Applying the methodology developed in Ñopo (2004), I analyze the evolution of the gender wage gap in Peru from 1986 to 2000. The advantage of such methodology is two-fold. First, it recognizes that the supports of observable characteristics distributions differ substantially. Second, it...

The depth of and access to financial services provided by banks throughout Latin America are extremely low in spite of its recognized importance for economic activity, employment and poverty alleviation. Low financial depth and access hurts the poor the most and is due to a variety of obstacles...

This paper finds that shocks to net financial inflows, world oil prices, the U.S. growth rate, and the lagged real exchange rate explain most of the fluctuations in Mexico’s annual growth since 1979. The paper also estimates how the effects of these external constraints have changed since...

After a decade of economic reforms that dramatically altered the structure of economies in Latin America, making them more open and more competitive, and a decade of substantial increases in public spending on education, health and other social programs in virtually all countries, poverty and...

After a decade of economic and political reforms that dramatically altered the structure of economies in Latin America, poverty and high inequality remain deeply entrenched. Integration into the global economy in the 1990s brought increased prosperity only to a small minority of households in...

In Latin America, privatization started earlier and spread farther and more rapidly than in almost any other part of the world. More, and larger, firms were sold, and more proceeds were raised. Despite positive microeconomic results, privatization is highly and increasingly unpopular in the...

This paper reports information on income inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean computed from a sample of more than 50 household surveys from 20 LAC countries from 1989 to 2001. Although the core of the statistics is on household income inequality, we also report results on aggregate...