With more than 70 percent of its population living in cities, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is among the most urbanized regions in the world.
... See More + Yet, even though LAC cities are, on average, more productive than those elsewhere in the world, their productivity lags that of North American and Western European cities. Closing this gap will help LAC countries raise their living standards and be among the world’s richest countries. Raising the Bar for Productive Cities in Latin America and the Caribbean explores the productivity of LAC cities and the factors that explain it. Using original empirical research, the book documents the relatively high population density, strong concentration of human capital in the largest cities, and other features of LAC cities that distinguish them from cities in the rest of the world. This book also explores how three key factors—urban form, skills, and access to markets—determine productivity in LAC cities. Although these cities benefit strongly from human capital and skills, they fail to reap the wider benefits of agglomeration. This is, in part, due to an inadequate enabling environment, as well as excessive congestion forces associated with infrastructure deficiencies and lack of administrative coordination within metropolitan areas. Further, the poor integration of LAC cities within countries contributes to large performance differences across cities and undermines cities’ aggregate contribution to national productivity. Raising the Bar will be of interest to policy makers, researchers, and the public at large.
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Since 2016, the World Bank’s Water and Governance Global Practices have been implementing the Policy, Institutional and Regulatory (PIR) Incentives Initiative to gain deeper insight into the dynamics between water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector incentive mechanisms.
... See More + PIR is a global framework for understanding factors that can contribute to positive sector outcomes at the country level. This knowledge brief uses a PIR framework to provide a snapshot of the experiences of five countries in South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. The brief showcases the wide variety of incentives created by governments to successfully motivate people (as individuals or as part of an institution) to do their part in an integrated PIR system and how a lack of such integration may produce perverse incentives that prohibit the achievement of sector goals. Governments looking to strengthen the WSS sector should, therefore, take a holistic approach to sector reform and one that seeks to align PIR incentives through integrated interventions. This alignment includes harmonization between sector objectives, rules of the game, and mechanisms for implementation. Of critical importance is the financial and human resource capacity of sector institutions. Countries in South America need to move beyond the technical solutions that enabled them to achieve the MDGs and in the process carefully consider the drivers for reform and the best fit for the prevailing institutional context.
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After a growth slowdown that lasted six years, the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region has finally turned the corner and resumed growth at a modest rate of 1.1 percent in 2017 and 1.8 percent expected in 2018.
... See More + This reflects a more favorable external environment, particularly a recovery in commodity prices. In spite of the benign external environment, most LAC countries still face a fragile fiscal situation. While gradual fiscal adjustments have started in several countries, most countries are still running fiscal deficits and debt levels are high. Further fiscal consolidation is needed to preserve the substantial gains achieved by the region in recent times, in terms of lower inflation, less poverty and inequality, and inclusive growth. This Semiannual Report analyzes the complex decisions regarding fiscal adjustment policies
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Policy makers throughout Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) will like to understand how best to leverage recent and ongoing global, business-relevant technologies to support productivity upgrading with inclusion.
... See More + This report discusses technology adoption and its impact on inclusive growth through productivity, jobs, types of skills, and wages in Latin America. The report focuses particularly on two dimensions of inclusive economic growth: overall job growth, and how less-skilled, less well-off workers can also benefit from technology adoption. The book’s focus on five middle-income countries - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico is dictated both by the availability of high-quality data and by the differentially paced penetration of digital technologies in the LAC region. The evidence and conclusions presented in this report are relevant for lower income countries in the LAC region and for helping to understand the impacts of the adoption of other types of technologies beyond information and communication technology (ICT) that reduce costs and expand firms’ sales opportunities. This report investigates three channels linking technology adoption with more inclusive growth: a sufficiently large firm-level output expansion effect, a market access effect that increases smaller firms’ relative demand for lower-skilled workers, and a worker mobility effect that lowers cross-sectoral and cross regional worker mobility costs through better Internet access. This report is organized around the following issues: chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two provides a succinct context underpinning the importance of fostering productivity with more inclusive growth through digital technology adoption. Chapter three lays out the core assumptions and implications of a conceptual framework for technology adoption that realistically assumes that both firms and workers are heterogeneous agents. Chapter four discusses new learning from the region on the impacts of technology adoption. Chapter five discusses the main policy implications related to improving the broadly defined business environment, including technology diffusion support policies, product market policies, and education, skills, and labor market policies. Chapter six concludes by summarizing the main findings and outlining some questions for further research.
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Policy makers throughout Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) will like to understand how best to leverage recent and ongoing global, business-relevant technologies to support productivity upgrading with inclusion.
... See More + This report discusses technology adoption and its impact on inclusive growth through productivity, jobs, types of skills, and wages in Latin America. The report focuses particularly on two dimensions of inclusive economic growth: overall job growth, and how less-skilled, less well-off workers can also benefit from technology adoption. The book’s focus on five middle-income countries - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico is dictated both by the availability of high-quality data and by the differentially paced penetration of digital technologies in the LAC region. The evidence and conclusions presented in this report are relevant for lower income countries in the LAC region and for helping to understand the impacts of the adoption of other types of technologies beyond information and communication technology (ICT) that reduce costs and expand firms’ sales opportunities. This report investigates three channels linking technology adoption with more inclusive growth: a sufficiently large firm-level output expansion effect, a market access effect that increases smaller firms’ relative demand for lower-skilled workers, and a worker mobility effect that lowers cross-sectoral and cross regional worker mobility costs through better Internet access. This report is organized around the following issues: chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two provides a succinct context underpinning the importance of fostering productivity with more inclusive growth through digital technology adoption. Chapter three lays out the core assumptions and implications of a conceptual framework for technology adoption that realistically assumes that both firms and workers are heterogeneous agents. Chapter four discusses new learning from the region on the impacts of technology adoption. Chapter five discusses the main policy implications related to improving the broadly defined business environment, including technology diffusion support policies, product market policies, and education, skills, and labor market policies. Chapter six concludes by summarizing the main findings and outlining some questions for further research.
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After a growth slowdown that lasted six years, including a contraction of one percent of real Gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016, the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region has finally turned the corner and resumed an increasing growth path.
... See More + Specifically, LAC is estimated to have grown by 1.1 percent in 2017 and expected to grow by 1.8 percent in 2018 and 2.3 percent in 2019. Finally, while the long-awaited monetary policy normalization in the United States is firming up, emerging markets can take solace in its very gradual nature. The external environment continues to provide a gentle push to the region’s growth. Given the benign external environment, the fragile fiscal situation of most LAC countries continues to be the main macroeconomic concern. In the long run, lower fiscal deficits, and hence lower public debt burdens would help consolidate the impressive gains achieved by the region in terms of lowering inflation, reducing poverty and inequality, and increasing long-run growth. This book is arranged as follows. Chapter 1 discusses about the growth and fiscal challenges in LAC region. Chapter 2, the core of the report, takes a detailed look at the short and long-run effects of fiscal adjustments in the region and how they have evolved over time. Chapter 3 reviews the recent growth performance in the LAC region and conducted a detailed analysis of the current fragile fiscal situation, including getting a quantitative sense of the order of magnitude of the fiscal adjustments that may be needed and the short and long-run effects of such fiscal adjustments.
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A set of case studies were prepared as part of the World Bank’s Water Global Practice initiative “Wastewater. Shifting paradigms: from waste to resource” to document existing experiences in the water sector on the topic.
... See More + The case studies highlight innovative financing and contractual arrangements, innovative regulations and legislation and innovative project designs that promote integrated planning, resource recovery and that enhance the financial and environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment plants. This case study documents San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
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A set of case studies was prepared as part of the World Bank’s Water Global Practice initiative 'Wastewater. Shifting paradigms: from waste to resource' to document existing experiences in the water sector on the topic.
... See More + The case studies highlight innovative financing and contractual arrangements, innovative regulations and legislation and innovative project designs that promote integrated planning, resource recovery and that enhance the financial and environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment plants. This case study documents Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.
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set of case studies were prepared as part of the World Bank’s Water Global Practice initiative “Wastewater. Shifting paradigms: from waste to resource” to document existing experiences in the water sector on the topic.
... See More + The case studies highlight innovative financing and contractual arrangements, innovative regulations and legislation and innovative project designs that promote integrated planning, resource recovery and that enhance the financial and environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment plants. This case study documents Atotonilco de Tula, Mexico.
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