Comparison of economies is essential for public policymaking but considerably hindered by the fact that statistics expressed in local currencies are not directly comparable. Market exchange rates give a distorted view, as they do not reflect the differences in price levels between countries.To...

This open access book offers innovative contributions to the climate-migration-health nexus and the role of regional governance in this nexus, emphasizing the importance of interregional cooperation in addressing these challenges. It considers climate change as an intensifier of leading to...

"Rethinking Taxation for Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean: Objectives, Behavioral Responses, and Technological Advances" argues for a shift beyond the traditional focus on collection efficiency and equity to explicitly include economic growth as a primary objective. It highlights how...

Plantation elites continued to dominate local colonial governments in the British West Indies even after the abolition of slavery in 1834, directing public spending towards maintaining public order and protecting their property. As such they resisted any reforms that threatened their power,...

Background: The Port of Santa Marta, located on Colombia's northern Caribbean coast, plays a vital role in the country's maritime trade, particularly in the export of agricultural and perishable goods. This raises the question: how competitive is Santa Marta's container terminal compared to...

Changing weather patterns pose a fundamental challenge to electricity systems reliant on water resources. Using two decades of plant-level generation and fuel input data matched to hydrological basins in Chile, we show that local droughts reduce hydro output by about 20% on average and trigger...

Este resumen resume los hechos recientes relacionados con la pobreza y la desigualdad en América Latina y el Caribe (ALC) utilizando la última ola de encuestas de hogares armonizadas de la Base de Datos Socioeconómicos de ALC (SEDLAC). Este informe fue producido por la Práctica Global de...

This paper analyzes gender disparities in poverty across the life cycle in Latin America and the Caribbean using harmonized household survey data. Although gender gaps in labor market outcomes are well-documented, gendered poverty disparities have remained understudied. The results reveal a...

This report examines the growing threat of heat in cities across Latin America and the Caribbean, including the outlook for the coming decades; the implications for urban infrastructure and for human health, well-being, and prosperity; and what urban leaders and national governments can do to...

This brief focuses on the Caribbean countries of Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Suriname, Jamaica, and Saint Lucia. Other than Jamaica, which has a population of approximately 2.8 million, these countries are small in both population (ranging from 117,000 in Grenada to 634,000 in Suriname) and...

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...

Fast payments are transforming digital finance ecosystems in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) by improving the speed, affordability, and user experience of digital payments. This report provides one of the first regionally-focused, cross-country analyses of fast payments data, leveraging a...

Latin America and the Caribbean faces a challenging outlook: slow economic and job growth, lower commodity prices, sluggish decline in global interest rates reducing demand and complicating debt service, weak investment, stalled nearshoring, and tight fiscal space. Structural gaps in...

This second edition of "Health at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean", prepared jointly by OECD and the World Bank, presents a set of key indicators of health status, determinants of health, healthcare resources and utilisation, healthcare expenditure and financing, quality of care,...

This publication provides you with a range of inspiring examples of how educational institutions are using Erasmus+ in Latin America and the Caribbean as a key instrument for building knowledge, skills and attitudes on one of the main overarching priorities of Erasmus+, namely the environment...

This study examines the challenges of analyzing domestic violence (DV) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and seeks to improve measurement through two main contributions. First, we collect and describe traditional DV data sources (household surveys and administrative records) across 19...

This Selected Issues paper examines the impact of the energy transition (ET) and strategies to achieve it in the Easter Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU). Reducing energy dependence in the ECCU entails improving energy efficiency and shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy (RE). This ET is...

This paper presents a detailed review report for the 2025 Discussion on Common Policies of Member Countries of the Easter Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU). The currency union has provided a strong anchor for macroeconomic stability. The ECCU has achieved a strong rebound from successive adverse...

ECCU countries are highly vulnerable to recurring and increasingly severe natural disasters. Evidence suggests that severe natural disaster have negative impacts on fiscal balances and debt in the region. This underscores the need for comprehensive disaster resilience strategies to mitigate...

This study explores the short-term welfare and distributive effects of selected fuel tax and subsidy reforms in six countries in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region that are aimed at promoting the transformation of energy systems and have the potential to generate much-needed fiscal...

The green transition represents one of the most significant transformational forces in the labor market in the coming years. This paper analyzes the incidence of green jobs in four Latin American countries using information from job vacancy data. The results reveal a low incidence of demand for...

Latin America and the Caribbean has lost not decades but a century of growth due to its inability to learn-to identify, adapt, and implement the new technologies emerging since the Second Industrial Revolution. Superstars like Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay fell behind peers like France and...

This survey examines the economic performance of economies of the Caribbean in 2022 and the first few months of 2023 and comprises five chapters. The first chapter gives an overview of global, regional and subregional economic performance in the Caribbean. The second provides an analysis of the...

This study develops a multidimensional classification of Latin American and Caribbean countries based on a multidimensional set of economic, social, technological, and environmental indicators. This study develops a multidimensional assessment of the performance of Latin American and Caribbean...

This document analyzes the indirect costs of mental health for adolescents and young adults in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region and its potential impact in lowering human capital in the region. It uses a broad definition of mental health conditions (MHC), classified into four...

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....

The Caribbean region faces a growing youth employment challenge, as outdated infrastructure and limited digital skills continue to constrain economic opportunities and resilience. For much of the last decade, dependence on legacy copper networks led to high prices, low bandwidth, and widespread...

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...

Trade flows are the result of the interaction between buyers and sellers. Understanding how these firm-to-firm relationships form, survive, and evolve over time helps identify how countries can improve their export outcomes. Using a very granular dataset of United States import transactions from...

This report assesses the current performance of tourism in the Caribbean and, in light of the new trends, identifies future pathways and policies for sustainable growth in three targeted segments. These segments were selected to include the traditional markets of cruise and all-inclusive resort...

ADVANCE COPY: This chapter is an advance excerpt from the upcoming World Bank report "Organized Crime and Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean" which will be released on Monday, April 28th, 2025

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...