The drivers of educational attainment have been the subject of much research both in the developed and the developing world. Yet, nothing is known about the effect of birth registration on schooling outcomes. Birth registration is not only a fundamental human right but also a requirement to...

Birth registration is essential to guarantee a child's right to an identity. Without proper documentation of their identity, children have limited access to health, education and social assistance, laying the foundation for lifelong exclusion. Geographic distance to registration facilities is...

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....

Este documento ofrece una visión acerca del estado del sector turismo en México y promueve una reflexión con respecto a la forma de optimizar su contribución al desarrollo sostenible. Se destaca que el turismo puede constituir una alternativa en regiones con problemas estructurales que ven...

The literature on aid effectiveness has focused more on recipient policies than the determinants of aid allocation yet a consistent result is that political allies obtain more aid from donors than non-allies. This paper shows that aid allocated to political allies is ineffective for growth,...

Government-owned development banks have often been justified by the need to respond to financial market imperfections that hinder the establishment and growth of promising businesses, and as a result, stifle economic development more generally. However, evidence on the effectiveness of these...

This paper explores the link between what people say they prefer to do and what they actually do. Using data from an experimental project exploring trust and pro-sociality for representative samples of individuals in six Latin American capital cities, the paper links the results of these...

Despite the large potential gains from credit by second-tier development banks, little is known about the actual impact of these banks' lending activity. This study partially fills that gap by analyzing the impact of the lending activity of Bancoldex, the Colombian second-tier development bank,...

This study examines the impact of innovation strategies on employment growth in four Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay) using micro-data for manufacturing firms from innovation surveys. Building on the model proposed by Harrison et al. (2008), we relate...