By providing empirical evidence linking actual firm performance to shortcomings in Latin America's investment climate, this book looks at macroeconomic stability and mircoeconomic reforms and discusses policies that could have a significant impact on firm productivity by improving the environment in which firms invest and operate.

This book discusses policies that could have a significant impact on firm productivity by improving the environment in which firms invest and operate

Acknowledgements PART I: DO WE NEED ANOTHER STUDY OF ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN? Introduction Where do we go from here? A first pass at the investment climate Conclusions PART II: THE INVESTMENT CLIMATE IN LATIN AMERICA ntroduction How do firms perceive the key investment climate constraints to growth? Data and econometric methodology Estimation results Merging Enterprise Survey and household data Summary and conclusions PART III: WHAT WOULD BE THE IMPACT OF A BETTER INVESTMENT CLIMATE FOR ALL? Introduction Potential productivity gains under alternative scenarios Results Country detail Are there any differences by firm size? Are there potential gains for wages Conclusions PART IV: BEHIND THE INVESTMENT CLIMATE. BACK TO BASICS: DETERMINANTS OF CORRUPTIONI. Introduction A conceptual framework Results Robustness checksDeterminants of regulatory compliance Conclusions PART V: WHAT ARE THE DETERMINANTS OF FINANCIAL ACCESS IN LATIN AMERICA? Introduction Data Descriptive statisticsRegression results Summary and conclusions PART VI: PRODUCTIVE INNOVATION: THE ROLES OF THE INVESTMENT CLIMATE AND R&D EXPENDITURES I. Introduction A model of productive innovation Data Is R&D related to productive innovation? The role of the investment climate Conclusions PART VII:EXPORTER PREMIUMS Introduction Exporter premiums: what do we know? From exports to wages: evidence from firm level data in Argentina Explaining output differentials between exporters and non exporters in a small country Conclusions and policy implications