En Latinoamérica, el crimen y la violencia acaparan los titulares de los periódicos, las palabras de los políticos y las angustias de los ciudadanos. En esta región, 140.000 personas son asesinadas cada año y una de cada tres familias es víctima de una agresión criminal en el mismo lapso....

This book breaks away from the exclusively macroeconomic focus of development studies to bring the spotlight to the place where decisions are made: households. Complementing this microeconomic view with an aggregate approach, this volume uncovers clues to declining fertility, skyrocketing female...

Social exclusion is closely linked with many economic problems in Latin America, as it prevents people from reaching their full productive potential -in turn constraining growth and revenues- and makes them more likely to incur public health and social service costs. Who's In and Who's Out...

This book examines poverty as a structural problem caused by the way economic systems operate. It poses a simple question: Why do poor people earn less? Case studies in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru find the poor caught in a vicious circle. They lack sufficient access to...

¿Es posible mejorar la calidad de la educación en América Latina y el Caribe? Según los expertos autores de estas páginas, hay soluciones pero no atajos: se trata de comenzar de cero y de apuntalar los aprendizajes sobre todo en los niveles preescolar y primario. Este volumen ofrece una...

Latin American experts demonstrate how market-friendly measures in key policy areas can promote greater equity and efficiency. By identifying win-win strategies, the authors challenge the conventional wisdom that there is always a tradeoff between these two objectives. This volume shows how...

This book uses case studies and cross-regional analyses to examine changes in basic health services, challenges for social health insurance, improvements in the equity and efficacy of health services, and changes in public and private sector roles in health care delivery in Latin America and...

Competing in the world economy does not automatically boost a nation's productivity and restructure its economy. Such progress requires mobilizing capital, employment, technology and knowledge. Opportunities beyond the business realm must be fully exploited to the benfit of society as a whole....

Latin America in the 1990s remains the most unequal region in the world in terms of income distribution. Yet because of its changing demographics -declining fertility rates and large number of young people entering the workforce- the region now has a unique window of opportunity to reduce the...

This report moves beyond the conventional scope of economics to examine three entrenched structural factors -demography, geography and institutions- that are closely connected to economic and social development. Historical in nature and slow to evolve, these variables are not always in the...