Growth is the essential ingredient for sustained poverty reduction. The Macroeconomics and Growth Research Program focuses on identifying the contribution of policies and institutional changes to the diversity in growth and aggregate economic performance around the world. Studies are organized around three broad themes: foundations of growth, macroeconomic stability and international finance, and governance and political economy.
Featured
New tool to assess long-term growth
Updated October 2018
The Long-Term Growth Model (LTGM) is an Excel-based tool to analyze long-term growth scenarios building on the celebrated Solow-Swan Growth Model. The tool can also be used to assess the implications of growth (and changes in inequality) for poverty rates and is useful for planning/vision documents and country reports, but is not designed for short-term forecasting.
Informality: Why Is It So Widespread and How Can It Be Reduced?
Research and Policy Brief, December 2018
Informality is a cause and a consequence of the lack of economic and institutional development. It implies productive inefficiency and a culture of evasion and noncompliance. But informality offers the advantages of flexibility and employment in economies with low labor productivity and an excessive regulatory burden. Under these conditions, if there were no informality, there would be greater unemployment, poverty, and crime.
BOOKS AND REPORTS
Innovative Experiences in Access to Finance: Market-Friendly Roles for the Visible Hand?
July 2017
Growing evidence suggests that lack of access to credit prevents many households and firms from financing high-return investment projects, which has an adverse effect on growth and poverty alleviation. This book discusses recent innovative experiences in broadening access to credit in Latin America.
Latin America and the Rising South: Changing World, Changing Priorities
May 2015
This volume focuses on the implications of the following trends: trade, financial, macroeconomic, and sectoral shifts, as well as labor-market aspects for the economic development of LAC countries.
Emerging Issues in Financial Development: Lessons from Latin America
2013
This book studies in detail the recent history of financial sector development and reforms in Latin America, in comparison to other developing and developed countries, to shed light on the key obstacles for financial development.
