The role of international financial institutions in Latin America in the Elgar Encyclopedia of Latin American Politics (with Marcelo Bisogno), Indiana University, Forthcoming

Abstract:This paper analyzes the multifaceted role of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) in Latin America (LA) over the past 25 years, exploring their governance structures, financial models, and evolving mandates. We assess the IFIs’ influence on economic development, policy-making, and structural adjustments, particularly in response to the shifting development landscape. IFIs are co-owned entities shaped by the interests of both developed and developing member countries. The governance dynamics often reflect the divergent priorities of these groups, influencing lending practices and policy frameworks. We offer insights into the future of IFIs, highlighting the expansion of MDBs’ private-sector lending and mobilization in parallel to the decreasing appetite from donors to capitalize public sector windows. Despite differing priorities, IFIs, governments, and the United Nations have agreed on the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals, emphasizing collaboration and highlighting the need for combined public and private sector funding for development.



How did Governments respond to the COVID-19 economic slowdown?  in Crisis and recovery: learning from COVID-19’s economic impacts and policy responses in East Asia (with  Alvaro Gonzalez, Lydia Kim, and Maria Ana Lugo), The World Bank, 2023. 

Abstract: More than three years after the first COVID-19 case was discovered in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region, it is time to take stock of the lasting effects—and opportunities—of the pandemic and identify which policies may have helped stem the economic losses suffered by households and firms. To do so, this regional report examines the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on households and firms in six countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. This volume examines: (a) the links between impacts on firms and households, in particular through the employment channel, and (b) governments’ fiscal responses to the COVID crisis, through transfers, subsidies, and taxes. It identifies and explains changes in household well-being by examining the economic effects of the pandemic on labor markets. As the source of employment and wage income, businesses have a direct role in determining jobs and earnings, and, indirectly, welfare, poverty, and inequality. When faced with a shock, firms responded by adjusting employment, reducing wages, increasing prices, and reducing services provided. All of these channels directly affected households’ wellbeing. For this reason, the report focuses on firms in addition to households. Governments responded through various instruments, providing transfers and subsidies and lowering the tax burden to both households and firms.



Multilateral development banks in Latin America and the Caribbean: recent trends, the response to the pandemic, and the forthcoming role (with Marcelo Bisogno), Eclac Studies and Perspectives Series, 2021.

Abstract: The COVID-19 crisis has hit Latin America and the Caribbean harder than any other developing region. In 2020 the regional GDP will experience its greatest decline in 120 years. The pandemic represents a formidable social challenge, exposing all the regions’ endemic problems. Against this backdrop, this paper analyses the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) response to the COVID-19 crisis and their post-pandemic role and prospects in LAC. Some basic information is presented on the major MDBs that serve the region and their main trends during the last decade to provide an adequate context. Preliminary data indicate that MDBs combined approved approximately $50 billion to the region in 2020. This represents a 25% increase with respect to 2019. In comparison, in 2008, the first year of the Global Financial Crisis, the increase was 45%. While all MDBs expanded their credits to the region in 2020, the size of their respective incremental responses appears to be linked to their differences in equity levels and portfolio-associated risks. The paper closes by sketching some critical factors that will continue to play an important role in the discussions among MDBs in the near future. We identify three major issues: providing anti-cyclical support, maintaining an adequate level of capital, and encouraging strong coordination among MDBs.



Egypt's growth, investment, employment, and productivity, labor market and firm performance in Egypt Systematic Country Diagnostic update (with Alvaro Gonzalez, Eduardo Alonso Malasquez, and Nistha Sinha), The World Bank, 2021

Abstract: Systematic Country Diagnostics (SCDs) analyze the most critical constraints and opportunities to ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity in a sustainable manner. The first SCD for Egypt was published in 2015. A lot has happened since then, so this SCD Update takes advantage of a longer stretch of reforms and newer data up to 2019 to identify and again assess the set of priorities through which Egypt can most effectively and sustainably achieve the goals of poverty reduction and shared prosperity.  



Financing development in Latin America and the Caribbean: the role and perspectives of Multilateral Development Banks (with Raquel Artecona and Marcelo Bisogno). Eclac Studies and Perspectives Series, 2019.

Abstract: This paper analyses the role that Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) have played in financing development in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and what their role will be in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In a context where multilateralism is severely questioned, donor countries are moving their resources away from middle-income countries, and MDBs' lending represents a decreasing share of total debt in the region, we show that there is room for MDBs to continue being relevant players.



Trade and sectoral productivity (with Harald Fadinger). The Economic Journal, September 2011.

Abstract: Cross-country differences in sectoral total factor productivity (TFP) are at the heart of Ricardian trade theory and of many models of growth and development. Our knowledge of the magnitude and the characteristics of cross-country differences in sectoral TFP is still limited however. This study fills the gap by showing how sectoral TFP differences can be backed out from bilateral trade data using a hybrid Ricardo-Heckscher-Ohlin model. This approach allows us to overcome the data problems that constrained previous studies and to provide a comparable set of sectoral productivities for twenty-four manufacturing sectors in more than sixty countries at all stages of development. Our results imply that TFP differences in manufacturing sectors between rich and poor countries are substantial and far more pronounced in skilled labour and R&D intensive sectors than in others. We also apply our productivity estimates to test development theories that have implications for cross-country industry-level productivity patterns.

Complete Dataset
Supplementary Appendix



Trade liberalization and specialization dynamics Universitat Pompeu Fabra, January 2010.

Abstract: This paper advances in the analysis of the changes in economic structure induced by trade liberalization policies. Exploiting a rich sectoral data, the paper attempts to answer the following questions: a) do we in fact see trade liberalization bring about major structural changes in national productive structure? and b) when observable, do those changes conform to the patterns that classical trade theory would predict? In order to answer these questions, a statistical model of distribution dynamics to study production specialization patterns is used, and growth regression relating specialization with relative endowments are estimated, using those estimation to study the relationship between endowments, trade costs, industry characteristics and specialization in a multi-country multi-good framework. 



El mercado uruguayo de la salud en la última década: cambios en el sistema de remuneraciones a los médicos e incentivos económicos (with Inés Urrestarazú). XV Jornadas Anuales del Banco Central del Uruguay, August 2000.

Resumen: El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo probar la hipótesis de inducción de demanda en el mercado de salud uruguayo y su relación con la forma de pago a los médicos. Usando datos de ingresos y de utilización de servicios médicos, se desprende, en primer lugar, que el ingreso mensual promedio aumentó en términos reales para la población médica durante el período analizado (1991–1998), existiendo una alta correlación positiva entre ingreso y cantidad de médicos. A su vez, los mayores incrementos se dieron para los médicos del sector privado de Montevideo, fundamentalmente a partir de la implementación de un nuevo esquema de remuneraciones en 1993. También a partir de 1993 se aprecia un aumento estadísticamente significativo en la cantidad de procedimientos quirúrgicos en el sector privado de Montevideo. Este aumento es particularmente pronunciado entre las cirugías de menor complejidad. Por los resultados anteriores no es posible descartar la existencia de inducción de demanda, ya que en aquel sector donde el pago por acto pasó a representar una mayor proporción del ingreso de los médicos (sector anestésico–quirúrgico del sector privado de Montevideo) es donde se observa un mayor incremento en la cantidad de servicios provistos.



Collaboration and Research Assistance in Books, Reports, and Papers