In this paper we present evidence suggesting that international migrant remittances generally lead to improved developmental outcomes. Using a cross-section of Mexican municipalities in the year 2000, we show that increases in the fraction of households receiving international remittances are...

This paper studies the effects of water sector privatization on consumers' welfare in 46 municipalities in Colombia. The paper evaluates the impact of privatization on access, price, and quality of water as well as health outcomes using differences-in-differences methodology with variation...

This study looks at several major legislative actions in 2002 that will substantially affect trade negotiations with the United States, and examines the US import protection for agricultural products that will be critical in trade negotiations with Central American countries. The two important...

The present work summarizes a set of reports which have had the aim of diagnosing the civil service systems of seventeen countries: Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago,...

This paper uses new data on fiscal transparency for a cross-section of countries; these data possess several advantages. First, the data are based on in-depth reports using a standardized methodology and protocol. Second, this study covers 82 countries, more than previous comparable studies....

Economic growth is often a kind of miracle because like most miracles, it is not easy to explain. Countries that have not grown for a century, at times begin to grow at a fast pace, while countries that were growing fast stop growing. From time to time economists have advanced particular...

This paper expands the micro-foundations of the traditional greed and grievance non-cooperative model of civil conflict between a government and a rebel group.First, the papers model allows for greed and grievance to be orthogonal, so that they may affect each other. Second, the model allows for...

The paper is concerned with the high protection cum high growth experience in Brazil until the second half of the 1980s and its crisis. The paper is structured in four sections. The first section is a summary of the arguments presented in the following three sections of the paper. Section II...

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) through its Regional Policy Dialogue, Public Policy and Management Network commissioned this study [update] of the Institutional Assessment of Civil Service systems (CSS) in Barbados. While reforms address key elements of the HRM system, the frameworks,...

Este documento fue presentado en la Conferencia "MERCOSUR: En busca de una nueva agenda", realizada en la Fundación Getulio Vargas en Rio de Janeiro, en junio de 2003. Considerando la dinámica de las políticas emergentes, que apuntan a un renovado interés en profundizar la iniciativa...