This study reports on recent development and future potential for US-based Guatemalan workers cross-border retail transfers to be more formal, cheaper, and prone to cross-sale of financial products and services. It also presents the key features of remitt

Based on comprehensive empirical studies, the paper identifies key reforms and defines strategies to enhance the competitiveness of the cotton sector in West and Central Africa. Lessons learned from the 1990s suggest that transferring public property to private enterprises is not enough, by itself, to put the sector back on a sustainable path. The cotton sector in most West and Central African countries is critical in terms of its contribution to GDP and exports as well as poverty reduction. Until recently, the cotton sector was characterized by a vertically integrated monopolistic structure,...

'Structured Finance in Latin America' explores how structured finance mechanisms can channel pension savings to support projects in underserved sectors, deepen capital markets, and contribute to investment and economic growth. Private pension funds have been accumulating assets rapidly in the wake of pension system reforms in many Latin American countries. Strict investment regulations to protect workers' savings have limited their investment in highly creditworthy domestic securities, yet pension fund demand for new securities has outstripped issuance of eligible traditional corporate debt...