This paper first compares house price cycles in advanced and emerging economies using a new quarterly house price dataset covering the period 1990- 2012. It is found that that house prices in emerging economies grow faster, are more volatile, less persistent and less synchronized across...

In the last three decades, the supply of housing in Argentina has not kept pace with demand. This study analyzes the main drivers of Argentina’s housing market and relates them to the macroeconomic environment in order to advance a policy agenda for housing policy reform. The demand for...

In this paper we present evidence that homeowners are happier than nonhomeowners and it is homeownership that causes the difference in happiness. The data used is for seventeen Latin American countries obtained from the LatinBarometer surveys. The association between homeownership and happiness...

This paper discusses the evolution of housing conditions in urban areas of Latin America and the Caribbean from 1995 to 2006 based on data from household surveys done in 18 countries that comprise 95 percent of the urban population of the region. The results indicate that, on average, the...

In this paper we evaluate the targeting efficiency of Latin American housing programs of the demand-side- ABC type, acronyms based on the Spanish words for savings-voucher-mortgage. These are the typical; housing programs in Latin American countries. However, there is no systematic evaluation of...

This study analyzes the current situation of the rental market of Argentina. It is characterized by a growing percentage of households demanding houses for renting up to the point that, for first time in more than 50 years, the ownership rate dropped between population censuses. Tenants are...

Un MEGC dinámico recursivo para evaluar shocks de Cambio Climático para seis economías latinoamericanas (Argentina, Brasil, Chile, El Salvador, Jamaica y Perú) se presenta a continuación. Es un modelo de tamaño intermedio que toma en cuenta el funcionamiento de los precios relativos y de...

This paper uses simple regression techniques to make an initial assessment of the monetary damages caused by the January 12, 2010 earthquake that struck Haiti. Damages are estimated for a disaster with both 200,000 and 250,000 total dead and missing (i.e., the range of mortality that the...

The objective of this research agenda is to outline the issues that need to be investigated in order to produce an informed assessment of what strategies and policies Latin America and its international organizations should pursue with respect to climate change. This report makes the three...

Determining reasonable indicators for climate change projects is complicated by the long-term horizon of both mitigation and adaptation project impacts as well as the uncertainty associated with climate change impacts. Actions taken now are often designed to have an impact in the uncertain and...