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Why has an economy that has done so many things right failed to grow fast? Under-Rewarded Efforts traces Mexico’s disappointing growth to flawed microeconomic policies that have suppressed productivity growth and nullified the expected benefits of the country’s reform efforts. Fast growth will not occur doing more of the same or focusing on issues that may be key bottlenecks to productivity growth elsewhere, but not in Mexico. It will only result from inclusive institutions that effectively protect workers against risks, redistribute towards those in need, and simultaneously align entrepreneurs’ and workers’ incentives to raise productivity.
Despite various reform efforts, Mexico has experienced economic stability but little growth. Today more than half of all Mexican workers are employed informally, and one out of every four is poor. Good Intentions, Bad Outcomes argues that incoherent social programs significantly contribute to this state of affairs and it suggests reforms to improve the situation. Over the past decade, Mexico has channeled an increasing number of resources into subsidizing the creation of low-productivity, informal jobs. These social programs have hampered growth, fostered illegality, and provided erratic protection to workers, trapping many in poverty. Informality has boxed Mexico into a dilemma: provide ben...
Conditional cash transfer programs are based on a simple, yet powerful premise: creating adequate incentives today to stimulate the accumulation of human capital in poor families can provide future generations with the opportunity to generate their own higher incomes. Looking at the experience of Progresa-Oportunidades--the oldest such program whose results after 10 years provide valuable lessons--offers the opportunity to examine whether the youth of Progresa-Oportunidades, in a not too distant future, will be able to find productive jobs that allow them to escape the poverty that has trapped their parents. In this study, Santiago Levy looks at this question from an innovative perspective, analyzing how the intrinsic structure of incentives created by a set of social policies can aid or inhibit the achievement of the principal objective of Progresa-Oportunidades: to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty. This study can help spark a discussion in many countries on the links between social policy, productivity growth and, in turn, poverty reduction.
"Around the turn of the 21st century, new social policies started to develop all around the world. Bolsa Familia in Brazil, Progresa in Mexico, Superémonos in Costa Rica, Juntos in Peru... almost all Latin American countries have developed "conditional cash transfers" (CCTs), a new type of social policy usually conditioning benefits for poor families on their children going to school or attending health checkups. At the same time, some old industrialized countries famously known for being the heaven of the male breadwinner model have introduced surprising innovation in their welfare systems: in Germany massive investment in preschool childcare (Kita) since the early 2000s and the introducti...
Despite progress in communication technologies, lack of information still severely handicaps companies seeking to operate in international markets. Furthermore, the investments that these companies must make to gather the information required to trade with foreign markets may yield reduced returns and may consequently be low from a social point of view as third parties may derive benefits from this same information. Thus, lack of information may negatively affect trade, and thereby productivity and economic growth. For these reasons, firms carrying out export projects may require support to overcome information barriers. This is precisely the service that export promotion organizations provi...
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We assess the aggregate productivity impact of distortions arising from labor regulations in Mexico and how they interact with informality. Using employment surveys and a firm-level economic census, we document a number of novel features about informal firms in Mexico. We then construct and estimate a model of heterogeneous firms and endogenous informality to study the micro and macro impacts from various policy reforms. Some reforms may have large impacts on informal employment but small impacts on aggregate productivity.
This book comments on serious social, economic, political, historical, environmental and other issues which have tested our elected governments from both parties. It points out areas of Constitutional conflict, political inertia, selective law enforcement and others that pose a real peril to our republic. Whether in our foreign, economic, immigration, health care, agricultural or other policy choices, it finds a common thread which ties our elected representatives to the service of interests that are special rather than national. At the root of these failed policy and legislative efforts is an equally damaging failure of our electoral system whereby money is dominant and delivers a Congress ...
This Selected Issues paper on Mexico documents the composition, trends, and labor market implications of informality using data from the National Employment Survey (ENOE). Over half of the employed population has informal contractual relationships in Mexico both at formal and informal firms. Informality is found to be associated with lower levels of pay—even when accounting for worker composition differences—and lower wage growth over the life cycle. Policy drivers of this market duality, including minimum wage policy, are discussed. The results suggest that informality tends to select workers with lower earnings potential and limits their development. Informality indeed tends to be more...
The World Development Report, now in its 24th edition, is the standard reference work for international economic data. It contains an appendix of social and economic statistics for more than 200 countries. World Development Report 2001--Institutions for Markets--focuses on the performance of transition countries in their progress toward market economies. This edition is centered around the issues related to market reform and how reforms can improve and sustain living standards. It answers such questions as: How can institutions better support markets? and What are the institutions which make markets effective in delivering inclusive growth?