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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in driving innovation, productivity, and economic growth, with universities emerging as key actors within entrepreneurial ecosystems. This study seeks to expand the understanding on the role of Latin American universities on entrepreneurial ecosystems by...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

International trade increases aggregate welfare but also creates winners and losers, which makes free trade a contentious political issue. Recent research has established that individuals are more sensitive to anti-trade information about the prospect of employment loss than to pro-trade...

This paper examines the impact of safeguard import tariffs on market diversity in Ecuador from 2015 to 2017. Using firm-level data, we estimate the effects of tariffs on revenue and market shares in the Manufacturing and Wholesale & Retail (W&R) sectors with a Quantile Treatment Effect on the...

Trade flows are the result of the interaction between buyers and sellers. Understanding how these firm-to-firm relationships form, survive, and evolve over time helps identify how countries can improve their export outcomes. Using a very granular dataset of United States import transactions from...

This paper explores how female political leaders impact environmental outcomes and climate change policy actions using data from mixed-gender mayoral races in Brazil. We rely on a Regression Discontinuity design that compares municipalities where women narrowly won the election with those where...

This paper studies concentration and market power in Chile and Colombia and the role that globalization and automation have had in shaping these two phenomena. Using panels of firm surveys, we compute firm-level markups and industry-level concentration measures. Applying a difference in...

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...

ADVANCE COPY: This chapter is an advance excerpt from the upcoming World Bank report "Organized Crime and Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean" which will be released on Monday, April 28th, 2025