This paper uses time-series data from nineteen Latin American countries and the U.S. to test for income convergence using two existing definitions of convergence and a new testable definition of ?-convergence. Only Dominican Republic and Paraguay were found to pair-wise converge according to the...

This paper examines the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on employment generation for a group of Latin American countries in the period 1980-2006. Using a dynamic panel model, which is estimated with the Arellano-Bover/Blundell-Bond system estimator, I find that FDI has a positive and...

We analyse the important role of education in economic development and social wellbeing of American countries, including indicators of gender opportunities for development as part of social well-being. In this regard we select some indicators which usually have a great importance for reaching...

Remittances have become an effective source of balance of payment sustainability in several small countries in Latin America, and thus a particular concern among developmental economists is the source driving remittances into this region. This paper studies the properties and cyclical nature of...

This paper investigates the business cycle properties of remittances to four Caribbean countries – Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. To extract the cyclical components, the study uses the structural time series framework proposed by Harvey (1989). Variance decompositions and...

This paper analyzes the evolution of Spanish foreign direct investment (FDI) in Latin America in recent years (from the 1990s through 2012). Additionally, a summary of the primary explanatory factors of FDI evolution in the three countries with the highest indices of Spanish investment (Brazil,...

International reserves are experiencing a significant increase, in part as a result of specific policies but also from the development of external factors, like remittances. This paper examines the role that remittances play in the accumulation of reserves, and uses a dynamic panel model for a...

The focus of this paper is a global examination of how different export sectors react to real devaluations in the short term. The disaggregated nature of the data allows a closer analysis of the underlying cross-export differences in exchange rate movements. Current period real devaluation has...

In this paper, we examine the relationship between the domestic credit by banking sector and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in the balanced panel framework of 20 Latin America countries from 1960 to 2010. Panel Cointegration tests of Kao (1999), Maddala and Wu (1999) and Westerlund...

The following paper investigates the aptitudes towards the US in Ecuador, a country critical to resolving the Colombian conflict, to fighting the drug trade, and to understanding how development aid can be best distributed. By incorporating an ad hoc database of Ecuadorians’ perceptions...