Latin America has not neglected fiscal policy. Since the end of the debt crisis of the 1980s, governments in the region have tightened their belts assiduously. Fiscal deficits have fallen from 11 per cent of public revenues in the 1970s and 1980s, to only 8 per cent since 2000. The year-to-year...

Informal institutions — family and kinship structures,traditions, and social norms — not only matter for development, but they are often decisive factors in shaping policy outcomes in environments of weak states and poor governance structures. Based on concrete examples in the areas of...

This is a book about conflict. In that, it is certainly not alone, but it approaches the problem in four Sahelian countries from the standpoint of economic analysis. The authors have not ignored social, ethnic and historical factors which led to conflict, but have identified economic realities...

Donor agencies and policy makers tend to agree that increased access of women to education, health, credit, formal legal rights and employment opportunities, in conjunction with economic growth, will substantially improve the socio-economic role of women in developing countries. This paper...