Policymakers in emerging economies have long suffered sudden stops, those paralyzing episodes in which foreign credit dries up. Such episodes can cause painful domestic adjustments that exact significant losses in GDP. But not all sudden stops are equal, and they do not all inflict the same amount of pain. Take the case of Latin America. During the Tequila Crisis, when foreign … [Read more...] about What Are the Antidotes to Sudden Stops?
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Protecting Conditional Cash Transfers
Conditional cash transfers are powerful tools of social progress in Latin America and the Caribbean. They have reduced short-term poverty for tens of millions of people by providing a monthly stipend and have helped break the intergenerational transmission of poverty by linking financial assistance to behaviors that enhance human capital, like school attendance and health … [Read more...] about Protecting Conditional Cash Transfers
When Less Informality Means Less Inequality
To work in the informal sector, as roughly half of Latin Americans do, is to labor in the shadows. It often means working for firms that neither register with authorities, pay taxes or abide by labor regulations. It is to be deprived of health insurance and contributory pensions. And it generally means limited career advancement, as most firms employing informal workers do … [Read more...] about When Less Informality Means Less Inequality
Nudging Latin Americans to Healthier, More Prosperous Lives
The year 2017 may be the year behavioral economics found its place in the sun. Fifteen years after behavioral economics pioneer Daniel Kahneman won his Nobel Prize, its principles have been transformed into key policy tools in government, business, and development agencies. The 2017 Nobel Prize to Richard Thaler, one of its principle theoreticians and practitioners, only … [Read more...] about Nudging Latin Americans to Healthier, More Prosperous Lives
IDB-Columbia Course for Policymakers Opens for Applications
Columbia University and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) are offering the next edition of their popular executive course on macro-financial policymaking in emerging markets from April 23-27 in New York. Open to policymakers from developing world governments, as well as economists working in international financial institutions and investment bankers, the intensive … [Read more...] about IDB-Columbia Course for Policymakers Opens for Applications