The report provides a preliminary assessment of DR-CAFTA (the Dominican Republic and Central American Free trade Agreement), with particular attention to three key themes: (1) expected trade and non-trade benefits, (2) actions that Central American countries need to pursue to capitalize...

Informality: exit and exclusion analyzes informality in Latin America, exploring root causes and reasons for and implications of its growth. The authors use two distinct but complementary lenses: informality driven by exclusion from state benefits or the circuits of the modern economy, and...

This paper argues that climate change poses two distinct, if related, sets of challenges for poor rural households: challenges related to the increasing frequency and severity of weather shocks and challenges related to long-term shifts in temperature, rainfall patterns, water availability, and...

This paper argues that climate change poses two distinct, if related, sets of challenges for poor rural households: challenges related to the increasing frequency and severity of weather shocks and challenges related to long-term shifts in temperature, rainfall patterns, water availability, and...

This contribution documents the effect of the global financial crisis on women's off-farm employment in China's rural labor force. It begins by comparing the difference between the actual off-farm employment rate and the off-farm employment rate under the assumption of “business as usual”...

This paper analyzes the simultaneous impacts and interplay of exports and technology adoption on the demand for different types of skills and aggregate labor market indicators in Indonesia over a period characterized by a commodity boom (2005-10) and a period of declining exports (2011-15). The...

Africa's precise growth and poverty reduction was the result of increased external resources, a buoyant global economy and crucially improved economic policies. Although it is still the world's poorest region, the prospects for resuming growth are good. Additional resources and further policy...

Chinas economic growth is gradually slowing as the structural transformation of the economy continues. Output grew by 7.7 percent in 2013, matching its 2012 growth rate and exceeding the governments 7.5 percent indicative target. In recent months economic activity, including industrial...

Costa Rica is well-known for its socio-economic achievements with low levels of poverty and inequality by Latin American standards. It also performs well in health, access to improved water supplies, suitable housing and other basic services, including electricity and sanitation, relative to...

This paper argues that climate change poses two distinct, if related, sets of challenges for poor rural households: challenges related to the increasing frequency and severity of weather shocks and challenges related to long-term shifts in temperature, rainfall patterns, water availability, and...