'Once again, the quick capacity to overcome economic difficulties in 1995 was insufficient to mark improvements on the labor field.' -- ILO-Latin America, Editorial, Labor Outlook 1996 For the first time, this volume compares labor market flexibility across countries in Latin America and the United States. The study uses two performance variables, a price variable measured by real wages and a quantity variable measured alternatively by either employment or unemployment. This paper looks into the structural relationship between output and these variables across 13 countries in Latin America...

The fundamental elements to unlocking the potential of technology to speed up economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are investing in education, opening up new technologies through foreign trade and investment, and encouraging private sector research and development. 'Closing the Gap in Education and Technology' advises Latin American and Caribbean governments to address the region's deficits in skills and technology, and thereby boost productivity, ultimately improving growth prospects. To close this 'productivity gap' in the region, the report calls for a range of policy...

With the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean has been one of the regions of the world with the greatest inequality. 'Inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean' explores why the region suffers from such persistent inequality, identifies how it hampers development, and suggests ways to achieve greater equity in the distribution of wealth, incomes and opportunities. The study draws on data from 20 countries based on household surveys covering 3.6 million people, and reviews extensive economic, sociological and political science studies on inequality in Latin...

In Latin American and Caribbean history, rural societies have been at the center of both the origins of prosperity and of social upheaval. Rural communities have access to a wealth of natural resources, including arable land and forests, yet they face the highest poverty rates within countries. Characterized by low population densities and located far from the major urban centers, rural communities must overcome severe restrictions in their access to public services and private markets, even in some countries where public expenditures per inhabitant are higher in rural than in urban...

That raising income levels alleviates poverty, and that economic growth can be more or less effective in doing so, is well known and has received renewed attention in the search for pro-poor growth. What is less well explored is the reverse channel: that poverty may, in fact, be part of the reason for a country's poor growth performance. This more elaborated view of the development process opens the door to the existence of vicious circles in which low growth results in high poverty and high poverty in turn results in low growth. 'Poverty Reduction and Growth' is about the existence of these...

'Informality: Exit and Exclusion' analyzes informality in Latin America, exploring root causes and reasons for and implications of its growth. The authors use two distinct but complementary lenses: informality driven by 'exclusion'' from state benefits or the circuits of the modern economy, and driven by voluntary 'exit' decisions resulting from private cost-benefit calculations that lead workers and firms to opt out of formal institutions. They find both lenses have considerable explanatory power to understand the causes and consequences of informality in the region. 'Informality: Exit and...