In October 2000, the twelve countries of South America launched, a multinational, multisectoral and multidisciplinary initiative, whose main objective is to develop the region's infrastructure within a context of environmental sustainability. Supported by the Inter-American Development Bank...

This paper discusses the impacts of integration on productivity, specifically within regional agreements. The paper focuses on the economies of Brazil and Mexico and on their performance in the manufacturing sector. The authors estimate firm-level productivity and test its casual links with...

What are the main issues in Chile's trade agenda? This paper argues that the country's agenda does not lend itself to that traditional kind of policy advice usually given throughout Latin America. Protection is low and uniform, institutions that govern trade policy are strong and well protected...

Economic and political integration have been a perennial and neuralgic issue in the Caribbean agenda. This paper draws on the literature on trade, growth and regional agreements to discuss the motivation behind the Caribbean drive for integration, the results obtained so far and what is in stock...

This study focuses on how Latin America¿s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can participate in global markets in a way that provides for sustainable growth. In addition, it study analyzes the impact of collective efficiency on clusters upgrading and undertakes an investigation of the...

This paper presents a retrospective review of several key areas of work of the Capital Markets and Financial Institutions Division (CMF) of the Inter-American Development Bank. Presented with each chapter as an independent piece, the paper analyzes the operations portfolio of CMF from 2006 to...

This book arose out of a study commissioned by the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Division of the Inter-American Development Bank aimed at researching cases based on Latin American experiences with competitive cooperation among enterprises, whether brought about as a result of specific...

Unfulfilled expectations about economic growth in Brazil has led many observers to question the ability of the new, open trade regime to put the economy back on a path of sustainable growth. Whereas the country's growth record has been really poor, the evidence suggests that the underlying...

Manufacturing in Latin America and the Caribbean region (LAC) faces severe competitive stresses as it integrates into the global economy. It is not, on the whole, coping well. Though it was the first region in the developing world - in the post-war era - to liberalize on international trade and...

La producción industrial en la región de América Latina y el Caribe (ALC) se enfrenta a una competencia muy severa e intensa a medida que se integra a la economía global. En líneas generales, la región no está manejando la situación muy bien. A pesar de ser ésta la primera región en el...