In the great majority of Latin American countries in the 2000s, economic growth took place and brought about improvements in almost all labour market indicators and consequent reductions in poverty rates. Across countries, economic growth was not all that mattered; external factors were...

During the past decade, structural polices in the region have been aimed increasingly at improving economic efficiency and reducing government interference in economic decisions. The effects of this shift have not yet been accurately evaluated due to the lack of systematic measurements of the...

This paper was prepared for the 1998 IDB/IIC Annual Meeting entitled: The Employment in Latin America: What is the Problem and Should it be Addressed? held in Cartagena, Colombia in March 1998. Despite macroeconomic stabilization and structural reforms, employment problems have persisted in...

This article, which serves as an introduction to a group of studies prepared by the IDB Office of the Chief Economist, presents the perceptions of Latin American citizens and employers concerning the employment problem. It compares them to the conditions in the labor markets of the region.

En la última década la orientación de las políticas microeconómicas dio un giro extraordinario en América Latina, pero la legislación laboral prácticamente no cambió. El propósito central de este trabajo es mostrar la magnitud de este atraso y señalar que en la mayoría de países se...

After a decade of strong progress toward the goal of reducing the high levels of income disparities, there are clear signs of a deceleration in the pace of inequality reduction in Latin America. This paper argues that the deceleration is the result of two set of reasons. First, several of the...

This paper provides a summary of the findings contained in a forthcoming issue of the Latin American Journal of Economics on entrepreneurship in Latin America as a vehicle for upward social mobility, especially for the middle class. The income persistence coefficients estimated with pseudo-panel...

Argentina experienced a decline in the early years of the 2000s, from 2000 to 2002, in GDP and in most labour market indicators, followed by improvements in nearly all of them, tracing out a U-shaped pattern. The international crisis of 2008 impacted negatively only on the unemployment rate and...