This paper revisits the historical roots of Latin America's disappointing growth using a novel macro and trade-based growth decomposition and a simple model of industrialization in a commodities-exporting country with a large informal sector. The approach suggests the need to better qualify two...

A widely shared view holds that there is no policy-exploitable causal connection from saving to growth because domestic saving is fully endogenous, optimally determined, or substitutable by foreign saving. Yet, abandoning these assumptions, which are questionable in the real world of frictions,...

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 report, produced by the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) of the World Bank, examines LAC’s challenges as the global economy settles to an equilibrium with lower growth and lower commodity prices. Chapter 1 gives an overview of the world economy and...

This semiannual report – produced by the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) of the World Bank – analyzes the economic and financial performance of LAC in light of the commodity price cycle. Chapter 1 covers short-term prospects, identifies the external...

Chapter 1 of the report covers the short-term prospects and provides an analysis of the external factors affecting the region's economic slowdown. The focus is on the adjustment challenges faced by those Latin American countries experiencing a major adverse terms of trade shock, which comes...

This paper reviews from an international perspective the challenges faced by Cuba in unifying its exchange rate and compares various options to meet this objective. It argues in favor of a fast unification approach but cushioned during a pre-announced transition period by lump-sum taxes and...

This paper reviews from an international perspective the challenges faced by Cuba in unifying its exchange rate and compares various options to meet this objective. It argues in favor of a fast unification approach but cushioned during a transition period by lump-sum taxes and subsidies applied...

This paper explores post-Lehman macroprudential regulation by interacting two types of market failures (principal-agent and collective action) with two cognition modes (unconstrained and constrained) in the context of aggregate risk. Four paradigms with orthogonal policy justifications are...