The global financial crisis is expected to have a negative impact on the Bolivian economy. Effects will transmit into the economy through lower export prices and quantities, reduced amount of remittances and depressed foreign direct investment (FDI) flows. These shocks will bring about deficits...

This paper uses firm level surveys from Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua to estimate the determinants of labor productivity. This study started out with the hypothesis that the adverse external business conditions that firms in poor Latin American countries face, may be an important...

After several decades of “state-capitalism” characterized by import substitution policies, Bolivia implemented in 1985 a New Economic Policy (NEP) following neo-liberal ideas of free trade, privatization, and liberalization of capital flows. It was hoped that the opening up of the economy...

This paper seeks to test to which extent geographical constraints can be blamed for Bolivia’s poor growth performance during the last three decades. Although geographical characteristics are too stable to explain the dramatic fluctuations in growth rates over time in Bolivia, there are at...

This paper investigates the impacts of regional integration processes on poverty in Bolivia. It first demonstrates that regional integration has stimulated a diversion of trade away from traditional US and EU markets towards countries of MERCOSUR and the Andean Community. At the same time, the...

The global financial crisis (GFC) has had a negative effect on the Bolivian economy. The outbreak of the GFC has caused a drop in export commodity prices such as mining and hydrocarbons, and a reduction in remittances. Bolivia however, was in a relatively good position to deal with the negative...

The global financial crisis is expected to have a negative impact on the Bolivian economy. Effects will transmit into the economy through lower export prices and quantities, reduced amount of remittances and depressed foreign direct investment (FDI) flows. These shocks will bring about deficits...

This paper discusses the implementation of the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative in Bolivia. It has been agreed in principle that the debt relief funds should be channeled to municipal governments in order to strengthen the ongoing decentralization process and to secure maximum...

Conventional banking practices do not easily accommodate the financial needs of poor persons. Group-lending, on the other hand, has found several advantages in the context of poor borrowers with no collateral to offer. An important advantage is that the bank’s losses due to unsuccessful...

After several decades of state-capitalism characterized by import substitution policies, Bolivia implemented in 1985 a New Economic Policy (NEP) following neo-liberal ideas of free trade, privatization, and liberalization of capital flows. It was hoped that the opening up of the economy would...