Tackling Corruption in Government
By Vitor Gaspar, Paolo Mauro and Paulo Medas
عربي, 中文, Español, Français, 日本語, Português, Русский
No country is immune to corruption. The abuse of public office for private gain erodes people’s trust in government and institutions, makes public policies less effective and fair, and siphons taxpayers’ money away from schools, roads, and hospitals. […]
From Shadows to Sunlight, Paraguay’s Road to Transparency
By IMFBlog
June 15, 2018
Lea Giménez Duarte, Paraguay’s Finance Minister speaking at IMF World-Bank Spring meetings seminar Restoring Trust by Curbing Corruption (photo: IMF)
Current Paraguayan Finance Minister Lea Giménez Duarte knows first-hand that transparency pays off. In this podcast, Duarte says the changes began after the government passed a transparency law in 2014. […]
Corruption in Latin America: A Way Forward
By David Lipton, Alejandro Werner, and S. Pelin Berkmen
September 28, 2017
Versions in Español (Spanish), Português (Portuguese)
Sustained action on many fronts will be needed to push countries out of the corruption trap (photo: People Images/iStock).
In our first blog of this two-part series, we noted that, despite recent progress, corruption in Latin America is still high. In this second blog, we look at measures to fight corruption that have worked well in other countries. Learning about these policies can provide insights to guide Latin America in the design of their anti-corruption strategies, even if the final shape of these policies will differ depending on country specifics. […]
Corruption in Latin America: Taking Stock
By David Lipton, Alejandro Werner, Carlos Gonçalves
September 21, 2017
Versions in Español (Spanish) Português (Portuguese)
Systemic corruption drains public resources and drags down economic growth (photo: People Images/iStock).
Corruption continues to make headlines in Latin America. From a scheme to shelter assets leaked by documents in Panama, to the Petrobras and Odebrecht scandals that have spread beyond Brazil, to eight former Mexican state governors facing charges or being convicted, the region has seen its share of economic and political fallout from corruption. Latin Americans are showing increasing signs of discontent and demanding that their governments tackle corruption more aggressively.
A Big Step Forward for Bolstering Financial Inclusion
By David Marston, Era Dabla-Norris, and D. Filiz Unsal
(version in Español)
Economists are paying increasing attention to the link between financial inclusion—greater availability of and access to financial services—and economic development. In a new paper, we take a closer look at exactly how financial inclusion impacts a country’s economy and what policies are most effective in promoting it.
The new framework developed in this paper allows us to identify barriers to financial inclusion and see how lifting these barriers might affect a country’s output and level of inequality. Because the more you know about what stands in the way of financial inclusion, the better you can be at designing policies that help foster it.
Policy Interest Rates in Latin America: Moving to Neutral?
Using our estimated neutral interest rates we find that current policy rates are close to their neutral level in several countries (Chile, Colombia, and Peru). For Brazil and Mexico we find that monetary policies remain stimulative (with actual interest rates below neutral). For other countries in the region our analysis suggests that Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Paraguay, and Uruguay have lower interest rates than their neutral level. However, these results should be viewed with caution given data limitations and weaker monetary policy transmissions.
Regional Spillovers in South America: How “Systemic” is Brazil?
We quantify the spillovers from Brazil to other countries in South America. The results confirm that Brazil has a significant influence on Southern Cone countries, particularly on Mercosur partners (Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay), but not on the Andean economies. For the Southern Cone countries, spillovers from Brazil can take two forms: the transmission of shocks originating in Brazil and the amplification (through Brazil) of global shocks. These two factors explain an important share of the fluctuations in economy activity in the Southern Cone countries.