This paper surveys housing finance in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama. The development of a secondary mortgage-backed securities market in Costa Rica is very limited despite a broad legal framework, while in El Salvador it is nonexistent and in Panama has not grown due to high liquidity. In...

Housing for most Peruvians is improving but is still grossly inadequate. Nonetheless, public housing finance policies mainly involve programs that subsidize middle-income families and banks that lend to them. Research summarized in this paper indicates that financing will not be the main...

This paper explores the role played by policy instruments in access to housing finance by low-income households. It also analyzes the impact of housing credit and subsidies on both the quality of life and the quality of dwelling of the beneficiaries. Using the Quality of Life Surveys conducted...

In 2001, Mexico introduced a comprehensive federal housing policy package. The results have been quantitatively impressive; however, there are qualitative concerns. It is also uncertain whether current subsidy programs have negative financial implications for participating mortgage issuers, as...

In Guatemala there are substantial and growing imbalances in the housing market; at the same time, financial markets remain shallow and underdeveloped. The analytical framework applied in this paper starts by identifying the types of market failures responsible for the underdevelopment of the...

This paper focuses on the performance of IDB projects between 1996 and 2011 disbursements. We present evidence on the evolution of disbursements with respect to the available funds and the evolution of disbursements with respect to the historic disbursement curve of IDB projects. We also...

Esta investigación busca contribuir empíricamente a la discusión sobre el efecto de las microfinanzas. El estudio presenta una evaluación de impacto del uso intensivo del crédito sobre el desempeño de microempresas chilenas con acceso a este tipo de financiamiento. Los resultados...

A common criticism of antipoverty programs is that the high share of administrative (nontransfer) costs substantially reduces their effectiveness. Yet there is surprisingly little rigorous empirical evidence on program costs. This study proposes and implements a replicable methodology for a...

This report is part of a larger project undertaken by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) designed to obtain information which will assist the planning of poverty alleviation programs in a number of countries in Latin America. The specific aim of this report is to identify the conditions...

The Opportunities for the Majority Initiative (OMJ) was originally set up for three years as a time-bound pilot initiative. The OMJ team has worked diligently to test the Base of the Pyramid model and develop the OMJ portfolio, and from that standpoint the initiative has been successful....