In this policy brief, we focus on the debates surrounding what has been called the "silent debt crisis" of the Caribbean. We discuss the level of debt at which the relation with economic growth turns from positive to negative. We also discuss, illustrated with simulations of the tradeoffs, how...

This paper explores the qualitative and quantitative implications of optimal taxation in a developing economy when economic growth is endogenously determined. We differentiate this class of economies from a developed economy in two aspects: informal sector is quantitatively significant and...

Belize's 2008-2012 Country Strategy approved in June 2009 stated that the IDB would continuously monitor fiscal sustainability and calibrate its financing in accordance with changing country conditions. Rather than establishing specific sectors for IDB support, the Country Strategy identified...

This working paper advances research on inequality with unique, new data on income distribution in 61 countries, including 20 Latin American countries, to explore the effects of political parties on redistribution. First, consistent with a central, but still contested, assumption of the...

This working paper empirically documents the size of (2) in the rural sector and investigates its consequences for rural development (agricultural growth, patterns of growth and rural poverty) for ten Latin American countries over 1985-2000. The paper provides econometric evidence suggesting...

This presentation provides a summary of the mission and lending portfolios of key development institutions in the Latin American and Caribbean region, including the Andean Finance Corporation (CAF), Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), Financial Fund for the Development of the...

This technical note will examine the development of the fuel ethanol industry in the United States, biodiesel in the European Union, and fuel ethanol and biodiesel in Brazil, in an effort to understand how the biofuel industry has developed in these regions. It will also evaluate the enabling...

High government debts, weak economic growth, vulnerability to external shocks and the design of sound fiscal consolidation strategies are among the most critical issues that some of the Caribbean countries have currently to deal with. Stabilization programs may harm economic growth but, under...

Fiscal policy in Latin America has been guided primarily by short-term liquidity targets whose observance was taken as the main exponent of fiscal prudence, with attention focused almost exclusively on the levels of public debt and the cash deficit. Very little attention was paid to the effects...