When it comes to their savings, households want to make sure they choose a type of investment that keeps their money safe and provides a reliable return. While in developed economies these requirements can be met by a simple bank account, in Latin America lack of trust in financial institutions discourages individuals from investing their savings in financial products. Some … [Read more...] about Argentina’s Residential Real Estate: A Magnet for Savings that Trumps Bank Accounts
Macroeconomics and Finance
Can Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?
To what extent is economic behavior determined by culture and to what extent by the economic environment? In an extensive IDB study entitled Saving for Development: How Latin America and the Caribbean Can Save More and Better, the authors consider culture as a possible factor in the region’s abysmally low savings rates. They enter, in the process, into a heated debate that has … [Read more...] about Can Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?
Designing Creative Policies to Generate Knowledge Spillover in R+D
Innovation is a driver of productivity and economic growth. Unfortunately, research and development expenditures to develop and adapt innovations in Latin America are very low, especially by its private sector. Rich in natural, human, and productive resources, the region’s potential is enormous, however. This calls for governments to create conditions that boost not only … [Read more...] about Designing Creative Policies to Generate Knowledge Spillover in R+D
Labor Informality and the Pension Disaster
For two decades beginning in the 1990s, Latin American and Caribbean nations became embroiled in a debate over which type of pension system would best provide for retired seniors. Populations were expected to rapidly age. Budgets were tight, and private and national savings rates, low. A way had to be found to guarantee retirements while increasing savings and leaving room for … [Read more...] about Labor Informality and the Pension Disaster
BREXIT: What Does It Mean for Latin America and the Caribbean?
The UK is a country of just 242 thousand square kilometers (compared to Mexico’s 1.9 mn, Argentina’s 2.7 mn and Brazil’s 8.4 mn) located about 7,000 km from Barbados and more than 7,500 km from anywhere on the mainland of Latin America (it’s just over 7,500 km from London to Simon Bolivar airport, Caracas and over 8,000 km to the Yucatan).[1] Considering Latin America’s two … [Read more...] about BREXIT: What Does It Mean for Latin America and the Caribbean?