Front Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- About the Authors -- Abbreviations -- 1 Social Policy in Latin America and the Caribbean -- Progress and Persistent Challenges in the Social Sector -- Political Economy and Social Network Analysis: A Two-Pronged Approach to Social Policy Making --...

Front Cover -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- About the Authors -- Abbreviations -- Overview -- Setting the Scene -- Fiscal Rules and Economic Size -- Small Countries: Structural Features, Business Cycles, and Recent Economic Performance -- A Snapshot of Fiscal Rules -- Fiscal Rules...

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have made remarkable progress in improving the living conditions of their people since the 1990s. Poverty has declined by almost 50 percent, and average life expectancy has increased substantially, especially for children under the age of five. Most...

This book looks at both the potential and limits of policies to promote entrepreneurship as an important vehicle for social mobility in Latin America and the Caribbean. Who are the region's entrepreneurs? They tend to be middle-aged males with secondary and, often, tertiary education who...

This book is organized as follows: Introduction: Is Geography Destiny? Chapter 1 discuses The Channels of Influence of Geography: Latin America from an International Perspective. Chapter 2 discusses The Other Side of The Mountain: The Influence of Geography Within Countries. Chapter 3 discusses...

This book is organized as follows: Introduction; by William Easterly and Luis Serven Latin America's Infrastructure in The Era of Macroeconomic Crises; by Cesar Calderon, William Easterly, and Luis Serven The Output Cost of Latin America's Infrastructure Gap; by Cesar Calderon and Luis Serven...

Analyzing the experience of Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), "Lessons from NAFTA" aims to provide guidance to Latin American and Caribbean countries considering free trade agreements with the United States. The authors conclude that the treaty raised external trade...

This book looks at both the potential and limits of policies to promote entrepreneurship as an important vehicle for social mobility in Latin America and the Caribbean. Who are the region's entrepreneurs? They tend to be middle-aged males with secondary and, often, tertiary education who...

Since the 1990s, the financial systems in developing and developed countries have gained in soundness, depth, and diversity, prompted in part by a series of financial sector and macroeconomic reforms aimed at fostering a market-driven economy in which finance plays a central role. Latin America...