Why are growth rates in Latin America so disappointing? This book reviews the results of an ambitious research project to determine the binding constraints to growth, that is, the barrier whose removal would yield the greatest benefit in terms of growth. Included are case studies from seven...

In Justice Delayed, leading authorities on law and economics from Latin America and the United States analyze the problems of Latin America's judicial sector and propose strategies for solving them.Abstract: Este libro recoge los trabajos presentados en la Segunda Conferencia sobre Justicia y...

Towards a Sustainable and Efficient State: The Development Agenda of Belize represents a tangible expression of the Inter-American Development Bank's commitment to generating knowledge as part of its assistance to its borrowing member countries and illustrates the Bank's willingness to accompany...

Este volumen contiene los anales de un seminario sobre modernización de las finanzas municipales. En el seminario se discutieron e intercambiaron experiencias sobre las políticas que los gobiernos centrales pueden adoptar para que la descentralización proporcione los beneficios que se le...

Export Pioneers in Latin America analyzes a series of case studies of successful new export activities throughout the region to learn how pioneers jump-start a virtuous process leading to economic transformation. The cases of blueberries in Argentina, avocados in Mexico, and aircraft in Brazil...

The Venezuelan experience in the 1980s is a particularly fertile ground for the analysis of negative shocks. Two large shocks took place under very different control regimes, thus highlighting the role the institutional setting plays in determining the response. Moreover, the experience can shed...

Countries that are classified as having floating exchange rate systems (or very wide bands) show strikingly different patterns of behavior. They hold very different levels of international reserves and allow very different volatilities in the movements of the exchange rate relative to the...

This paper presents a growth diagnostic exercise for Peru. It notes that although Peru has recently enjoyed high rates of economic growth, this growth is actually a recovery from a significant and sustained growth collapse that began in the 1970s, caused by a decline in export earnings due to...

Recent financial crises and contagion call into question the wisdom of capital account liberalization. There is consensus that something is terribly wrong in the way international financial markets work for developing countries and that fixing is urgent. But what is wrong? Most views in...

This paper considers ongoing and proposed reforms of the international financial system in light of Latin America's recent experience. Most proposals are based on one of three diagnoses: excessive capital flows, insufficient capital flows, and excessively volatile capital flows. While theories...