How can emerging markets protect themselves from abrupt shifts in cross-border banking flows? That has been a fundamental question for economic policymakers in recent years, including those entrusted with banking supervision in regions like Latin America and the Caribbean. In a study made available online in May, Gabriel Cuadra and I examine the issue, focusing on how … [Read more...] about Reducing Volatility from Cross-Border Banking Flows
Politics and Institutions
Can Latin America Ride the Wave of Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial intelligence (AI), with its self-teaching smart machines, will transform Latin America and the Caribbean. It will not happen immediately. But it is inevitable, and the region needs to ensure that legislation and regulations are in place so that AI increases productivity without harming privacy or abetting discrimination. There is no time to lose. AI in the region, … [Read more...] about Can Latin America Ride the Wave of Artificial Intelligence?
A Unique Database Charts Latin America’s Deepening Democracy
This year's update to the Database of Political Institutions marks its 17th year of tracking institutional and electoral data for countries from around the world, and the second update at its new permanent home at the IDB. Researchers at the World Bank Development Research Group first compiled the database in 2000, coding institutional and electoral variables for 180 countries … [Read more...] about A Unique Database Charts Latin America’s Deepening Democracy
Send Us Your Research Papers on Crime and Policy
The latest ranking of the world's deadliest cities continues a sad pattern: the overwhelming majority—43 out of 50—are in Latin America and the Caribbean, with Los Cabos in Mexico topping the list. Many of the reasons behind this state of affairs are chronic—weak institutions; impunity; poverty; inequality and growing urbanization—all feeding and, at the same time, … [Read more...] about Send Us Your Research Papers on Crime and Policy
How the Right to Vote Sparks Political Interest
Little more than half of the respondents captured in the latest regional survey of Chile-based Latinobarómetro thought democracy was the best form of government – a ten-year low that indicates weakness in Latin America's democracies. But does this mean citizens are losing their interest in voting, democracy's most sacred right? In a recently published study, Carlos Scartascini … [Read more...] about How the Right to Vote Sparks Political Interest