El objetivo general de la estrategia del Banco para el desarrollo de la microempresa (GN-1938-3) es promover las condiciones necesarias para el crecimiento y desarrollo del sector en la región: una política y régimen regulador favorables, instituciones sólidas y sostenibles que ofrezcan...

This book presents but a few examples of the many Bank-financed productive activities carried out by the people of the region, and pays tribute to the women and men who, in their efforts to succeed, daily renew their hopes for a better future. In addition, the book pays tribute to the...

For women microentrepreneurs, access to financial services matters. It is critical to their ability to make productive investments in their businesses. As part of IDB's efforts to strengthen women's roles in economic development, the Women in Development Unit undertook a study to analyze the...

This study was prepared for the Financial Services and Poverty Reduction research project and was presented at the conference with the same name held at Bank headquarters in September of 2004. It first establishes the considerable welfare cost borne by the region's poor when facing uncovered...

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for understanding and analyzing how business regulations affect small and microenterprises. In doing so, it also makes a case for why particular attention should be paid to the process of initial registration of businesses and why this is a promising...

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,...

This study assesses poverty in the microenterprise sector in Latin America, presenting stylized facts on potential poverty risk factors at the household and individual levels. The goal of the paper is to describe the main trends in the region and the scope of the paper is limited to a...

The purpose of this paper is fourfold. First, it seeks to highlight the general characteristics of the microenterprise sector and the microfinance industry in the Anglophone Caribbean. Second, it will examine the main factors that help explain the differences in the development of sustainable...

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 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...