods, drought coastal deterioration as measured by the Chilean Climatic Risk Atlas (ARCLIM) and Climate Impact Explorer (CIE) sources. According to our joint ARCLIM-CIE...

This paper aims to assess the extent to which cash transfers, direct taxes, and social contributions help to reduce gender income inequalities in seven Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. We apply microsimulation techniques to household...

This paper investigates the effects of competition laws and regulations on manufacturing firms productivity in Latin American countries (LACs), addressing a gap in existing research. Leveraging firm-level panel data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys across 14 LAC economies and competition...

El Banco Mundial ha trabajado para fortalecer los registros sociales en ALC y a nivel mundial Décadas. La presente nota técnica tiene por objeto contribuir a reducir la la falta de conocimientos sobre el estado de la cuestión y los retos de la registros sociales en ALC, identificar dónde se...

This paper aims to assess the extent to which cash transfers, direct taxes, and social contributions help to reduce gender income inequalities in seven Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. We apply microsimulation techniques to household...

MagicIAn is a software development SME based in Portugal, specialised in artificial intelligence for the automatic conversion of text to 3D video for audiovisual content. The company owns the figurative trade mark MagicIAn, registered in Europe, USA and Korea. Recently MagicIAn has been...

Gauntlet, a Greek SME with over 15 years of experience in Central America, specializes in hygiene products like disposable gloves for the healthcare industry, with a solid presence in countries such as Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Paraguay, expanded into Brazil in 2016, initially focusing on their...

Gauntlet, a Greek SME with over 15 years of experience in Central America, specializes in hygiene products like disposable gloves for the healthcare industry, with a solid presence in countries such as Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Paraguay, expanded into Brazil in 2016, initially focusing on their...

MagicIAn is a software development SME based in Portugal, specialised in artificial intelligence for the automatic conversion of text to 3D video for audiovisual content. The company owns the figurative trade mark MagicIAn, registered in Europe, USA and Korea. Recently MagicIAn has been...

Research about trade liberalization's impact on markups has focused on manufacturing due to data availability considerations. How do these effects vary across sectors? Which industries become more and less competitive as trade barriers are eliminated? We leverage firm-level tax records from the...

This study examines the dynamic interconnectedness of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) among Latin American economies - Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico - and significant international regions, including the United States, Europe, and Japan, as well as a global EPU index. Using a...

In Colombia, women represent 65% of the teacher workforce but only 34% of school principals, reflecting a significant gender gap in leadership. This study examines two centralized principal selection processes implemented by Colombias National Civil Service Commission: the 2016 nationwide...

The functioning of the banking sector is key for economic growth. In this paper, we first gather banks' balance sheet monthly regulatory information in a consistent manner for seven Latin American countries. Second, we estimate lending markups and deposits markdowns in each country over time....

Wavelet coherence analysis (WCA) examines the dynamic interactions between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico and key external variables, using monthly data from 2010 to 2022. The findings reveal the following: (i) medium-term co-movements (4-16 months)...

We study the impact of climate-related news on asset prices in eight Latin American countries. We use both newspapers and official announcements to construct daily, country-specific indices via textual analysis, reflecting media coverage of transition risks, climate opportunities, regulatory...

Most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are implementing fast payment systems (FPS), often with the goal of enhancing access to and use of affordable financial services. FPS offer immediate transfer of funds on a 24x7 basis between end users. This paper assesses how FPS can promote...

Widening income disparities, higher corruption and larger informality in many emerging market and developing economies (EMDE) including Latin America, all with pressing and mounting fiscal problems, have rekindled interest in the empirical analysis of the key factors determining the occurrence...

Over the last forty years, Latin American countries (LACs) have experienced a variety of specialization trajectories, while sharing a common pattern of weak and unstable growth. Given the accelerated premature deindustrialization path and the loss of productive capacity, manufacturing has...

A study conducted by the European Parliamentary Research Service (2023) notes that the European Union's (EU) relations with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries are being affected by changes in global power, economic uncertainty, and security threats. The current working paper...

This study examines the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) on employment, wages, and inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The paper identifies tasks and occupations most exposed to AI using comprehensive individual-level data alongside AI exposure indices. Unlike...

The pros and cons of CBDCs have been examined in numerous writings but much less research has focused on specific economies or regions. This paper attempts to fill that gap for the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) economies. It first examines the views of central banks in the region toward...

We examine gender gaps in early childhood cognitive and social-behavioral skills across several Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. Our study complements previous research focused on older children by analyzing the preschool period, a critical stage for lifelong human capital...

This study examines school-to-work transitions (STWTs) in Chile and Uruguay, focusing on education-occupation linkages. For the first time, we apply the linkage strength approach to Latin American countries, using cross-sectional household survey data. Since STWT research is highly segregated...

This study empirically investigates the impact of Inflation Targeting (IT) on nominal interest rates over the past 40 years, focusing on 10 advanced and emerging economies. By using a Binary Regime Model embedded within a Backward-Looking Taylor, our findings confirm that IT adoption has...

Competition is a core element of economic growth, but empirical evidence on how competition affects productivity is often limited. Competition and Productivity Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean presents new empirical research that shows how competition policy in the region has...

Over the last forty years, Latin American countries (LACs) have experienced a variety of specialization trajectories, while sharing a common pattern of weak and unstable growth. Given the accelerated premature deindustrialization path and the loss of productive capacity, manufacturing has...

In Colombia, women represent 65% of the teacher workforce but only 34% of school principals, reflecting a significant gender gap in leadership. This study examines two centralized principal selection processes implemented by Colombias National Civil Service Commission: the 2016 nationwide...

Research about trade liberalization's impact on markups has focused on manufacturing due to data availability considerations. How do these effects vary across sectors? Which industries become more and less competitive as trade barriers are eliminated? We leverage firm-level tax records from the...

The functioning of the banking sector is key for economic growth. In this paper, we first gather banks' balance sheet monthly regulatory information in a consistent manner for seven Latin American countries. Second, we estimate lending markups and deposits markdowns in each country over time....

Cash benefit programmes have increasingly emphasised conditionality and "demanding" forms of activation in recent decades. Behavioural requirements are now a key element in reforms of unemployment benefits (UB) and related out-of-work benefits in high-income OECD countries, and they are the...

Climate change is projected to increase the frequency and intensity of extremely hot days. We use a panel regression framework at the sub-national (i.e., region) level to identify the effect of extreme heat on economic growth in Latin America accounting for acclimation to the season and to the...

Using a multilevel analysis and the new Harmonized Latin American Innovation Surveys Database (or LAIS database) augmented with indicators from the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Business Owners (SBO) and the World Banks World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS), this paper presents estimates of...

Substantial amounts of British capital flowed to Latin America during the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Companies financed by this capital were typically headquartered in the UK, but operated thousands of miles away. This paper asks how this separation between...

In this paper, we discuss several aspects related to innovation and entrepreneurship in Latin America (LATAM). First, we document how LATAM lags behing high-income economies using various innovation indicators and how heterogeneity is a relevant issue for the region. Then, we review the main...