In this paper detailed information on the budget institutions of Latin American countries is collected. These institutions are classified on a hierarchical/collegial scale, as a function of the existence of constraints on the deficit and voting rules.

(Disponible en idioma inglés únicamente) Atribuir las crisis financieras a los ingresos de capitales de corto plazo se ha convertido en algo corriente, mientras que la inversión extranjera directa (IED) se considera una forma más segura de financiamiento. La relación entre las crisis y la...

In this paper, social mobility is measured by looking at the extent to which family background determines socioeconomic success. An index of social mobility for developing countries is proposed based on the correlation of schooling gaps between siblings.

Countries that are classified as having floating exchange rate systems (or very wide bands) show strikingly different patterns of behavior. They hold very different levels of international reserves and allow very different volatilities in the movements of the exchange rate relative to the...

India's fiscal problem has deep roots in its federal fiscal system, where multiple players find it difficult to coordinate adjustment. The size and closed nature of the Indian economy, aided by its deep domestic capital market and large captive pool of domestic savings, has disguised the cost of...

The literature on knowledge diffusion shows that knowledge decays strongly with distance. In this paper we document that the probability that a product is added to a country's export basket is, on average, 65% larger if a neighboring country is a successful exporter of that same product. For...

Income per capita in Uganda has doubled in the last 20 years. This remarkable performance has been buoyed by significant aid flows and large external imbalances. Economic growth has been concentrated in non-tradable activities leading to growing external imbalances and a growing gap between...

This document is an input to the IDB country strategy with Belize for the 2008-2012 period. In this study the Growth Diagnostic Model (GDM) is followed with the aim of identifying the binding constraints to Belize's growth. The constrained are defined as those constraints whose removal would...

The purpose of this paper is to apply new methodologies to analyze the history of and future opportunities for structural transformation in the Caribbean. We first look at the composition of exports from the Caribbean, and show that the region is specialized in relatively unsophisticated,...

In Justice Delayed, leading authorities on law and economics from Latin America and the United States analyze the problems of Latin America's judicial sector and propose strategies for solving them.Abstract: Este libro recoge los trabajos presentados en la Segunda Conferencia sobre Justicia y...