Although science has unlocked the secrets of the human genome, the causes of social and economic development remain stubbornly enigmatic. Why do some countries adopt new technologies more readily than others? Why does income inequality persist in some regions--even in the face of rapid economic...

This book is based on a conference entitled "Regional Public Goods and Regional Development Assistance", held in Washington, D.C. on November 6-7, 2002. It examines how the IDB and the ADB support the provision of regional public goods (RPGs) in Latin America and Asia, respectively. RPGs are...

This paper (ENV-126) was originally presented at a National Science Foundation Workshop on Alternatives to Traditional Contingent Valuation Methods in Environmental Valuation, held at Vanderbilt University, Nashville Tennessee, on October 15-16, 1998. This paper reviews the past ten years of the...

This working paper contains a review and analysis of environmental policy tools in Latin America. It contains a review of the instruments themselves and their properties are discussed in both static and dynamic contexts. The report brings together the institutional and more narrowly economic...

This study challenges the current design of forest resource use contracts in Latin America. Radical rethinking of forest resource contracts is imperative, due to the constraints that now face the successful achievement of forest policy objectives of economic development and conservation of...

In the context of growth of population and consumption of natural resources, sustainable development is a model that concern the balance between growth, quality of life and environmental preservation, for long term, without increasing consumption of natural resources beyond the capacity of...