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on Central and South America |
| By: | Eslava, Marcela; Melendez Arjona, Marcela; Tenjo Galvis, Laura Daniela; Urdaneta, Nicolás |
| Abstract: | Using official employment surveys for 45 advanced economies and Latin American countries, this paper shows that the positive cross-country correlation between business size and GDP per capita is tighter than previously found using firm-level datasets and finds a close negative business size-Gini relationship. The paper also finds a closer connection between individual income and business size for workers in less developed countries compared with those in advanced economies. Because employment data address the bias against the smallest productive units that characterize firm-level datasets, our approach uniquely assesses and highlights the dominance of the left tail of the business size distribution in less developed countries. |
| Date: | 2023–10–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10584 |
| By: | Glenn P. Jenkins (Department of Economics Queen’s University, Canada, and Cambridge Resource International Inc.); Abdallah Othman (Cambridge Resources International Inc.); Edna Armendariz (Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)); Anastasiya Yarygina (Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)) |
| Abstract: | This report provides a systematic review of the impact of tax incentives on investment and economic growth in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. While tax incentives are widely used to attract foreign direct investment (FDI), stimulate employment, and promote sectoral development, empirical evidence on their effectiveness remains mixed. The analysis reveals that although some incentives have successfully increased investment in targeted sectors, many fail to deliver significant economic benefits, often leading to substantial revenue losses. A critical gap in this report is the lack of comprehensive ex-ante evaluations, with most studies focusing on ex-post assessments. Cost-benefit analyses indicate that broad-based tax incentives are less efficient than targeted schemes, particularly in research and development (R&D) and export-oriented industries. The findings highlight the need for improved evaluation frameworks, better governance, and more strategic tax incentive policies to ensure sustainable economic growth. |
| Keywords: | Corporate Income Tax, Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA), Economic Growth, Investment Policy, Fiscal Policy, Public Finance, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Tax Incentives |
| JEL: | F21 H20 H25 H32 O23 |
| Date: | 2025–02–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qed:dpaper:4630 |
| By: | Vargas, Juan F.; Rozo Villarraga, Sandra Viviana |
| Abstract: | About a third of the 7.7 million Venezuelans who have left their country due to political and economic turmoil have settled in neighboring Colombia. The extent to which the Colombian schooling system can absorb the massive demand for education of Venezuelan children is key for their future trajectory of human capital accumulation, as well as that of Colombian students in receiving communities. This paper estimates the effect of Venezuelan migration on educational outcomes of children living in settlement municipalities in Colombia, distinguish between the effect of the migration shock on native and migrant students. Specifically, it estimates the effect of the migration shock on school enrollment, dropout/promotion rates and standardized test scores. The identification relies on a plausibly exogenous measure of the predicted migration shock faced by each Colombian municipality every year. The findings show that the migration shock increased the enrollment of Venezuelan students in both public and private schools and in all school grades, but also generated negative spillovers related to failing promotion rates and increasing dropout. This paper documents that these negative effects are explained by the differential enrollment capacity of schools, as well as by the deterioration of key school inputs. |
| Date: | 2024–03–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10720 |