This paper presents the main issues involved in estimating potential output. The objective is to describe the alternative methods and analyze their application and implications for growth forecasts and macroeconomic policy in Brazil. The text emphasizes the determinants of potential output under...

This paper shows that the evolution of the level of Mexico real and real per capita output between 1895 and 2008 can be adequately described through a trendstationary model, affected by 4 structural breaks, which occurred at dates that seem to coincide with domestic institutional arrangements,...

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...

In recent times, Sraffian Supermultiplier Model (SSM) (Freitas & Serrano, 2015; Serrano, 1995; Serrano et al., 2019) has become prominent in both theoretical and empirical discussions within the demand-led-growth framework. The SSM has three distinctive features: the rate of growth of output is...

Latin America has been strongly affected by the international crisis and recession since late 2008. In comparison to historical experience, how has Latin America coped with the global crisis, which has been the role of different transmission mechanisms, and how have the region's structural and...

This paper looks at the hypothesis of conditional convergence of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita for a set of eighteen Latin American countries establishing a positive link with the growth rate of those economies. To that purpose, Ø-convergence, σ-convergence and Ú-convergence...

The Mexican economy has shown four decades of slow growth; still it would be reasonable to expect changes in its productive structure along such a long period of time considered, as a result either of the embodied technical change or as a result of the economic policies, that have sought the...