This book provides an overview and analysis of the increased presence of European investors in Latin America, in addition to presenting the results of a survey carried out in the major European investor countries whose aim was to analyze corporate investment strategies in Latin America.Abstract:...

This paper attempts to establish a formal relationship between innovation and productivity using Colombian firm-level data. It is found that the production of goods and services new to the firm and to the domestic market enhances firms' sales per worker, and innovation that results in...

Some analysts rank Chile as the only Latin American economy that qualifies as a 'take-off economy,' or development economy. In a sense, Chile's enduring success and proved insulation from the 'Tequila effect' are due to its high national savings. What has made Chile's savings so high? What were...

Although the Latin American region's growth rates are at a three decade high, they have been historically disappointing in relative terms, which cannot be dissociated from the microeconomic environment in which firms operate. Policy makers may need to complement their focus on macroeconomic...

Policymakers in Latin America increasingly are turning to policies that have high economic rates of return and a favorable impact on income distribution. By providing financial services to small businesses and poor households -which normally lack such services- credit unions help secure growth...

The country studies and their background papers included in this book were prepared for the Latin America and the Caribbean section of the "Global Research Project: Explaining Growth" of the Global Development Network (GDN), a research effort conducted in association with the Latin American and...

The Latin American and Caribbean region is highly exposed to natural disasters. The social and economic impact of these events has been historically very significant and it is showing an increasingly growing trend. During the first quarter of 2010, this unfortunate reality was evidenced with the...

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,...

El incremento en la productividad no ha sido un factor que haya contribuido de manera significativa al crecimiento de Costa Rica. En parte, ello se puede explicar por el magro desempeño que el país presenta en materia de innovación. En este texto se efetúa un diagnóstico de las principales...

This paper shows, first, that non-commodity revenues are more volatile in oil- and mineral-rich countries and that quality of institutions is associated with lower volatility. We investigate the channels through which oil and mineral revenue volatility lead to non-commodity revenues volatility,...