Ideas for Development in the Americas (IDEA): Volume 21 : January-April, 2010: The Age of Productivity

Latin America's lackluster growth and the resulting income gaps are due to a chronic productivity growth deficit. Latin American countries do not lack productive resources, they simply do not use them efficiently. The causes of this low productivity range from high rates of informality, poorly designed social policies and high transport costs to discriminatory tax regimes, a lack of innovation and a predisposition against productive development policies. The IDB dedicated the latest edition of its flagship publication, Development in the Americas, to the issue of productivity. This issue of IDEA draws on this study titled The Age of Productivity: Transforming Economies from the Bottom Up, as it explores some of the causes--and possible cures--of low productivity in the region.