"The author studies annuity rates in Chile and relates them with industry competition. He finds (1) that annuity insurance companies paying higher broker commissions paid lower annuity rates; and (2) a structural break of the long-run elasticity of annuity rates to the risk-free rate in 2001....

Regulating infrastructure utilities can be extremely complex and fraught with risks of political interference and capture by interest groups, especially in countries with little tradition of politically independent government agencies. To deal with these challenges, policymakers and regulators...

"Following Chile's pension reform in 1981, a wave of multi-pillar pension reforms took place in Latin America (LAC). Their implementation has revealed new policy challenges. To shed light on these issues, this paper reviews the structure and performance of mandatory DC pillars in LAC. The review...

"Previous work has shown that firms in low and middle-income countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia that feel greater pressure to innovate from their competitors are more likely to introduce new products and services than firms that do not feel pressure (Carlin and others 2001; World Bank...

Competition in domestic markets is critical to ensure increased international competitiveness. Firms facing more intense competitive pressures are more likely to introduce new products and upgrade existing product lines. Firms usually acquire many of their inputs (such as transportation, energy,...

Mauritius is a well known successful development story. The country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita rose from 38 percent below the world average in 1981 to 16 percent above the average by 2008. Such a performance is not the fruit of luck or use of natural advantages as it was...