Although the Latin American region's growth rates are at a three decade high, they have been historically disappointing in relative terms, which cannot be dissociated from the microeconomic environment in which firms operate. Policy makers may need to complement their focus on macroeconomic stability with an increased emphasis on microeconomic reforms. By providing empirical evidence linking actual firm performance to shortcomings in Latin America's investment climate, the book discusses policies that could have a significant impact on firm productivity by improving the environment in which firms invest and operate.

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Yes, you can access Does the Investment Climate Matter? by Palgrave Macmillan UK, Pablo Fajnzylber,J. Humberto Lopez,Jose Luis Guasch in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Economics & Macroeconomics. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher

World Bank Publications

Year

2008

eBook ISBN

9780821374122

Edition

Topic

Economics

Subtopic

Macroeconomics

Index

Economics

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1 Is Another Study of Economic Performance in Latin America and the Caribbean Needed?
2 The Investment Climate in Latin America
3 What Would Be the Effect of a Better Investment Climate for All?
4 Behind the Investment Climate: Back to Basics—Determinants of Corruption
5 What Are the Determinants of Financial Access in Latin America?
6 Product Innovation: The Roles of Research and Development Expenditures and the Investment Climate
7 Exporter Premiums
Index
Figure 1.1 Per Capita Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1963–2006
Figure 1.2 Per Capita Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, Taking into Account Deviations with Respect to Global Trends, 1963–2005
Figure 1.3 Per Capita Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, Taking into Account Deviations with Respect to Selected Country Groups, 1963–2005
Figure 1.4 Per Capita Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, Taking into Account Deviations with Respect to Country Detail of Global Trends, 1963–2005
Figure 1.5 Gross Capital Formation as a Percentage of GDP, 2004
Figure 1.6 Investment in Latin America in Relation to Per Capita Growth Rate, 2000–05 and 1970–2005
Figure 1.7 Investment and Growth in Latin America, 1970–2005
Figure 1.8 Investment and Growth in the World, Excluding Latin America, 1970–2005
Figure 1.9 Regional and Group Comparisons of TFP, 1970–2005
Figure 1.10 TFP in Selected Latin American and Caribbean Countries, 2001–05
Figure 1.11 Dramatic Reduction of Vulnerabilities
Figure 1.12 Institutional Quality and Per Capita GDP across Countries
Figure 1.13 Business Environment
Figure 1.14 Infrastructure Investment in Latin America, 1980–2005
Figure 1.15 Cost of Inadequate Infrastructure
Figure 1.16 Ratio of Domestic Credit to the Private Sector as a Percentage of GDP, 1990 and 2004
Figure 1.17 Banking Access Index, 2004
Figure 1.18 Education in Latin America
Figure 1.19 R&D Expenditures and Income Per Capita
Figure 1.20 Firms with ISO Certification per Million Workers in the Latin America and Caribbean Region and the OECD, 2000 and 2005
Figure 2.1 Relative Magnitude of Estimates: Latin America and the Caribbean Region Average
Figure 2.2 Contribution to Growth in Latin America
Figure 3.1 Potential Productivity Gains Associated with Different Scenarios
Figure 3.2 Aggregate Labor Productivity Gains, by Country
Figure 3.3 Aggregate Labor Productivity Gains, by Firm Size
Figure 3.4 Wage Gains Driven by Investment Climate Conditions: Latin American and Caribbean Average
Figure 3.5 Aggregate Wage Gains, by Country
Figure 4.1 Bribe Payments in Latin America
Figure 5.1 Interest Rate Spreads: Lending Minus Deposits
Figure 5.2 Access Measures
Figure 5.3 Start-Up Registration
Figure 5.4 Time-Series Regressions of Loan Characteristics and Financial Development, by Country
Figure 5.5 Court Objective and Court Subjective, by Country and Region
Figure 5.6 Court Quality and Access
Figure 7.1 Output Differential Decomposition
Figure 7.2 Percentage of Output Gap Accounted for by TFP Differentials
Figure 7.3 Percentage of Output Gap Accounted for by TFP Differentials: Heterogeneous Elasticities and Common Factor Elasticity
Table 1.1 Correlations in Per Capita Growth Rates between Latin America and Some Reference Groups, 1961–2005
Table 1.2 The Persistence of Investment Rates in Latin America
Table 1.3 Total Factor Productivity in Latin America: Selected Countries
Table 1.4 Factors That Might Affect Access to the Financial Sector
Table 2.1 Top Five Constraints to Productivity and Growth
Table 2.2 Main Investment Climate Determinants of Labor Productivity, by Theme
Table 2.3 Investment Climate Effect on Labor Productivity
Table 2.4 Relative Magnitude of Estimates, by Country
Table 2.5 Investment Climate Effect on Labor Productivity: Domestic Firms with Fewer than 100 Employees
Table 2.6 Investment Climate Effect on Labor Productivity: Robust Regression Estimates
Table 2.7 Investment Climate Effect on Total Factor Productivity
Table 2.8 Investment Climate Effect on Wages
Table 2.9 Investment Climate Effect on Labor Productivity, by Firm Size
Table 2.10 Investment Climate Effect on Labor Productivity, by Latin American and Caribbean Subregions and Income Levels
Table 2.11 Investment Climate Effect on Labor Productivity: Global Sample
Table 2.12 Education and the Investment Climate
Table 2A.1 Descriptive Statistics of Variables Used in Econometric Analyses, Average by Country
Table 2A.2 Investment Climate Effect on Labor Productivity
Table 2A.3 Investment Climate Effect on Labor Productivity: Domestic Firms with Fewer than 100 Employees
Table 2A.4 Investment Climate Effect on Total Factor Productivity
Table 2A.5 Investment Climate Effect on Wages
Table 2A.6 Investment Climate Effect on Labor Productivity, by Firm Size
Table 3.1 Investment Climate Contributions to Labor Productivity Gains from Moving to the Irish Benchmark: Same Industry and Firm Size
Table 3.2 Investment Climate Contributions to Labor Productivity Gains from Moving to the Chilean Benchmark: Same Industry and Firm Size
Table 3.3 Investment Climate Contributions to Labor Productivity Gains from Moving to the Top 75th Percentile of the Same Industry and Firm Size
Table 3.4 Top Three Priorities for Firms Moving to the 75th Percentile of the Same Industry and Firm Size
Table 3.5 Top Three Priorities for Firms Moving to the Chilean Benchmark: Same Industry and Firm Size
Table 3.6 Investment Climate Contributions to Wage Gains from Moving to the Top 75th Percentile of the Same Industry and Firm Size
Table 4.1 Determinants of Bribe Payments in Latin America
Table 4.2 Determinants of Bribe Payments in Latin America: Small Firms
Table 4.3 Country-by-Country Analysis
Table 4.4 Determinants of Bribe Payments in Latin America: Excluding Capital
Table 4.5 Determinants of Bribe Payments in Latin America: Objective Court-Quality Measure
Table 4.6 Alternative Measures of Bribe Payments
Table 4.7 Determinants of Bribe Payments in Latin America: Instrumental Variable Results
Table 4.8 Including Countrywide Governance Measures: Index of Economic Freedom
Table 4.9 Including Countrywide Governance Measures: Business Costs of Corruption Index
Table 4.10 Determinants of Regulatory Compliance
Table 5.1 Descriptive Statistics for Cross-Sectional Access Measures
Table 5.2 Correlations of Cross-Sectional Access Measures
Table 5.3 Descriptive Statistics for Time-Varying Measures
Table 5.4 Descriptive Statistics for Court-Quality Measures
Table 5.5 Descriptive Statistics for Other Controls
Table 5.6 Baseline Regressions of Cross-Sectional Access Measures
Table 5.7 Access and Court Quality
Table 5.8 Access and Court-Quality Robustness Checks
Table 5.9 Access, Court Quality, and Size
Table 5.10 Time-Series Loan Characteristics and Financial Development
Table 5.11 Time-Series Loan Characteristics, Financial Development, and Size
Table 5.12 Start-Up Capital and Registrations
Table 5.13 Start-Up Capital, Registrations, and Size
Table 6.1 New Product versus Noninnovative Firms (Percentage of Firms with Key Characteristics) and Trade Indicators
Table 6.2 Are R&D Expenditures Related to Productive Innovation? Direct versus Reverse Regressions
Table 6.3 The Role of the Investment Climate: Marginal Effects from Probit Estimations
Table 7.1 Productivity and Wage Exporter Premiums in Latin America and the Caribbean
Table 7.2 In Which Countries Does Exporting Lead to Productivity Gains?
Table 7.3 In Which Countries Are Wage Premiums Observed?
Table 7.4 Argentine Exports by Destination
Table 7.5 Argentine Exports by Destination, by Year
Table 7.6 Industrial Survey: Argentina, 1998–2000
Table 7.7 Exports, Export Destinations, and Wages: OLS and FE Regressions
Table 7.8 Exports, Export Destinations, and Wages: Wage Regression and Instrumental Variables
Table 7.9 Exports and Export Destinations: Labor Force Composition
Table 7.10 Exports, Export Destinations, and Wages: Wage Regressions Controlling for Labor Force Composition
Table 7.11 Share of Establishments with Positive Exports: Uruguay
Table 7.12 Descriptive Statistics: Exporter Criterion—Exports Greater than 5 Percent of Sales
Table 7.13 Output Decomposition by Definition of Exporter and Allowing for Different Factor Elasticities between Exporters and Nonexporters
Table 7.14 Output Decomposition by Definition of Exporter and Constrained to Common Factor Elasticities between Exporters and Nonexporters

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