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This book analyzes the reasons for lackluster performance selected Latin American countries in mobilizing subnational own-source revenues and explores policy options to increase these revenues as efficiently and equitably as possible. Seven case studies--Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela--span a wide range of characteristics, including federal and unitary countries, different geographical sizes, levels of economic development, and degrees of revenue decentralization. In this book, subnational governments include both intermediate and local levels of government, which are distinguished in the case studies. Together, the case studies provide a reasonably representative picture of the challenges faced throughout Latin America in mobilizing subnational own-source revenues in a manner that supports equitable growth.
Promotion of foreign direct investment (FDI) has been a priority policy goal in Central America, Panama and Dominican Republic for the past twenty years. Fiscal benefits are among the policies that have been used to attract it. At first sight the model followed has been fruitful. In 2013 the eight countries of the region succeeded in attracting US$ 12.7 billion, the highest level of FDI in their history. But there are question marks about how FDI will perform in future and what the incentives to promote it should be now that World Trade Organization rules on the instruments used to promote FDI in the region have changed. The present book analyzes this situation in depth. Firstly, it reviews ...
This edited volume focuses on the attempts of various Caribbean countries to diversify their economies and societies. It is done in the context of political and economic difficulties that these countries have faced since the 2007-2008 economic crash and how successful they have been in moving their economies in a different direction. The contributors use very distinct levels of analysis in order to provide a nuanced view of diversification efforts in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Cuba, the French Antilles, and the Dutch Antilles. The book will appeal to academic researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and everyone who is interested in the politics and development of the Caribbean region.
This book offers an in-depth analysis of the political economy of soybean production in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, by identifying the dominant private and public actors and control mechanisms that have given rise to a corporate-driven, vertically integrated system of regionalized agricultural production in the Southern Cone of South America. The current agricultural boom surrounding soybean production has been aided by aggressive new agro-technologies, including biotechnology, leading to massive organizational changes in the agricultural sector and a significant rise in the power of special interest groups and corporations. Despite having similar initial production conditions, the pattern of economic activity surrounding soybean production in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, continues to be largely determined by the needs of the multinational corporations involved, rather than national considerations of comparative advantage. The author uses these findings to argue that the new international model of agricultural production empowers chemical and trading multinational companies over national governments.
When countries discover that they possess large deposits of oil and natural gas, the news is usually welcome. Yet, paradoxically, if they rely on their wealth of natural resources, they often set down a path of poor economic performance and governance challenges. Only a few resource-rich countries have managed to develop their economies fully and provide a better and sustainable standard of living for large segments of their populations. This phenomenon, known as the resource curse, is a core challenge for energy-exporting states. Beyond the Resource Curse focuses on this relationship between natural wealth and economic security, discussing the particular pitfalls and consistent perils facin...
Editor's description : "During the past two decades, Latin American countries have made pioneering efforts in reforming infrastructure services. The "first generation of reforms" encompassed widespread privatization, deregulation and restructuring of the provision of energy, water, transport and telecommunications services. Second-Generation Reforms in Infrastructure Services evaluates the current challenges, leading to the consolidation of the initial reforms. This volume deals with post-privatization dispute settlement mechanisms, access arrangements in network industries, and inroads to effective competition in the reformed industries. The authors evaluate a set of contractual adjustments resulting from renegotiations and disputes that have taken place since the beginning of the reform process. In an effort to promote competition in the provision of public services, the authors suggest some practical rules for pricing access in network industries. The book presents a dynamic, global vision of second-generation reforms underway in energy markets around the world. - See more at: https://publications.iadb.org/handle/11319/310#sthash.M23WTIKV.dpuf"
The Argentine crisis witnessed, among other things, a deposit run, the suspension of deposit convertibility, and a "boom" in the stock market. The authors argue that this boom reflects the cost that depositors were willing to incur to get their money out of the banking system, in light of the impending risks. This boom was generalized to all stocks and more pronounced in liquid stocks. Furthermore, the boom was a symptom that deposits were effectively restricted and that investors were not able to circumvent capital controls. This paper--a product of Macroeconomics and Growth, Development Research Group--is part of a larger effort in the group to understand financial crises.
This book argues that Latin America has a distinctive, enduring form of hierarchical capitalism characterized by multinational corporations, diversified business groups, low skills and segmented labor markets. Over time, institutional complementarities knit features of corporate governance and labor markets together and thus contribute to institutional resiliency. Political systems generally favored elites and insiders who further reinforced existing institutions and complementarities. Hierarchical capitalism has not promoted rising productivity, good jobs or equitable development, and the efficacy of development strategies to promote these outcomes depends on tackling negative institutional complementarities. This book is intended to open a new debate on the nature of capitalism in Latin America and link that discussion to related research on comparative capitalism in other parts of the world.
This Handbook explores and explains new developments in the _second generation‘ theory of public finance, in which benevolent rulers and governments have been replaced by personally motivated politicians and the associated institutions. Following a com
Managing resource revenues is a critical policy issue for small open resource-rich countries. This paper uses an open economy dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model to analyze the transmission of resource price shocks and a shock to resource production in the Trinidad and Tobago economy. It also applies alternative fiscal rules to determine the optimal allocation of resource windfalls between spending today and saving in a sovereign wealth fund. The results show that spending all the resource windfall on consumption and investment creates more volatility and amplifies Dutch disease effects, when compared to the case where all the excess revenues are saved. Also, neither a policy of full spending nor full saving of the surplus revenue inflows is optimal if the government is concerned about both household welfare and fiscal stability. In order to minimize deviations from both objectives, the optimal fiscal response suggests that a larger fraction of the resource windfalls should be saved.