Interest in access to finance and awareness of its importance have increased significantly since the early 2000s. Growing evidence suggests that lack of access to credit prevents many households and firms from financing high?return investment projects, which has an adverse effect on growth and...

The seven million teachers of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are the critical actors in the region's efforts to improve education quality and raise student learning levels, which lag far behind those of OECD countries and East Asian countries such as China. This book documents the high...

This book suggests how that exploration should be undertaken, and how a monitoring system that has a solid conceptual basis and is both easy to operate and reasonable in cost can then be put into practice. Long the ideal of many scholars and observers of urban problems, such a system may now be...

This book holds that the crucial failure of corporate governance is the expropriation of outside investors, be they shareholders or creditors, by those who are in control of firms. The problem of expropriation, also known as tunneling, often takes on enormous proportions. Billions of dollars of...

Improving student learning is the key challenge for education in Latin America and the Caribbean. This book is divided into three parts. Part one focuses on the central role of student learning in education. Chapter one examines why student learning outcomes are important. Chapter two analyzes...

Privatization is under attack. Beginning in the 1980s, thousands of failing state-owned enterprises worldwide have been turned over to the private sector. But public opinion has turned against privatization. A large political backlash has been brewing for some time, infused by accusations of...

The book is organized in two parts. The first part looks at issues of long-term growth and development patterns, and the second part focuses on issues of macroeconomic vulnerability and its social effects. Chapter 1, looks at the determinants of dynamic efficiency in developing countries, which...

This book aims to fill gaps in existing knowledge about early childhood development (ECD) efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean by reviewing a selection of ECD programs in the region, including those in early childhood education, health, and nutrition, and distilling lessons related to...

This book strives to better understand the recent labor market trends in the countries of the region and the factors that underlie the failure of many of those countries to create more, but especially more productive and rewarding jobs. In particular, the book addresses four main questions: how...

This book is organized as follows: Introduction: Is Geography Destiny? Chapter 1 discuses The Channels of Influence of Geography: Latin America from an International Perspective. Chapter 2 discusses The Other Side of The Mountain: The Influence of Geography Within Countries. Chapter 3 discusses...