The aim of this book is to provide policymakers in Latin America with the stylized facts of what works and what does not in decentralization policies and schemes, based on analysis of the recent experiences of several Latin American countries.

The topics covered in the chapters of the report were presented and discussed in a conference organized by the IDB in Port of Spain on July 13th, 2004. After more than a decade of economic growth and despite encouraging prospects for the future, the Trinidad and Tobagp economy remains overly...

This paper surveys the recent literature on the political economy of fiscal policy, in particular the accumulation of government debt. The authors examine three possible determinants of fiscal balances: opportunistic behavior by policymakers, heterogeneous fiscal preferences of either voters or...

This paper seeks to identify the most promising fiscal strategy to boost long-term economic growth in Argentina and quantify its effects. To this end, the authors updated a growth-diagnostics study for Argentina and corroborated that low appropriability of social returns and insufficient public...

This note discusses trade liberalization and trade taxes. The main issue should not be the reduction of trade taxes but of total tax revenue. By potentially changing the structure of the economy, trade liberalization will affect not just tax revenue but also the role of the state in the economy...

This book explains how economies, institutions, and politics interact to produce budget outcomes in Latin America, a region in which informality dominates public governance. It includes detailed country analyses which provide comparative knowledge about the workings of policymaking and budget...

The aim of this book is to provide policymakers in Latin America with the stylized facts of what works and what does not in decentralization policies and schemes, based on analysis of the recent experiences of several Latin American countries.

The topics covered in the chapters of the report were presented and discussed in a conference organized by the IDB in Port of Spain on July 13th, 2004. After more than a decade of economic growth and despite encouraging prospects for the future, the Trinidad and Tobagp economy remains overly...

Beyond Reforms presents the contributions of some United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) analysts as well as research articles prepared for the Commission. It reviews long-term growth and development patterns and focuses on macroeconomic vulnerability and...

The present paper explores the relationship between political competition and effective public goods delivery systems in a decentralized context to study whether the awareness generated through such a competitive environment and the existence of more political options are a part of the causal...