It has been a good couple of years for those fighting corruption in the Americas. Since May of this year, the leaders of the New York State Senate and Assembly were sentenced to terms ranging from 5-12 years in prison on charges including bribery, extortion and money laundering. A federal congressman from Philadelphia was convicted on more than two dozen charges, including … [Read more...] about Latin America: Turning the Corner on Corruption?
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?
Trimming the Fat for Better Growth
Why do governments need to save? In large part, for some of the same reasons people and firms need to save: to invest and help their economies grow and prosper. Public saving may make up less of national saving than household or corporate saving in Latin America and the Caribbean. But it is nonetheless vital to overall economic health. Greater public saving would allow … [Read more...] about Trimming the Fat for Better Growth
Tackling Crime and Pollution Together
Crime represents a major concern for Latin Americans. Increasingly, so does pollution. It is unusual, though, to consider relationships and tradeoffs between them. Yet these are precisely the issues explored by Visiting Scholar Paul Carrillo and his George Washington University colleagues Arun Malik and Andrea López in a recent study for the IDB. The authors took as their case … [Read more...] about Tackling Crime and Pollution Together
Finding the Recipe for Successful Productive Development Policies
Latin America boasts a wealth of creativity and resources. Since the turn of the century, its creative industries—from Argentina to Colombia to Mexico—have been flourishing. However, the region has been getting bad grades in productivity, a key ingredient for development. Its levels of research and development are low. Compared to rich countries, its productivity has been … [Read more...] about Finding the Recipe for Successful Productive Development Policies