This document analyzes the effects of recent oil shocks on the economies of Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The general results are as follows. First, oil demand responded elastically to economic activity, and was almost perfectly inelastic to its...

The worsening degradation of natural resources urgently requires the adoption of more sustainable management practices. This need has led to growing interest and investment in monitoring systems for tracking the condition of natural resources. This study is concerned with the design of...

Costa Rican coffee farmers are almost fully exposed to world price variability. Yet, despite small farm sizes, specialization in coffee, and a marketing system that prolongs uncertainty and aggravates cash flow problems, this study finds that most farmers still manage their price risks...

Crime, violence, and insecurity are perceived as society’s biggest problems in contemporary Costa Rica. This degree of priority is especially remarkable because the country has always been considered the peaceful exception in the violent Central American region. In this paper I analyze four...

We have compared three cases of payments for water-related environmental services (PES) in Central America, in terms of socioeconomic background, opportunity costs of forest conservation and stakeholders’ perceptions on the conditions of water resources and other issues. We found that, in...

In theory, the characteristics, values and principles of cooperative enterprises give them great potential in terms of their business and social development. However, in practice we actually find situations that stand in the way of their possibilities; for example, lack of involvement on the...

Historically low prices in the conventional coffee market have caused financial and social hardship among coffee farmers. In the face of this crisis, specialty markets have attracted the attention of the international donor community. These market segments have shown consistent growth over the...

A steep decline in coffee prices at the producer level led to considerable pressure for farmers in Costa Rica and producer countries all over the world. One possible reaction was moving to specialty markets, where price pressure was perceived to be lower. We use original survey data from 2002/03...

The 2003 Energy review,contains information about the 2003 energy situation of each of our member countries, regional data, as well as economic and social indicators corrected and extended through historical series. It presents and innovative structure for analysis that allows the reader to...

El uso de instrumentos de gestión ambiental se ha introducido paulatinamente en la forma de hacer negocios de las empresas. Sea por presión externa o por iniciativa local, la implementación de este tipo de prácticas ha venido en aumento y con ello más firmas han visualizado a través de...