Poverty and inequality in Latin America are easily recognizable in the faces of women, Afro-descendents, the indigenous, people with disabilities, victims of HIV/AIDS, and other groups outside the societal mainstream. Social Inclusion and Economic Development in Latin America reviews the common features of these excluded populations, including their invisibility in official statistics and the stigma, discrimination, and disadvantages they have long endured. But it also examines the region's inclusionary policies and programs that can improve access by these groups to the quality social services and economic and political resources these groups need to level the playing field. Case studies examine ethnic and racial political organization, gender quotas, and labor markets across the region, and social exclusion in Brazil, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru. Comparative studies summarize social inclusion policies of both the European Union and selected countries on the Continent.

Globalization and Development draws upon the experiences of the Latin American and Caribbean region to provide a multidimensional assessment of the globalization process from the perspective of developing countries. Based on a study by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), this book gives a historical overview of economic development in the region and presents both an economic and noneconomic agenda that addresses disparity, respects diversity, and fosters complementarity among regional, national, and international institutions. For orders originating outside of North America, please visit the World Bank website for a list of distributors and geographic discounts at http://publications.worldbank.org/howtoorder or e-mail [email protected].

Dated April 1995

Why should people - and economies - save? This book on the savings problem in Latin America and the Caribbean suggests that, while saving to survive the bad times is important, saving to thrive in the good times is what really counts. People must save to invest in health and education, live productive and fulfilling lives, and make the most of their retirement years. Firms must save to grow their enterprises, employ more workers in better jobs, and produce quality goods. Governments must save to build the infrastructure required by a productive economy, provide quality services to their citizens, and assure their senior citizens a dignified, worry-free retirement. In short, countries must save not for the proverbial rainy day, but for a sunny day - a time when everyone can bask in the benefits of growth, prosperity, and well-being. This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO license.

This annual publication examines the economic performance of the Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole, and of individual countries, for the year 2005 as well as assessing the outlook for 2006. The regional economy grew for a third consecutive year in 2005 with an estimated GDP growth of 4.3 per cent, with a projected GDP growth rate in 2006 of 4.1 per cent. Per capita GDP is estimated to have risen by about 3 per cent, the unemployment rate fell from 10.3 per cent in 2004 to 9.3 per cent in 2005 and poverty indices showed a decrease. But the region is growing at lower rates than developing countries as a whole (5.7 per cent GDP growth in the period 2003-2006). Latin American and Caribbean sub-regions show distinctive behaviours: the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay) and the Andean Community countries and, to a certain extent the Caribbean, registered higher growth than Mexico and Central America.

The Latin American Economic Outlook 2019: Development in Transition (LEO 2019) presents a fresh analytical approach in the region. It assesses four development traps relating to productivity, social vulnerability, institutions and the environment.

This third edition of Government at a Glance Latin America and the Caribbean provides the latest available evidence on public administrations and their performance in the LAC region and compares it to OECD countries. This publication includes indicators on public finances and economics, public employment, centres of government, regulatory governance, open government data, public sector integrity, public procurement and for the first time core government results (e.g. trust, inequality reduction).

The 2018 edition of the Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean, its seventieth issue, consists of three parts. Part I outlines the region's economic performance in 2017 and analyses trends in the early months of 2018, as well as the outlook for the rest of the year. It examines the external and domestic factors that have influenced the region's economic performance, analyses the characteristics of economic growth, prices and the labour market, and draws attention to some of the macroeconomic policy challenges of the prevailing external conditions, amid mounting uncertainty stemming mainly from political factors. Part II of this edition, which has three chapters, analyses the dynamics of investment and its determinants, with a view to identifying the different variables on which public policy can act to influence the trajectory of investment. Part III contains notes relating to the economic performance of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2017 and the first half of 2018, together with their respective statistical annexes.

Age of Productivity offers a look at how the low productivity in Latin America and the Caribbean is preventing the region from catching up with the developed world. The authors look beyond the traditional macro explanations and dig all the way down to the industry and firm level to uncover the causes.