Traditionally, air transport infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) was exclusively under government ownership and management. Starting in the late 1990s, several Latin American countries implemented innovative public-private partnerships (PPP) that transferred the financing and management of air transport sector infrastructure to the private sector. This book presents the findings of a first-ever, comprehensive study of how LAC region airports have evolved during this notable period of transition in airport ownership. It is an unbiased, positive analysis of what happened, rather than a normative analysis of what should be done to reform the airport sector or to attract private participation. It takes the first step in response to the need for more conclusive information about the influence of airport ownership on economic performance. The book is centered around the study of three dimensions of performance: productive efficiency, institutional set up for the governance of the sector, and financing of airport PPPs. Using rigorous analytical tools, this book answer a series of key questions to evaluate the introduction of private sector participation in the Latin American airport sector: Are LAC airports technically efficient? How has efficiency evolved in the last decade? Are privately-run airports more efficient than state-operated airports? How do independent regulators compare with government agencies in accountability, transparency, and autonomy? How has the level and structure of aeronautical tariffs changed in recent years? The main audience of this book are air transport practitioners, transport regulators, decisionmakers in transport ministries, and PPP units and academics.

Traditionally, air transport infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) was exclusively under government ownership and management. Starting in the late 1990s, several Latin American countries implemented innovative public-private partnerships (PPP) that transferred the financing and management of air transport sector infrastructure to the private sector. This book presents the findings of a first-ever, comprehensive study of how LAC region airports have evolved during this notable period of transition in airport ownership. It is an unbiased, positive analysis of what happened, rather than a normative analysis of what should be done to reform the airport sector or to attract private participation. It takes the first step in response to the need for more conclusive information about the influence of airport ownership on economic performance. The book is centered around the study of three dimensions of performance: productive efficiency, institutional set up for the governance of the sector, and financing of airport PPPs. Using rigorous analytical tools, this book answer a series of key questions to evaluate the introduction of private sector participation in the Latin American airport sector: Are LAC airports technically efficient? How has efficiency evolved in the last decade? Are privately-run airports more efficient than state-operated airports? How do independent regulators compare with government agencies in accountability, transparency, and autonomy? How has the level and structure of aeronautical tariffs changed in recent years? The main audience of this book are air transport practitioners, transport regulators, decisionmakers in transport ministries, and PPP units and academics.

Latin American Countries Civil Aviation Regulations Handbook

This FAL Bulletin analyses air transport infrastructure in the region and examines the characteristics of the main projects to expand airport capacity in Latin America and some Caribbean countries. The bulletin also includes policy recommendations for appropriate development of the aeronautical sector in the region.

Several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are suffering severe economic downturns and the success of market-oriented reforms is being called into question. This report seeks to contribute to the debate by examining the nature of economic growth in the region. The aim is threefold: to describe the basic characteristics of growth; explain differences across countries and to forecast changes over the next decade.

Thirty years after the region embarked on large-scale liberalization, trade policy could have been expected to become all but irrelevant. Instead, a mismatch between expectations and what could realistically be delivered set the stage for much of the disappointment, skepticism, and fatigue regarding trade policy in the region, particularly in the early 2000s. By setting the bar unrealistically high, governments and analysts made trade policies an easy target for special interests that were hurt by liberalization and for those ideologically opposed to free trade. The most immediate victims were the more tangible growth and welfare gains, whose relevance was lost amid the noise of grandiose visions.

Inadequate infrastructure has been widely viewed as a principal barrier to growth and development in Latin America and the Caribbean. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of infrastructure in the region and highlights key areas in which infrastructure networks can be enhanced. The public and private sectors play complementary roles in improving the infrastructure network. Therefore, it is critical to strengthen public investment management processes as well as the regulatory framework, including to ensure an appropriate mix of financing and funding for projects and to address environmental concerns.

Following the collapse of commodity prices in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) in 2014-15, many countries in the region were unable to cushion the impact of the shock in order to experience a more gradual adjustment, to a large extent because they had not built adequate fiscal buffers during the commodities’ windfall from 2010-14. Many LAC countries entered 2020 and the COVID-19 crisis in an even more difficult position, with rising debt and limited fiscal space to smooth the negative impacts of the pandemic and adequately support their economies. Fiscal policy in most LAC countries has been procyclical. Public expenditure and debt levels have expanded in good times and contracted in severe downswings due to insufficient fiscal buffers, making crises deeper. Fiscal rules represent a promising policy option for these and other economies. If well-designed and implemented, they can help build buffers during periods of strong economic performance that will be available during rainy days to smooth economic shocks. This book—which was prepared before the COVID-19 crisis—reviews the performance and implementation of different fiscal rules in the region and world. It provides analytical and practical criteria for policy makers for the design, establishment, and feasible implementation of fiscal rules based on each country's business cycle features, external characteristics, type of shocks faced, initial fiscal conditions, technical and institutional capacities, and political context. While establishing new fiscal rules would not help to attenuate the immediate effects of this pandemic crisis, higher debt levels in the aftermath of COVID-19 will demand rebuilding better and stronger institutional frameworks of fiscal policy in LAC and emerging economies globally. Having stronger fiscal mechanisms that include fiscal rules can help countries prepare for the next crisis and should be on the front burner for policy makers in coming years. The findings and lessons discussed apply to economies of different sizes, with some differences under certain scenarios in terms of the technical design and criteria needed for implementation. In this book, policy makers will find that fiscal rules, if tailored to country characteristics, can work and be an essential fiscal tool for larger and particularly smaller economies.