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2025 Latin American and Caribbean Macroeconomic Report: Regional Opportunities Amid Global Shifts
No full textLatin America and the Caribbean has achieved a series of milestones in the past years. Growth rates have returned to long-term averages, inflation has largely been contained, countries have taken steps toward fiscal consolidation, and unemployment rates are historically low. However, substantial risks remain, as the region navigates global trade fragmentation, financial market volatility, and uncertainty surrounding economic policies in the worlds major economies. The geopolitical realignment of trade and investment patterns offers countries an opening to capitalize on nearshoring and regional integration. To seize these opportunities, governments must focus on enhancing productivity, strengthening institutional frameworks, improving human capital, and investing in critical infrastructure. This report delves into key macroeconomic dimensions, assessing the economic outlook, regional integration in trade and foreign direct investment, labor market informality, fiscal and monetary policies, and financial markets. By addressing its macroeconomic challenges head-on and embracing forward-looking reforms, Latin America and the Caribbean can chart a course toward greater prosperity and resilience for all its citizens
Inter-American Development Bank Annual Report 2024: The Year in Review
No full textThe Annual Report contains a review of the Bank\u27s operations in 2024 (loans, guarantees and grants). The second volume contains the full set of the financial statements of the Bank\u27s resources
Gender and Water in AquaFund
Get PDFWomen and girls use water for domestic activities and home-caring for vulnerable family members, as well as taking care of small cattle and agricultural production. Given their active use of water, women tend to be truly knowledgeable about current water sources, their quality and reliability, and any restrictions on their use. On the other hand, men use water for productive activities. Although women supply almost half of all agricultural labor in low-and middle-income countries, their agricultural productivity is on average 20 percent to 30 percent lower than male farmers. Therefore, agricultural activities supervised by men often take priority over those conducted by women. There is a need to integrate women in the planning, decision making and governance of water and sanitation services. AquaFund partners, the Water and Sanitation Division, and the entire IDB Group are committed to incorporating a gender perspective into their operations to achieve fairer, more equitable and sustainable results. This commitment is reflected in the current analysis of AquaFund Technical CooperationS (TCs) and their supported projects
The Sixth Bahamas Conference on Financial Crime
Get PDFThe Sixth Bahamas Conference on Financial Crime, co-hosted by the Central Bank of The Bahamas and the Inter-American Development Bank in January 2025, brought together over 390 participants, both in-person and online, including policymakers, regulators, academics, private sector professionals, and representatives from regional and international institutions. The conference featured research papers, grouped into five thematic blocks: the overall effectiveness of anti-money laundering (AML) frameworks; the role of big data and new technologies; applied insights from regulators and compliance professionals; the use and misuse of AML laws; and transnational patterns in financial crime and regulatory responses. The first theme explored the core question of whether AML systems have been effective after three decades of implementation, prompting critical reflection on performance measurement, unintended consequences, and reform prospects. The second block examined how big data, machine learning, and digital monitoring tools are being deployed albeit unevenly to detect financial crime and improve institutional responses. The third set of papers focused on practical regulatory strategies, highlighting the value of empirical, risk-based supervision and the need to reassess overly burdensome or ineffective compliance requirements. A fourth theme raised concern over the abuse of AML laws to target political opponents and restrict civil society, revealing troubling patterns across both authoritarian and democratic contexts. Finally, a fifth group of contributions addressed the international dimensions of financial crime including illicit network mapping, the evolution of tax information exchange, and the regional impact of de-risking on small economies. The conference emphasized the challenges to close the distance between AML research and practice, the limitations of current enforcement models, and the urgent need for more targeted, evidence-driven, and context-sensitive approaches to financial crime prevention
A Mixed-method Feasibility Trial of an Early Childhood, Violence Prevention, Parenting Program Integrated into Preschool Provision in Jamaica
Get PDFWe adapted a violence-prevention, parenting program (the Irie Homes Toolbox, or IHT) for integration into Jamaican preschool services. The adapted IHT was evaluated in a mixed-method feasibility trial in Kingston, Jamaica. Twenty-four preschools were randomly assigned to intervention (n12) or wait-list control (n12). Ten caregivers per school were recruited (n240, n120/group). The program consisted of eleven 1-hour parenting sessions delivered by a preschool teacher with groups of ten caregivers of children aged 2-6 years. In the impact evaluation, the primary outcome was caregivers\u27 use of violence against their child (VAC). Secondary outcomes were caregivers\u27 involvement with their child, attitude to VAC, preferences for harsh punishment, self-efficacy, and child conduct problems. All outcomes were measured by caregiver-report, and we test for and find no evidence of social desirability bias. We measured fidelity of implementation on an ongoing basis. We also conducted in-depth interviews with participating teachers and kept ongoing logs on intervention implementation. Participants attended a mean (SD)4.0(3.1) sessions. The IHT intervention led to reductions in caregivers\u27 use of VAC (ES-0.22, p0.04) and caregivers\u27 favorable attitudes to VAC (ES-0.36, p0.01), and increases in caregivers\u27 involvement with their child (ES0.30, p0.005) and parenting self-efficacy (ES0.29, p0.02). Reductions in caregiver preferences for harsh punishment were significant at p0.07 (ES-0.21). We found no benefits to child conduct problems. Through observations of session quality, interviews with preschool teachers, and research team logs, we identified enablers and barriers to intervention implementation and suggestions for improvement. The program has potential for large-scale dissemination to reduce VAC in Jamaica
Does Female Work Make Him Stay? The Impact of Female Work on Emigration
Get PDFEmigration in Mexico predominantly involves young men, with millions of individuals crossing borders, while female labor force participation (FLFP) remains significantly below international levels. This paper explores the interplay between these two phenomena, revealing that higher FLFP substantially reduces male emigration. Using robust econometric methods and panel data from ENNVIH, we estimate that when women work, the probability of male household members migrating decreases by 30 pp. Our analysis employs a twofold novel instrumental variable identification strategy to ensure the causal interpretation of our results: the rollout of full-time schools, and the price of washing machines. Our findings underscore the potential of gender-focused labor policies not only to empower women but also to mitigate migration pressures, contributing to household stability and broader economic development
Job Quality, Search, and Optimal Unemployment Contracts
Get PDFWhen searching for employment, workers consider non-wage job characteristics, such as effort requirements or amenities. We study an environment where unemployed workers search for jobs of different quality in a labor market characterized by directed search. In equilibrium, firms are more likely to post vacancies for low-quality jobs, as these are more profitable. Hence, high-quality jobs are hard to come across. The non-observability of these employment contracts influences the optimal unemployment insurance (UI) program, leading to distortionary taxation. Calibrating the model to the U.S. economy, we find that non-observability of employment contracts results in faster declining UI benefits, steeper taxes upon re-employment, distortionary taxation, and a 10.5% costlier program than an observable contract scenario providing equal welfare
Combating Vaccine Hesitancy: The Case of HPV Vaccination
Get PDFCervical cancer, primarily caused by persistent Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection, remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths among women in developing countries. Although HPV vaccines are widely available in these regions, vaccine uptake remains persistently low. To address behavioral barriers contributing to this low demand, we evaluated the effectiveness of a behaviorally informed SMS campaign targeting parents in Cali, Colombia. Our study included 15,231 parents, who were randomized into six groups: control, placebo, and four behaviorally informed treatment groups, forming a large-scale study of text-based nudges. Participants received tailored messages over eight weeks. The intervention yielded significant increases in vaccination rates, with improvements ranging from 34% to 55%. Furthermore, the economic analysis demonstrated that the intervention generated between USD 3.6 and USD 5.75 in economic benefits for every dollar spent, primarily due to prevented deaths. These findings underscore the potential of behavioral interventions in enhancing HPV vaccination rates among parents and emphasize the cost-effectiveness and relative success of each intervention strategy. This study provides actionable insights for public health officials to design targeted strategies that address vaccination disparities and promote preventive healthcare practices
The Double Gap: Gender and Disability in Parental Employment Outcomes
Get PDFThis study employs an event study methodology to analyze the overall impact of childbirth, as well as the birth of a child with a disability, on the labor market outcomes of mothers and fathers. We use an annual panel of Chilean labor outcomes based on administrative data from pension and unemployment insurance, as well as data from the National Disability Registry in Chile. The findings reveal a significant gender gap associated with childbirth, which more than doubles in the presence of childhood disability: four years after childbirth, the gender gap in employment increases from 15% to 36% when the child has a disability. Specifically, childhood disability leads to parental specialization, creating an intra-gender gap. Mothers of children with disabilities experience poorer labor market outcomes than mothers of children without disabilities; four years after childbirth, these mothers are 15% less likely to be employed than other mothers. Conversely, fathers of children with disabilities tend to have higher labor market engagement than fathers of children without disabilities. These findings underscore the importance of caregiving policies, both in general and specifically for families of children with disabilities
Market Power, Industry Concentration and Trade Liberalization: Evidence from Costa Rica
Get PDFResearch about trade liberalization\u27s impact on markups has focused on manufacturing due to data availability considerations. How do these effects vary across sectors? Which industries become more and less competitive as trade barriers are eliminated? We leverage firm-level tax records from the universe of formal-sector businesses in Costa Rica with the 2009 trade liberalization as a natural experiment to evaluate its industry-specific effects on markups across all industries. We find negative effects on markups in agriculture, mining, electricity, water supply, and business services. Alternatively, the reform led to markup increases in accommodations and food services, information and communications, real estate, finance and insurance, and education, health, and social work. We do not observe statistically significant effects in manufacturing, transportation and storage, construction, and wholesale and retail trade. Our findings represent a more comprehensive evaluation of the potential pro-competitive effects from trade liberalization than existing studies exclusively focusing on manufacturing firms