Latin America's historically low saving rates and sub-par growth performance raise the question of whether the region should save more to grow faster. Economists generally resist acknowledging a policy-exploitable causal connection going from saving to growth because domestic saving is perceived...

Financial crises can happen for a variety of reasons: (a) nobody really understands what is going on (the collective cognition paradigm); (b) some understand better than others and take advantage of their knowledge (the asymmetric information paradigm); (c) everybody understands, but crises are...

This paper examines the conceptual foundations of macroprudential policy by reviewing the literature on financial frictions from a policy perspective that systematically links state interventions to market failures. The method consists in gradually incorporating into the Arrow-Debreu world a...

This paper explores the conceptual foundations of macroprudential policy. It does so within a framework that gradually incorporates and interacts two types of frictions (principal-agent and collective action) with two forms of rationality (full and bounded), all in the context of aggregate...

There are three stakeholders in a public-private partnership (PPP), (a) the government in office, (b) private firms (financial and non-financial) and investors (individual and institutional), and (c) final beneficiaries (taxpayers or users, present and future). The raison detre of PPPs is...

This semiannual report produced by the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) of the World Bank - analyzes the economic and financial performance of LAC in light of the commodity price cycle. Chapter 1 covers short-term prospects, identifies the external factors...

Este reporte explora la restructuracion de la economia global ocasionada por el ascenso del Sur y destaca la transformacion en los patrones de integracion global de ALC y las consecuencias de esta transformacion en la dinamica del desarrollo de la region. En particular, se analiza de forma...

In this study, the authors analyze where we stand and where we are heading on capital market development. More specifically, this study has three main goals. First, the authors take stock of the state and evolution of Latin American capital markets and related reforms, over time and relative to...

This report, produced by the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) of the World Bank, examines LAC's challenges as the global economy settles to an equilibrium with lower growth and lower commodity prices. Chapter 1 gives an overview of the world economy and how...

Este informe semestral, producido por la Oficina del Economista Jefe para America Latina y el Caribe del Banco Mundial, examina los retos a los que America Latina y el Caribe (LAC por sus siglas en ingles, Latin America and the Caribbean) se enfrentan en el corto y medio plazo conforme pierden...