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Searching for Latin America and Caribbean

Showing 3621-3630 of 3946 results

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  • Document

    Moving to Greener Pastures? Multinationals and the Pollutionhaven Hypothesis

    Policy Research Working Papers, World Bank, 1999
    Eskeland and Harrison find almost no evidence that investors in developing countries are fleeing environmental costs at home. Instead, the evidence suggests that foreign owned plants in four developing countries are less polluting than comparable domestic plants.Are multinationals flocking to "pollution havens" in developing countries?
  • Document

    Transport costs and "natural" integration in Mercosur

    Policy Research Working Papers, World Bank, 1997
    Geographic proximity and lower transportation costs are probably not enough for Mercosur to reap big rewards as a "natural" trading bloc.Amjadi and Winters explore the argument that trade between the Mercosur countries should be stimulated by preferential policies because of their geographic proximity.
  • Document

    Are markets learning? : behavior in the secondary market for Brady bonds

    Policy Research Working Papers, World Bank, 1997
    Traders' behaviour in assessing the sovereign risk of Brady countries is not constant over time - and it responds especially to market uncertainty. Herd behaviour increases with risk, leading (in a volatile environment) to even more volatility.Over time, however, as traders' experience and information stock grows, risk premia may become less volatile.
  • Document

    Does Mercosur's trade performance raise concerns about the effects of regional trade arrangements?

    Policy Research Working Papers, World Bank, 1997
    Do the discriminatory trade barriers applied in regional trade arrangements encourage highcost imports from member countries at the expense of lowercost goods from nonmembers?
  • Document

    The economics of the informal sector : a simple model and some empirical evidence from Latin America

    Policy Research Working Papers, World Bank, 1997
    An increase in the size of the informal sector hurts growth by reducing the availability for public services for everyone in the economy and increasing the number of activities that uses ome existing public services less efficiently or not at all.Loayza presents the view that informal economies arise when governments impose excessive taxes and regulations that they are unable to enforce.Loa
  • Document

    Access to long term debt and effects on firms' performance : lessons from Ecuador

    Policy Research Working Papers, World Bank, 1997
    Does the availability of long-term financing affecta firm's productivity (by facilitating access to more productive technologies) and capital accumulation?
  • Document

    Information, Incentives, and Commitment: An Empirical Analysis of Contracts between Government and State Enterprises

    Policy Research Working Papers, World Bank, 1999
    Written performance contracts, widely touted as a way to help state owned enterprises improve performance, seem to fail. Why? Because information asymmetry, lack of government commitment, and lack of managerial commitment lead to weak incentives and shirking.
  • Document

    Pension Reform: Is There a Tradeoff between Efficiency and Equity?

    Policy Research Working Papers, World Bank, 1999
    The pension reforms being undertaken in Latin America seem to be improving efficiency and growth, but they should also be designed to improve equity. It is possible for pension reform to improve both equity and efficiency - producing a winwin situation rather than a tradeoff.
  • Document

    New Systems for Old Age Security: Theory, Practice, and Empirical Evidence

    Policy Research Working Papers, World Bank, 1999
    Initial empirical investigations suggest that countries concerned about growth should consider pension reform a potentially powerful tool for improving the welfare of both old and young.James summarizes the major findings and recommendations in Averting the Old Age Crisis, describing problems in traditional pension systems and proposals for reform.
  • Document

    Institutional Obstacles to Doing Business: Region by Region Results from a Worldwide Survey of the Private Sector

    Policy Research Working Papers, World Bank, 1999
    More than 3,600 entrepreneurs world-wide respond to a survey about problems with uncertainty in dealings with the state.Case studies and anecdotal evidence have suggested that uncertainty about policies, laws, and regulations has hampered development of the private sector in many developing countries.

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