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Why has an economy that has done so many things right failed to grow fast? Under-Rewarded Efforts traces Mexico’s disappointing growth to flawed microeconomic policies that have suppressed productivity growth and nullified the expected benefits of the country’s reform efforts. Fast growth will not occur doing more of the same or focusing on issues that may be key bottlenecks to productivity growth elsewhere, but not in Mexico. It will only result from inclusive institutions that effectively protect workers against risks, redistribute towards those in need, and simultaneously align entrepreneurs’ and workers’ incentives to raise productivity.
Conditional cash transfer programs are based on a simple, yet powerful premise: creating adequate incentives today to stimulate the accumulation of human capital in poor families can provide future generations with the opportunity to generate their own higher incomes. Looking at the experience of Progresa-Oportunidades--the oldest such program whose results after 10 years provide valuable lessons--offers the opportunity to examine whether the youth of Progresa-Oportunidades, in a not too distant future, will be able to find productive jobs that allow them to escape the poverty that has trapped their parents. In this study, Santiago Levy looks at this question from an innovative perspective, analyzing how the intrinsic structure of incentives created by a set of social policies can aid or inhibit the achievement of the principal objective of Progresa-Oportunidades: to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty. This study can help spark a discussion in many countries on the links between social policy, productivity growth and, in turn, poverty reduction.
Despite various reform efforts, Mexico has experienced economic stability but little growth. Today more than half of all Mexican workers are employed informally, and one out of every four is poor. Good Intentions, Bad Outcomes argues that incoherent social programs significantly contribute to this state of affairs and it suggests reforms to improve the situation. Over the past decade, Mexico has channeled an increasing number of resources into subsidizing the creation of low-productivity, informal jobs. These social programs have hampered growth, fostered illegality, and provided erratic protection to workers, trapping many in poverty. Informality has boxed Mexico into a dilemma: provide ben...
Despite progress in communication technologies, lack of information still severely handicaps companies seeking to operate in international markets. Furthermore, the investments that these companies must make to gather the information required to trade with foreign markets may yield reduced returns and may consequently be low from a social point of view as third parties may derive benefits from this same information. Thus, lack of information may negatively affect trade, and thereby productivity and economic growth. For these reasons, firms carrying out export projects may require support to overcome information barriers. This is precisely the service that export promotion organizations provi...
This book comments on serious social, economic, political, historical, environmental and other issues which have tested our elected governments from both parties. It points out areas of Constitutional conflict, political inertia, selective law enforcement and others that pose a real peril to our republic. Whether in our foreign, economic, immigration, health care, agricultural or other policy choices, it finds a common thread which ties our elected representatives to the service of interests that are special rather than national. At the root of these failed policy and legislative efforts is an equally damaging failure of our electoral system whereby money is dominant and delivers a Congress ...
The World Development Report, now in its 24th edition, is the standard reference work for international economic data. It contains an appendix of social and economic statistics for more than 200 countries. World Development Report 2001--Institutions for Markets--focuses on the performance of transition countries in their progress toward market economies. This edition is centered around the issues related to market reform and how reforms can improve and sustain living standards. It answers such questions as: How can institutions better support markets? and What are the institutions which make markets effective in delivering inclusive growth?
The World Politics of Social Investment consists of two companion volumes The World Politics of Social Investment: Volume I Welfare States in the Knowledge Economy Volume I introduces social investment and develops a theory on the political and socio-economic conditions for the development of social investment policies around the globe, studies the impact of the main explanatory factors on the empirical variety of social investment reforms and proposes a new typology of different welfare reform strategies. The world Politics of Social Investment: Volume II The Politics of Varying Social Investment Strategies Volume II traces the development of social investment reforms across the regions of Nordic, Continental, and Southern Europe; Control and Eastern Europe: North and Latin America; and North East Asia. Book jacket.
First published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
"The theme of The World Development Report 2007 is youth - young people between the ages of 12 to 24. As this population group seeks identity and independence, they make decisions that affect not only their own well-being, but that of others, and they do this in a rapidly changing demographic and socio-economic environment. Supporting young people's transition to adulthood poses important opportunities and risky challenges for development policy. Are education systems preparing young people to cope with the demands of changing economies? What kind of support do they get as they enter the labor market? Can they move freely to where the jobs are? What can be done to help them avoid serious consequences of risky behavior, such as death from HIV-AIDS and drug abuse? Can their creative energy be directed productively to support development thinking? The report will focus on crucial capabilities and transitions in a young person's life: learning for life and work, staying healthy, working, forming families, and exercising citizenship. For each, there are opportunities and risks; for all, policies and institutions matter."