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...

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...

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...

This paper presents evidence on the relationship between economic shocks to relative male wages and changes in household consumption in Mexico during the 1990s, which is a period characterized by high volatility. In addition to performing this type of analysis for Mexico for the first time, the...

Following the 1994 financial crisis, the rate of saving of the Mexican economy fell from 21.7 percent to 19.8 percent of GDP. The decline was associated with a reduction in the rate of external saving from 6.9 to 0.5 percent between 1994 and 1995. The overall reduction was not more dramatic...

East Asia and Latin America have diverged in several dimensions in the past three decades. This paper compares household saving behavior in two countries in each region (Mexico, Peru, Thailand and Taiwan). We make four contributions. First, we provide the first comparisons of savings in these...

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...

¿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 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...

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....