The paper analyzes Jamaica's experience of low growth despite consistently high investment. Cross-country analysis provides evidence of a significant and negative relationship between total public debt and productivity growth. Looking at the specific channels through which high debt affects...

Este artículo analiza el carácter político de la tributación, lo que ayuda a explicar por qué no ha sido homogénea la adopción del modelo auspiciado por el FMI en América Latina. Toma a Colombia como caso de estudio para mostrar que las reformas tributarias están supeditadas a su...

Hydroelectric dams produce electricity, provide flood control, and improve agricultural irrigation. But the building and operation of these dams frequently involve forced displacement of local communities. Displacement often has an outsized impact on indigenous persons, who are...

This paper examines new trends in regional integration of developing countries. They are a transition from the policy of old regionalism to the policy of new regionalism with the predominance of the model of "industrial regionalism"; preferential notification within the WTO in accordance with...

This paper measures factor productivities (and hence total factor productivity growth) directly on the basis of the fundamentals of the economy (endowments, preferences and technology), without recourse to market prices. The factor productivities are the Lagrange multipliers of a linear program...

The standard measure of productivity growth is the Solow residual. Its evaluation requires data on factor input shares or prices. Since these prices are presumed to match factor productivities, the standard procedure amounts to accepting at face value what is supposed to be measured. In this...

Total factor productivity (TFP) in Latin America has not increased since the mid- 1970s, and in many countries it has declined. Moreover, resource misallocation can lower aggregate TFP. This paper presents evidence based on firm-level data from 10 Latin American countries to quantify the...

This paper analyzes reforms and counter-reforms in Bolivia in recent decades and their effects on the policymaking process (PMP) and productivity. Bolivia's PMP has shifted from a formal representative democracy to a "participative and direct type of democracy" where street protest and other...

This paper analyzes total factor productivity growth in agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean between 1961 and 2007 employing the Malmquist Index, a non-parametric methodology that uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods. The results show that among developing regions, Latin...

Economic convergence exists when two or more economies tend to reach a similar level of development and wealth. The study of convergence is an important topic because besides being useful for the debate between different theories, it can respond several inquiries such as if the distribution of...