Productivity has long been recognized as a key determinant of global income disparities between countries. Recent studies suggest that around half of the differences in income per capita can be attributed to productivity variations. However, the question arises: what factors contribute to aggregate productivity? One prevailing view suggests that aggregate productivity is … [Read more...] about Understanding Income Disparities: The Role of Firm-Embedded Productivity
Global Giants and Local Stars: How Changes in Brand Ownership Affect Competition
Much has been written — much of it in alarm — about the observed increase in market concentration at the economy-wide level over the past 30 years. The evidence for this is uncontroversial: From 1997 to 2014, concentration increased in 75% of industries in the United States. It isn’t a big leap from there to conclude that this trend is reducing competition and increasing … [Read more...] about Global Giants and Local Stars: How Changes in Brand Ownership Affect Competition
Multinationals and the Structural Transformations of Economies
Recent decades have seen large structural transformations, with many agricultural economies moving towards more productive manufacturing activities and manufacturing-based economies evolving to more productive service-based ones. At the same time, global integration has grown in importance due to an extraordinary increase in the cross-border movement of goods, services, and … [Read more...] about Multinationals and the Structural Transformations of Economies
Boosting Trade to Alleviate Pressures from the Russia-Ukraine Conflict
When war broke out between Russia and Ukraine at the end of February, businesses and governments in Latin America and the Caribbean worried that the war's disruptions would cause significant harm to the region's trade. What now seems clear is that rather than being deeply harmed, Latin America and the Caribbean has a significant opportunity to step in, relieve supply … [Read more...] about Boosting Trade to Alleviate Pressures from the Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Boosting Trade in a Postpandemic World
Global value chains (GVCs) are essential to modern trade. Given the separation of production into several stages, carried out in different countries, GVCs allow nations to increase productivity through specialization. Yet Latin America and the Caribbean's participation in GVCs remains low (18%) compared to Asia (28%) and Europe (34%). The paradox of the COVID-19 crisis, … [Read more...] about Boosting Trade in a Postpandemic World