Diagnóstico de crecimiento para Uruguay desde una perspectiva regional

We carry out a growth diagnostic analysis for Uruguay from a regional perspective, evaluating different factors that affect investment rate and, by this channel, growth dynamics. We identify the main constraints and risks faced by growth process, taking especially into account the regional context. We recognize a set of major failures or problems that influence the expected social returns to investment and the cost of financing. Among the first ones we emphasize, on one hand, factors that affect expected returns (failures in social infrastructure, low levels of investment in scientific-technological activities and innovation, and deterioration of human capital supply); on the other hand, problems with the appropriability of returns (market and coordination failures that restrict the self-discovery process, and microeconomic and macro risks related to the role of public sector in the economy). Regarding financing, constraints related to the low level of domestic saving and the high cost of financing. In the light of these results and the regional diagnostics, some policy recommendations are proposed in two simultaneous and complementary levels: domestic and regional.