This semiannual report examines the short and medium-term challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) as the external factors that were instrumental in the region’s recent performance recede. In particular, we address the role of the exchange rate as a counter-cyclical policy tool to...

En este documento estudiamos la evolución de la globalización comercial en América Latina y Asia durante los últimos 25 años y cuantificamos su impacto económico. Basándonos en modelos de gravedad estructural, estimamos un proxy de la globalización del comercio que captura la facilidad...

Foreword; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; 1. Overview; 2. Entrepreneurship, Entry, and the Life Cycle of Firms in Latin America and the Caribbean: Are All Forms of Firm Creation Entrepreneurial?; 3. Entrepreneurship by Incumbent Firms: What Explains the Innovation Gap?; 4. Export...

In a clear break from its past, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), particularly South America, experienced a growth spurt with equity during the first decade of the 21st century. One policy area that has moved back to center stage is regional integration. Indeed, since at least the 1960s,...

This book proposes a renewal of 'Open Regionalism' in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) aimed at achieving the region's goals of high growth with stability. The LAC region experienced a growth spurt with equity during the first decade of the 21st Century. It is well understood that an...

This semiannual report ??? a product of the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean Region of the World Bank ??? examines the short and medium-term challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) as the external factors that were instrumental in the region???s...

Labor markets in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are characterized by high levels of informality and relatively rigid regulation. This paper shows that these two features are related and together make the speed of adjustment of employment to shocks slower, especially when regulations are...

The April 2015 LAC Semiannual Report covers the short-term prospects and provides an analysis of the external factors affecting the region's economic performance. The first chapter expands on LAC's economic outlook paying special attention to the global context and its effect on LAC's economic...

This book proposes a renewal of 'Open Regionalism' in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) aimed at achieving the region's goals of high growth with stability. The LAC region experienced a growth spurt with equity during the first decade of the 21st Century. It is well understood that an...

This paper estimates the macroeconomic effects of structural reforms in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) using the dataset constructed by Alesina and others (2020). We find that large changes in the reform index have positive effects on GDP and employment that reach 2 percent after 5 years....