A weakness of decentralization and overall tax reforms in Latin America is the lack of attention to adequate taxation at the subnational government. A reliance on shared taxes with extensive earmarking leads to weak subnational accountability and soft budget constraints. The paper explores the...

This paper seeks to draw lessons from the IMF’s experience in handling financial crises around the globe over the past ten years that are relevant to the challenges faced by countries in Latin America, especially in the wake of the recent crisis in Argentina. Experience suggests that...

This paper examines trends in government spending in Latin America from the mid-1990s to 2006. It also examines key policy issues, including the cyclicality of spending, public investment, public employment, and social expenditures. It finds that primary expenditures have trended upward for the...

The recent recovery in Latin America has been impressive but also raises the question whether this represents a fundamental break with the region's history of boom-bust cycles. The paper traces how this history of macroeconomic volatility and financial crisis over the past century has adversely...

Brazil is frequently portrayed as exhibiting persistent and structural economic inequality that is rooted in the early colonial experience, and is believed to undermine development in the long run. I construct original measures of agricultural inequality for 1905 in what is today Brazil’s...

In this paper the aim is to characterize the existing relationship among public expenditure, social expenditure (and its different components) and volatility in Latin America. This is an issue not studied in the literature, which focuses on aggregate analysis. The source of information is ECLAC...

In this article we have as intention to study the relation that exists enters the implementation of the politics of structural adjustment and stabilization recommended by the FMI for Latin America, the fiscal crisis and the governability in the countries of the region, focusing the cases of...

Examines various ways of mobilizing resources for social and economic development. Considers the feasibility of resources mobilized by internationally coordinated action, through national and local governments, through community mobilization, from private charity and commercial enterprises and...

ILO pub-WEP pub. Working paper on effects of petroleum price increases on economic development in Egypt - discusses energy sources and power consumption using a simulation economic model and input output analysis; examines effects of price subsidies on energy conservation and the impact of price...

The paper discusses the NEPs implementation mechanism in China.