Luis Serven

William F. Maloney

Daniel Lederman

William Francis Maloney

Analyzing the experience of Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the authors draw lessons for other countries considering free trade agreements with the United States. The authors conclude that NAFTA raised external trade and foreign investment inflows and had a modest effect on Mexico’s average income per person. It is likely that NAFTA also helped achieve a modest reduction in poverty and an improvement in job quality. However, major obstacles remain to Mexico’s long term development—NAFTA is not enough. The main lesson for other countries is that free trade agreements offer opportunities to accelerate economic growth, but do not guarantee it.

for Latin America and the Caribbean

Lessons from NAFTA

Jamele Rigolini

Julian Messina

Samuel Pienknagura

El emprendimiento es un determinante fundamental del crecimiento y la creación de empleo. Pese a que los emprendedores abundan en América Latina y el Caribe, las empresas de la región son más pequeñas y menos propensas a crecer e innovar que las de otras regiones. El crecimiento de la productividad lleva décadas siendo mediocre y el reciente period de auge de las materias primas no ha supuesto una excepción. Así pues, la presencia de emprendedores dinámicos será necesaria para impulsar la creación de puestos de trabajo de calidad y la aceleración del crecimiento de la productividad en la región. En El emprendimiento en América Latina: muchas empresas y poca innovación se estudia el panorama del emprendimiento en América Latina y el Caribe. El libro recurre a nuevas bases de datos que abordan cuestiones como la creación de empresas, las dinámicas empresariales, las decisiones de exportar y el comportamiento de las corporaciones multinacionales y sintetiza los resultados de un análisis exhaustivo del estatus, las perspectivas y los retos del emprendimiento en la región. Asimismo, el libro suministra herramientas útiles e información para ayudar a los profesionales y responsables de las políticas a identificar los ámbitos de las mismas que los gobiernos pueden explorar para impulsar la innovación e incentivar el emprendimiento transformador con potencial de crecimiento elevado.

Muchas empresas y poca innovación

El Emprendimiento en América Latina

Justin T. Lesniak

Does economic size matter for economic development outcomes? If so are current policies adequately addressing the role of size in the development process? Using working age population as a proxy for country size, Open and Nimble, systematically analyzes what makes small economies unique. Small economies are not necessarily prone to underdevelopment and in fact can achieve very high income levels. Small economies, however, do tend to be highly open to both international trade and foreign direct investment, have highly specialized export structures, and have large government expenditures relative to their Gross Domestic Product. The export structures of small economies are concentrated in a few products or services and in a small number of export destinations. In turn, this export concentration is associated with terms of trade volatility, which combined with high exposure to international trade, implies that small economies tend to face more volatility on average as external volatility permeates national economic life. Yet small economies tend to compensate for their export concentration by being nimble in the sense of being able to change their production and export structure relatively quickly over time. Moreover, limited territory plays a role in shaping how economies are affected by natural disasters, even when the probability of facing such disasters is not necessarily higher among small than among large economies. The combination of large governments with macroeconomic volatility seems to be associated with low national savings rates in small economies. This combination could be a challenge for long-term growth if productivity growth and foreign investment do not compensate for low domestic savings. The book finishes with some thoughts on how policy makers can respond to these issues through coordinated investments and regional integration efforts, as well as fiscal policy reforms aimed at both increasing public savings and conducting countercyclical fiscal policies.

Finding Stable Growth in Small Economies

Open and Nimble

William F Maloney

'Natural Resources: Neither Course nor Destiny' brings together a variety of analytical perspectives, ranging from econometric analyses of economic growth to historical studies of successful development experiences in countries with abundant natural resources. The evidence suggests that natural resources are neither a curse nor destiny. Natural resources can actually spur economic development when combined with the accumulation of knowledge for economic innovation. Furthermore, natural resource abundance need not be the only determinant of the structure of trade in developing countries. In fact, the accumulation of knowledge, infrastructure, and the quality of governance all seem to determine not only what countries produce and export, but also how firms and workers produce any good.

Natural Resources, Neither Curse nor Destiny

Entrepreneurship -- manifested in the entry of new firms or products into new markets, or substantial improvements in technological capacity or process innovation by incumbent firms -- is widely considered to be an important ingredient for long term economic development. This report argues that entrepreneurship is also a source of employment generation, export growth, and resilience during economic downturns. Although the conventional wisdom suggests that Latin American and Caribbean countries underperform relative to China and other emerging markets in terms of its entrepreneurial dynamism, t.

Daniel Lederman

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