14,235 research outputs found
Mexico 2010: A Vision of the 21st Century
No full textThe exhibit has been organized in honor of Mexico, site of the 51st Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank, that will take place in Cancun in March of 2010. 26 selected photographs from more than two hundred entries submitted to the 2009 Cultural Center Open Call for Mexican Photographers will be on the exhibit. The intention of this photographic survey is to gauge the perceptions among visual artists in Mexico, in light of the realities and challenges facing their nation in the first decade of the new century. The winners are: Eric Scibor Rylski (First Prize), Guillermo Castillo Ramírez (Second Prize), Dulce Pinzón (Third Prize), Alán Gerardo González Ruvalcaba (Honorable Mention), and César Rodríguez Zavala (Honorable Mention)
Results in the Latin America and Caribbean Region, 2015, Volume 6
No full textLatin America and the Caribbean (LCR)
will be center stage in the global development debate as
leaders from around the world convene in Lima, Peru for the
annual meetings of the World Bank Group and International
Monetary Fund. Critical progress in poverty reduction has
been made in the region over the last decade. The region’s
bottom 40 percent of the population saw growth eclipsing
that seen by the group in every other region in the world.
However, a global slowdown in economic growth and activity
challenges these positive strides. The stories in this
report embody concrete successes of countries working
together with the World Bank. Innovative development
approaches were designed and implemented. Individuals,
communities, countries, and even regions benefited from
better health, education, governance, disaster risk
management, and more
Central bank independence : a critical view
No full textWhile expansive literature on central bank independence contains some criticisms to the independent central bank quasi-paradigm, few critical analyses have been undertaken in the years between Friedman (1962) and Posen (1994). The author extends Posen's analysis to developing countries, discussing more broadly and systematically the reasons why merely instituting an independent central bank may not bring about its professed benefits, especially in developing countries. The author argues that widely reported empirical tests that are purported to support the central bank independence proposition are plagued by potential problems of simultaneity, reverse causality, missing variables, and measurement errors. Yet one can not make positive recommendations about institutional arrangements for central banks if causality relations are not well established. Institutions are shaped by a country's record of and preferences for inflation and may have little influence on them. The author also argues that the purported benefits of an independent central bank may be eroded by conflicts between fiscal and monetary policy and by inherent problems of central bank institutional design (especially mechanisms for board appointments, public accountability, and budgetary control). If these institutional problems are not solved, problems of dynamic inconsistency traditionally associated with monetary policy are not eliminated,but merely transformed. The author suggests that the benefits of central bank independence are less likely obtained in less developed countries with shallow financial markets. Accordingly, central bank independence should be granted at a later stage in a country's financial sector development. If a less developed country seeks to establish a low-inflation path, it should concentrate on instituting financial policy reforms (such as liberalization and privatization) that bolster opposition to inflation rather than easily reversible and practically meaningless changes in legal and institutional structures. This will better ensure the sustainability -- and hence the credibility -- of the government's anti-inflation stance. Fiscal policy is often at the root of macroeconomic disturbances in developing countries. Fiscal policy is more deserving of special protection from politics because of fiscal dominance over monetary policy and its greater vulnerability to private interests. The author suggests that the solution might be to make fiscal policy less susceptible to political pressures by creating an independent fiscal board. Tying the fiscal hands of government may seem a far-fetched idea. But would it not make more sense to force discipline on fiscal policy directly rather than indirectly through monetary policy?Economic Theory&Research,National Governance,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Stabilization,Macroeconomic Management
Caulobacter crescentus adapts to phosphate starvation by synthesizing anionic glycoglycerolipids and a novel glycosphingolipid
No full textCaulobacter crescentus adapts to phosphate starvation by elongating its cell body and a polar stalk structure. The stalk is an extension of the Gram-negative envelope containing inner and outer membranes as well as a peptidoglycan cell wall. Cellular elongation requires a 6- to 7-fold increase in membrane synthesis, yet phosphate limitation would preclude the incorporation of additional phospholipids. In the place of phospholipids, C. crescentus can synthesize several glycolipid species, including a novel glycosphingolipid (GSL-2). While glycosphingolipids are ubiquitous in eukaryotes, the presence of GSL-2 in C. crescentus is surprising since GSLs had previously been found only in Sphingomonas species, in which they play a role in outer membrane integrity. In this paper, we identify three proteins required for GSL-2 synthesis: CcbF catalyzes the first step in ceramide synthesis, while Sgt1 and Sgt2 sequentially glycosylate ceramides to produce GSL-2. Unlike in Sphingomonas, GSLs are nonessential in C. crescentus; however, the presence of ceramides does contribute to phage resistance and susceptibility to the cationic antimicrobial peptide polymyxin B. The identification of a novel lipid species specifically produced upon phosphate starvation suggests that bacteria may be able to synthesize a wider variety of lipids in response to stresses than previously observed. Uncovering these lipids and their functional relevance will provide greater insight into microbial physiology and environmental adaptation.Peer reviewe
Evidence-Based Policy Approaches for Preventing Intrafamily Violence and Reducing Criminal Behavior in Latin America
No full textViolence against women is one of the world’s greatest public health problems and one of Latin America’s major development challenges. Intrafamily violence is widespread in the region, affecting between 14 and 38 percent of all women throughout their lifetime. A series of studies commissioned by the Wilson Center and supported by the Inter-American Development Bank have begun to shed new light on the complex nature of this violence. Together, they contribute to evidence-based policy recommendations that could prevent the incidence of intra-family violence and reduce the risks of future criminal behavior among children
In-Firm Training, Innovation and Productivity: The Case of Caribbean Small Island Developing States
No full textIn-firm training is a crucial innovative activity in modern knowledge-based economies which face increasing global competition and rapidly changing technology. Nevertheless, there are few studies which look at in-firm training in the Caribbean. This study uses the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) 2010 and Compete Caribbean\u27s Productivity Technology Innovation Survey (PROTEqIN) 2014 to provide empirical evidence on in-firm training in the region. The results suggest that there is a relatively low incidence of training in the region, although there are significant differences across countries and this may be because of heterogeneities in public support and barriers to in-firm training. Also, various firm characteristics affect in-firm training, including size, ownership, whether the firm exports, whether the firm is part of a larger organization, innovative activity and workforce structure and educational level. Lastly, the findings suggest that in-firm training in the region may play a relatively small role and may not even matter for innovation and productivity
Crunching the recovery: bank capital and the role of bank credit
No full textNew England ; Bank supervision ; Bank capital ; Bank loans
tritrophic-dispersal-model: Code used for creating figures for "Non-hierarchical dispersal promotes stability and resilience in a tri-trophic metacommunity"
No full text<p>This is the commented code used for creating figures for the paper. Any questions regarding the code should be directed to the corresponding author and repository owner (Eric Pedersen). </p>
LinkedIn in Latin America and the Caribbean: a rapid transformation of the labor market due to the pandemic?
No full textThe partnership between LinkedIn and the Inter-American Development Bank (through the Data Partnership) facilitated access to the data generated by the platform in the region. This information includes not only LinkedIn\u27s hiring rate but also the penetration of skills in various sectors of the economy, two indicators that LinkedIn calculates based on the information it receives from its users. The hiring rate dropped more than 70% at the beginning of the pandemic, and its recovery has been sluggish. In September of 2021, it was still lower than what was observed in January 2020, following a similar pattern seen in labor markets in the region overall. However, the data by industry shows that this recovery has been heterogeneous. While some sectors have not recovered yet, others showed higher employment levels than those observed in February 2020. Industries such as information and communication technologies (ICT) or finance were more demanded during the pandemic and the LinkedIn hiring rates in these sectors were strong. In contrast, other sectors such as education and tourism have not recovered their pre-pandemic levels hiring rates
Core inflation at the Bank of Canada: A critique
No full textCore inflation is a useful concept for the theory and practice of monetary policy. The Bank of Canada maintains, in addition, that core inflation should be, and has in fact been, a useful predictor of headline inflation. Under the bank's policy of inflation targeting, however, this is incorrect: over horizons of a year or more the best forecast should be the 2 percent target; and core inflation should have no predictive content. Post-1995 evidence confirms this argument.TBA
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