"This paper describes and analyzes the effort to institute river basin management in the Tárcoles basin of Costa Rica. Located in west-central Costa Rica, the Tárcoles basin represents 4.2 percent of the nation's total land area, but is home to half the nation's population and the metropolitan...

"This paper reviews the most important changes, both in the economy and in the legal and institutional framework, to deal with unfair trade practices that Costa Rica has experienced during its trade liberalization process. It also evaluates whether the sectors that as a result of such a process...

Front Cover -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Contributors -- Abbreviations -- Overview -- Trade and FDI Patterns -- The High-Tech Sector: FDI and Export Performance -- Insurance: The End of a Monopoly and a New Beginning for a Market -- Telecommunications and the End of Another...

Costa Rica is a clear success story. The country enjoys the highest standard of living in Central America and one of the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Not surprisingly, poverty levels are among the lowest in LAC. Indeed in 2004, Costa Rica had the second lowest poverty...

The evolution of Costa Rica's social sectors over the past decade has been dichotomous. On the one hand, economic growth has remained relatively high, however poverty and inequality have not declined (moreover, they have increased), and persistent employment challenges remain. On the other hand,...

The purpose of this poverty assessment is to shine a new light on poverty, inequality, and its drivers in Costa Rica. The report provides a descriptive overview of poverty trends in the country and examines why the poorest do not reap the benefits of economic growth. It provides high-level...

Costa Rica, an upper middle-income developing country of 4 million inhabitants, is well known for its socio-economic achievements. Costa Rica's economic growth has averaged 4.7 percent annually over the last 15 years, about 2 percentage points above the rest of Latin America, reflecting its...

The objective of the Costa Rica Investment Climate Assessment (ICA) is to evaluate constraints on growth of the private sector in Costa Rica using a survey of 343 manufacturing firms known as the Investment Climate Survey (ICs) and a Logistic Survey in 75 firms in three export sectors (processed...