We estimate real estate's exposure in Chile to five weather risks, including labor productivity loss due to heat, fires, floods, drought coastal deterioration as measured by the Chilean Climatic Risk Atlas (ARCLIM) and Climate Impact Explorer (CIE) sources. According to our joint ARCLIM-CIE...

In the last seven decades multilateral agencies have by and large conditionned the external policies of several countries. Recently, uneasiness with several aspects has led to initiatives that question the present framework. The formation of the BRICS is a good example. However, initiatives by...

Over the last forty years, Latin American countries (LACs) have experienced a variety of specialization trajectories, while sharing a common pattern of weak and unstable growth. Given the accelerated premature deindustrialization path and the loss of productive capacity, manufacturing has...

In Colombia, women represent 65% of the teacher workforce but only 34% of school principals, reflecting a significant gender gap in leadership. This study examines two centralized principal selection processes implemented by Colombias National Civil Service Commission: the 2016 nationwide...

Research about trade liberalization's impact on markups has focused on manufacturing due to data availability considerations. How do these effects vary across sectors? Which industries become more and less competitive as trade barriers are eliminated? We leverage firm-level tax records from the...

The functioning of the banking sector is key for economic growth. In this paper, we first gather banks' balance sheet monthly regulatory information in a consistent manner for seven Latin American countries. Second, we estimate lending markups and deposits markdowns in each country over time....

This paper presents new evidence on schooling mobility across three generations in six Latin American countries. By combining survey information with national census data, we have constructed a novel dataset that includes 50,000 triads of grandparents, parents, and children born between 1890 and...

Cash benefit programmes have increasingly emphasised conditionality and "demanding" forms of activation in recent decades. Behavioural requirements are now a key element in reforms of unemployment benefits (UB) and related out-of-work benefits in high-income OECD countries, and they are the...

Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) have become a key antipoverty policy in Latin America in the last 25 years. The ultimate goal of this kind of programs is to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty through the promotion of human capital accumulation of children in vulnerable...

This paper explores how female political leaders impact environmental outcomes and climate change policy actions using data from mixed-gender mayoral races in Brazil. Using a Regression Discontinuity design, we find that, compared to male mayors, female mayors significantly reduce greenhouse gas...

Entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in driving innovation, productivity, and economic growth, with universities emerging as key actors within entrepreneurial ecosystems. This study seeks to expand the understanding on the role of Latin American universities on entrepreneurial ecosystems by...

This study examines school-to-work transitions (STWTs) in Chile and Uruguay, focusing on education-occupation linkages. For the first time, we apply the linkage strength approach to Latin American countries, using cross-sectional household survey data. Since STWT research is highly segregated...

This paper aims to assess the extent to which cash transfers, direct taxes, and social contributions help to reduce gender income inequalities in seven Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. We apply microsimulation techniques to household...

International trade increases aggregate welfare but also creates winners and losers, which makes free trade a contentious political issue. Recent research has established that individuals are more sensitive to anti-trade information about the prospect of employment loss than to pro-trade...

This paper examines the impact of safeguard import tariffs on market diversity in Ecuador from 2015 to 2017. Using firm-level data, we estimate the effects of tariffs on revenue and market shares in the Manufacturing and Wholesale & Retail (W&R) sectors with a Quantile Treatment Effect on the...

The adoption of electronic payments has increased globally, driving economic growth by enabling smoother transactions. Digital payments enhance speed, security, trust, and efficiency, prompting governments to implement policies that promote financial inclusion through new payment technologies....

Purpose The literature on the potential benefits of art investing has yet to consider the effects of categorizing world regional art markets (e.g. Latin American art) by artistic styles or movements (e.g. Latin American surrealism, Latin American conceptual art, etc.). We propose that such...

This study explores consumer ethnocentrism (CET), distinguishing between Hard Ethnocentrism (HET) and Soft Ethnocentrism (SET), and their impact on Purchase Intentions (PIN), with gender as a moderating variable. Data from 372 Latin American native consumers were collected via an electronic...

Competition is a core element of economic growth, but empirical evidence on how competition affects productivity is often limited. Competition and Productivity Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean presents new empirical research that shows how competition policy in the region has...

We examine gender gaps in early childhood cognitive and social-behavioral skills across several Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. Our study complements previous research focused on older children by analyzing the preschool period, a critical stage for lifelong human capital...

The pros and cons of CBDCs have been examined in numerous writings but much less research has focused on specific economies or regions. This paper attempts to fill that gap for the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) economies. It first examines the views of central banks in the region toward...

This study examines the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) on employment, wages, and inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The paper identifies tasks and occupations most exposed to AI using comprehensive individual-level data alongside AI exposure indices. Unlike...

Research about trade liberalization's impact on markups has focused on manufacturing due to data availability considerations. How do these effects vary across sectors? Which industries become more and less competitive as trade barriers are eliminated? We leverage firm-level tax records from the...

Most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are implementing fast payment systems (FPS), often with the goal of enhancing access to and use of affordable financial services. FPS offer immediate transfer of funds on a 24x7 basis between end users. This paper assesses how FPS can promote...

We study the impact of climate-related news on asset prices in eight Latin American countries. We use both newspapers and official announcements to construct daily, country-specific indices via textual analysis, reflecting media coverage of transition risks, climate opportunities, regulatory...

Over the last forty years, Latin American countries (LACs) have experienced a variety of specialization trajectories, while sharing a common pattern of weak and unstable growth. Given the accelerated premature deindustrialization path and the loss of productive capacity, manufacturing has...

Widening income disparities, higher corruption and larger informality in many emerging market and developing economies (EMDE) including Latin America, all with pressing and mounting fiscal problems, have rekindled interest in the empirical analysis of the key factors determining the occurrence...

A study conducted by the European Parliamentary Research Service (2023) notes that the European Union's (EU) relations with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries are being affected by changes in global power, economic uncertainty, and security threats. The current working paper...

In Colombia, women represent 65% of the teacher workforce but only 34% of school principals, reflecting a significant gender gap in leadership. This study examines two centralized principal selection processes implemented by Colombias National Civil Service Commission: the 2016 nationwide...

The functioning of the banking sector is key for economic growth. In this paper, we first gather banks' balance sheet monthly regulatory information in a consistent manner for seven Latin American countries. Second, we estimate lending markups and deposits markdowns in each country over time....

Wavelet coherence analysis (WCA) examines the dynamic interactions between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico and key external variables, using monthly data from 2010 to 2022. The findings reveal the following: (i) medium-term co-movements (4-16 months)...

This paper aims to assess the extent to which cash transfers, direct taxes, and social contributions help to reduce gender income inequalities in seven Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. We apply microsimulation techniques to household...

This study examines the dynamic interconnectedness of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) among Latin American economies - Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico - and significant international regions, including the United States, Europe, and Japan, as well as a global EPU index. Using a...

Cash benefit programmes have increasingly emphasised conditionality and "demanding" forms of activation in recent decades. Behavioural requirements are now a key element in reforms of unemployment benefits (UB) and related out-of-work benefits in high-income OECD countries, and they are the...

Generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) is set to potentially transform the labor market, presenting both opportunities and challenges. Studies about its possible impacts have generally focused on high-income countries. But AI may be a crucial path to greater productivity in emerging markets...

This edition of the Macro Poverty Outlooks periodical contains country-by-country forecasts and overviews for GDP, fiscal, debt and poverty indicators for the developing countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Macroeconomic indicators such as population, gross domestic product and gross...

This report estimates fuel-specific TCPs for 11 LAC countries-Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominica, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, St. Lucia, and Uruguay-from 2017 to 2023, and a preliminary estimate for 2024 is also constructed. TCPs in this report are built using a detailed bottom-up...

The following report presents the results of analyzing 30 city-level Climate Action Plans (CAPs) from Latin America and the Caribbean region. The report is structured into two main sections. This first section presents the city context and summary of CAP evaluation for each city. The second...