Despite the frequency of official debt restructurings, little systematic evidence has been produced on their characteristics and implications. Using a dataset covering more than 400 Paris Club agreements, this paper aims to fill that gap. It provides a comprehensive description of the evolving...

Many poor households in developing countries are liquidity-constrained. As a result, they may under-invest in the human capital of their children. We provide new evidence on the long-term (10-year) effects of cash transfers using data from Ecuador. Our analysis is based on two separate sources...

Muchos hogares pobres en los países en desarrollo enfrentan problemas de liquidez. Como resultado, es probable que inviertan menos de lo necesario en el capital humano de sus niños. Utilizando datos de Ecuador, proporcionamos nueva evidencia sobre los efectos de largo plazo (10 años) de las...

SVAR models that include a single world price (such as the terms-of-trade) predict that world shocks explain a small fraction of movements in domestic output (typically less than 10 percent). This paper presents an empirical framework in which multiple commodity prices transmit world...

This paper examines a panel (1994-2014) of Chilean non-financial firms, both publicly listed and private, which was built to analyze the determinants of the use of foreign currency debt and their potential consequences for firm investment and profitability. It is found that foreign assets and...

Este estudio presenta evidencia empírica sobre los determinantes de la adopción de certificaciones internacionales de calidad (ISO) y sus efectos sobre el desempeño de las empresas argentinas en los años 2006 y 2010. Los resultados indican que las firmas exportadoras, extranjeras y de mayor...

The effects of capital requirements on risk-taking and welfare are studied in a stochastic overlapping generations model of endogenous growth with banking, limited liability, and government guarantees. Capital producers face a choice between a safe technology and a risky (but socially...

Using data from the World Bank's Enterprise Survey, this paper explores the determinants of firms' training decisions in Latin America and the Caribbean. The share of production for the export market and the size of the firm are key factors; training programs are not prevalent in all sectors. In...

This paper characterizes household spending in education using microdata from income and expenditure surveys for 12 Latin American and Caribbean countries and the United States. Bahamas, Chile and Mexico have the highest household spending in education while Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay have the...

This paper explores families' investment in skills development through education in a high-inequality, low-education quality country such as Mexico, comparing it to a lower-inequality, higher-quality education country such as the United States. The paper uses a series of high-quality Household...