A growing number of cities around the world have established systems for monitoring the quality of urban life. Many of those systems combine objective information with subjective opinions and cover a wide variety of topics. This book assesses a method that takes advantage of both types of information and offers criteria to identify and rank the issues of potential importance for urban dwellers. This method--which combines the so-called 'hedonic price' and 'life satisfaction' approaches to value public goods--was tested in pilot studies in six Latin American cities: Bogota, Buenos Aires, Lima,...
A growing number of cities around the world have established systems for monitoring the quality of urban life. Many of those systems combine objective...
While there is a strongly held belief that Latin American societies are highly discriminatory, the economic profession has found relatively little evidence for this perception, and until recently other social sciences had prevailed in the discussion of this timely and relevant topic. The development of new tools for analyzing the economic mechanisms underlying discrimination, however, has opened up several avenues for research. This book presents a set of studies on contemporary discrimination in Latin America that takes advantage of these new tools by focusing on social interactions that...
While there is a strongly held belief that Latin American societies are highly discriminatory, the economic profession has found relatively little evi...
Early childhood development outcomes play an important role throughout a person's life, affecting one's income-earning capacity and productivity, longevity, health, and cognitive ability. The deleterious effects of poor early childhood development outcomes can be long-lasting, affecting school attainment, employment, wages, criminality, and social integration of adults. The authors first take stock of early childhood development indicators in the region and explore access to early childhood development services for children of different backgrounds. They review recent evidence on the impact...
Early childhood development outcomes play an important role throughout a person's life, affecting one's income-earning capacity and productivity, long...
Mandatory defined contribution pension markets are present in a growing number of countries around the world. But despite their popularity, policymakers continue to struggle with two key policy concerns. On the one hand, a number of design shortcomings encourages pension firms to charge high administrative fees. On the other hand, the global crisis that started in 2007 has reignited the debate on whether pension participants bear excessive investment risk. Both are valid policy concerns as their incidence can imply higher than expected levels of poverty among old age individuals. Both...
Mandatory defined contribution pension markets are present in a growing number of countries around the world. But despite their popularity, policymake...
This book is motivated by the emerging rehabilitation of industrial policies as a tool for supporting economic transformation and high rates of growth in developing countries. It argues that underperforming disciples of the Washington Consensus' 'market fundamentalism' should learn and practice the art of systemic industrial policies, which requires a medium-long term strategic perspective and intelligent proactive state interventions in markets. However, it also stresses that rehabilitation requires that industrial policies be developed and implemented in a context of home- grown...
This book is motivated by the emerging rehabilitation of industrial policies as a tool for supporting economic transformation and high rates of growth...
After a sustained economic growth period at the end of the last century and the beginning of this one, Latin America still faces high inequality and lower well-being indicators among women, afro-descendants, and indigenous peoples. This is a period in which the world and particularly Latin America has experienced important changes regarding the role of women and men. Marriage, education and work decisions have evolved and, as a result, women's visibility at home, at school, in the labor markets and in society have evolved as well. But there are still, however, important challenges in the...
After a sustained economic growth period at the end of the last century and the beginning of this one, Latin America still faces high inequality and l...
Since the 1990s, the financial systems in developing and developed countries have gained in soundness, depth, and diversity, prompted in part by a series of financial sector and macroeconomic reforms aimed at fostering a market-driven economy in which finance plays a central role. Latin America has been one of the regions at the forefront of these changes and offers a good laboratory of where the challenges in financial development lie. Despite all the gains in financial development, there is still a nagging contrast between the intensity of financial sector reforms implemented over the past...
Since the 1990s, the financial systems in developing and developed countries have gained in soundness, depth, and diversity, prompted in part by a ser...
This book looks at both the potential and limits of policies to promote entrepreneurship as an important vehicle for social mobility in Latin America and the Caribbean. Who are the region's entrepreneurs? They tend to be middle-aged males with secondary and, often, tertiary education who represent only a small segment of the economically active population in the six countries considered in this book. They come from families in which a parent is, or was, an entrepreneur. In fact, a parent's occupation is more important in the decision to become an entrepreneur than a parent's wealth, income or...
This book looks at both the potential and limits of policies to promote entrepreneurship as an important vehicle for social mobility in Latin America ...
Investments in education across countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have transformed the lives of millions of girls and the prospects of their families and societies. Unleashing the full economic potential of women is nevertheless still a curtailed issue in the region: just about half of women are unable to participate in paid work. The majority of the population out of the labor market is women between the ages of 24 and 45. This is the largest share of the available pool of unused human capital countries have, and where mothers of young children are concentrated. This book argues...
Investments in education across countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have transformed the lives of millions of girls and the prospects of thei...
