This paper (RE-295) evaluates the Bank's program with Ecuador from 1990 to 2002. Throughout the 1990-2002 period, Ecuador continued facing these same development challenges as in the previous one: (i) how to move the economy away from its dependency on primary production, (ii) how to improve...

The period reviewed by the current Country Program Evaluation (RE-328) covers from 2001 to 2006. It spans the Bank's latest programming cycle, which includes the end of the Carlos Flores administration, as well as the Ricardo Maduro administration. The current review's approach is to take the...

The following paper (RE-297) is a review of the Bank's experience in Bolivia from 1990 to 2002. It is produced at a time when the country is faced with a critical fiscal scenario, and in the aftermath of substantial social tensions that have led to the resignation of former President Gonzalo...

The 2000-2008 Country Program Evaluation (CPE) for Trinidad and Tobago (RE-353) was conducted by the Office of Evaluation and Oversight to inform the Board's discussion with IDB Management regarding future strategy for each country. It involved three weeks of missions to both Trinidad and...

This Country Program Evaluation (RE-262) covers the period 1990-2000. During the decade, Peru was the focal point for development assistance from both multilateral and bilateral institutions. This paper includes a description of the country context and development challenges, a diagnosis and...

This paper is part of the project: "IDB's Science and Technology Programs: An Evaluation of the Technology Development Funds (TDF) and Competitive Research Grants (CRG)." This paper analyzes the role of National Research Funds in promoting scientific production in emerging economies. The...

This paper revisits economic growth in Colombia using a growth diagnostics methodology to identify the most binding constraints for economic growth and the policies that, if implemented, can have the largest positive impact. The data shows economic reactivation in areas with falling violence....

The Mexican oil boom was characterized by a period of high investment, followed by capital flight. The private sector and households responded to the 1977-1981 windfall by attaining high savings rates. On the other hand, the Mexican government, the proprietor of the state oil company and the...

Banks' market or 'trading' risks have increased noticeably over the past years, largely as a result of the growth of liquid assets on banks' balance sheets and the increase in banks' off-balance sheet activities. Well-publicized bank failures and significant capital losses have focussed further...

Baumol (1967) showed that the rate of growth of an economy slows down if a sector has lower productivity than others and the demand between goods is inelastic. This paper points out that trade is equivalent to technological progress in the tradable sector. Therefore an open economy has higher...