Many developing countries have adopted the market approach for expanding the supply of child care, but little is known about the economic behavior of independent providers. This paper draws on uniquely rich administrative data on child care centers and their inputs from São Paulo to examine the...

This study consists of two parts: I. ) Does Independence Matter? The Case of the Colombian Central Bank, andII. ) Does Independence Improve Performance? The Colombian Superintendency of Banks. Why has Colombia been a case of low output variability and moderate-to-high inflation? This paper...

The dynamic commons problem arises when different groups in society engage in intense redistributive activity as a result of an export boom. This paper analyzes the role that institutions play in ameliorating that problem in the case of coffee and oil in Colombia. The paper presents a model that...

In the last three decades, gross national saving in the UK has fluctuated widely. Swings in components of national savings have of course been even more marked, since there are sound economic reasons to expect changes in one component (e. g. , private saving) to be at least partially offset by...

This paper provides an interpretation of the evolution of Spanish private and national savings over the period 1960-1995. During these 35 years private and national saving rates oscillated widely from a very high level in the 1960s to historical minima in the early and mid-1980s to a strong...

The general objective of this study is to provide an evaluation of how the institutions linked to Mexico`s potable water sector interact with the legislative, regulatory, and economic process of the sector. In particular, the study examines how prior or current institutional changes in the...

This paper analyzes the macroeconomic impact of China's 2009-2010 fiscal stimulus package by simulating a dynamic general equilibrium multi-country model of the world economy, showing that the effects on China's economic activity are sizeable: absent fiscal stimulus China's GDP would be 2. 6 and...

Latin America spends large amounts of resources on social services, yet its life expectancy and education levels are low compared to other regions with similar levels of income. A key reason is the inherent difficulty of making social services produce efficiently in reponse to demands and needs

This paper analyzes gender earnings gaps in Barbados and Jamaica, using a matching comparisons approach. In both countries, as in most of the Caribbean region, females' educational achievement is higher than that of males. Nonetheless, males' earnings surpass those of their female peers....