This policy brief is intended to serve as the basis for the discussion of the Ministers of Finance on action needed to promote physical infrastructure and reduce intra-regional trade costs, in the context of the Third Meeting of the Finance Ministers of the Americas and the Caribbean held in...

This paper examines the impact of trade policy on production specialization patterns in ten Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela) over the period 1990-2001, and explicitly assesses the potential implications of a...

There is a strong relationship between economic instruments and the polluter-pays principle. That principle involves allocating costs of waste management services, resource consumption, and pollution control to consumers and producers. Inherent in this principle, the polluter bears all internal...

The search for solutions to urban and social problems prompted by informal settlements is gaining importance in the development agenda of most large cities in Latin America. Nearly 60 percent of the population lives in informal, often centrally located settlements.

This report explores the dynamic between financial institutions and remittance senders, identifying both opportunities and obstacles that could determine whether or not it will achieve its promises of greater economic development in recipient countries and deeper hemispheric integration.

The cities offer Latin America and the Caribbean their best opportunity for economic and social development. Aside from concentrating on more than two thirds of the population, it is estimated that urban activities will generate more than 75 percent of the expected growth of the Gross Domestic...

The countries in Mesoamerica have achieved major advances in the field of environmental management over the last ten years. Both Mexico and the Central American nations have put a whole series of legal, institutional, and operating changes in place with regard to environmental management, both...

The conditions for trade policy formulation have changed significantly in many, if not all, countries over the past decade. The scope of trade policy has increased. Trade policy interrelates more directly with other policies that were previously perceived to belong to the sphere of exclusive...

Second Meeting of the Finance Ministers of the Americas and the Caribbean