This study assesses macroeconomic volatility in Costa Rica, based largely on politically weak governments' inability or unwillingness to effect key reforms. Notable problems include volatility-prone fiscal and monetary policy, structurally weak public finances due to large domestic debts and...

This presentation comments on Manuel Trajtenberg¿s paper Innovation Policy for Development. The purpose of that paper includes discussing innovation policy guidelines for developing countries and employing the Israeli experience to derive lessons for growth-promoting innovation policies, among...

This paper is part of the project: "IDB's Science and Technology Programs: An Evaluation of the Technology Development Funds (TDF) and Competitive Research Grants (CRG)." This paper analyzes the role of National Research Funds in promoting scientific production in emerging economies. The...

This report is intended to encourage and reinforce the efforts of policymakers and industry stakeholders throughout the region to accelerate broadband deployment. The report has two primary aims. The first is to help identify public policy and regulatory issues that need to be addressed in order...

Competing in the world economy does not automatically boost a nation's productivity and restructure its economy. Such progress requires mobilizing capital, employment, technology and knowledge. Opportunities beyond the business realm must be fully exploited to the benfit of society as a whole....

Revitalizing the Jamaican Economy: Policies for Sustained Growth aims to improve our understanding of the constraints to social and economic development in Jamaica. It also proposes practical solutions to overcome some of those problems. This book is a collection of studies commissioned by the...

The Bank has prepared a new set of strategies, presented in this volume, for the two overarching objectives established (Sustainable Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction and Promotion of Social Equity) and for each of the four priority areas highlighted in the Institutional Strategy...

This paper surveys the recent literature on fiscal sustainability, with particular emphasis on emerging market countries. It discusses the main elements that differentiate emerging market countries from industrial countries and then discusses how probabilistic models can help to evaluate fiscal...

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...

National and local governments, international organizations and donors are increasingly using the instrument of cluster development programs (CDP) to promote economic development. This paper builds on the recent experiences of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in financing and executing...