This paper presents a retrospective review of several key areas of work of the Capital Markets and Financial Institutions Division (CMF) of the Inter-American Development Bank. Presented with each chapter as an independent piece, the paper analyzes the operations portfolio of CMF from 2006 to...

Competing in the world economy does not automatically boost a nation's productivity and restructure its economy. Such progress requires mobilizing capital, employment, technology and knowledge. Opportunities beyond the business realm must be fully exploited to the benfit of society as a whole....

Entrepreneurship contributes to a vibrant private sector and can stimulate broader economic growth. Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have experienced an important growth of microenterprises led by women, but little is known about the factors that explain this trend. This study,...

This paper aims to shed light on changes in the saving behavior of microentrepreneurs in response to improved access to credit. This paper argues that it is necessary to extend the analysis to the shifting of assets between different forms of savings. The econometric analysis in this paper,...

The IDB Group, guided by its Strategy for Microenterprise Development, has made the creation of a sustainable market of services to the sector one of its most important priorities during the past decade. This report presents an overview of the contributions the IDB has made to the...

A functional weakness of the training market is the extreme difficulty with which potential purchasers of "training" can gauge the quality of training programs in advance of payment. However, no training provider would allow a customer to delay payment of course fees until the course has been...

This document describes the efforts of the Department of Labor of Rio de Janeiro to build a comprehensive institutional framework focused on the promotion of a long run, micro-firm based local economic development model and to create a path to sustainable economic growth, job creation and...

This documents explains the basic principles and concepts of the Business Development Centers (BDC) model of Swisscontact, a company providing professional and vocational training, environmental protection and small enterprise development in 25 countries in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa...

This study provides a quantitative description of MSMEs in Latin America and the Caribbean. It highlights the quality of the information available in the region and, in doing so, also identifies gaps in the data. The study also presents a comparative analysis of the capacity of national MSME...

Socially and environmentally responsible business practices contribute to poverty relief and business success. This report presents some examples and lessons from private initiatives to solve business and social problems. Included are case studies of Procter & Gamble in Venezuela and Energía...