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- Latin American Research (15)
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Articles 1 - 28 of 28
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Study On Crime And Investment In Latin America And The Caribbean, Luisa Blanco, Christabel Dadzie, Coline Dony
Study On Crime And Investment In Latin America And The Caribbean, Luisa Blanco, Christabel Dadzie, Coline Dony
Luisa Blanco
Investment is a key determinant of economic growth. This relationship underpins the growth diagnostic and constraints analysis methodology used by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and United States Government Partnership for Growth initiative with the purpose of identifying the binding constraints to growth in a given country. Recent growth diagnostics undertaken for El Salvador (2011), Guatemala (2013), and Honduras (2013) find crime and citizen insecurity to be binding constraints to growth and investment in those countries (Acevedo et al. 2011; World Bank, 2012). The approaches taken in these growth diagnostic analyses are based on indirect proxies and shadow prices of …
In The Aftermath Of The Financial Crisis Of 2008: What Have We Learned?, Luisa Blanco, Michael Crouch
In The Aftermath Of The Financial Crisis Of 2008: What Have We Learned?, Luisa Blanco, Michael Crouch
Luisa Blanco
In the aftermath of the financial crisis and economic recession of 2008, it is important to reflect not only on its causes, but also on specific policies that can help countries to move towards sustained economic growth. This publication provides a compendium of lectures that intend to do this. The focus of the discussion is around the U.S. (first two chapters) and Latin America (last chapter), which enhances our understanding of the forces at play and the necessary policies that need to be implemented in different regions of the world. Dr. Lee Ohanian points to the strange differences between the …
Immigration Regulation, Luisa Blanco, Odinakachi Anyanwu
Immigration Regulation, Luisa Blanco, Odinakachi Anyanwu
Luisa Blanco
Immigration regulation is defined here as any policy that has the objective of encouraging or discouraging immigration. There are two major categories of immigration regulation: those policies that directly affect the inflow of immigrants and those that influence the everyday lives of immigrants and processes related to the acquisition of legal permanent residency or citizenship. Immigration regulation is quite diverse across time and space; immigration policy is fluid and dynamic and is affected by socioeconomic, cultural, and political factors. Thus, immigration regulation evolves in response to current conditions in a specific country. The role of race in immigration regulation also …
Latin America And The Financial Crisis Of 2008: Lessons And Challenges, Luisa Blanco
Latin America And The Financial Crisis Of 2008: Lessons And Challenges, Luisa Blanco
Luisa Blanco
In October of 2008 there were two main views of what the financial crisis would do to emerging countries in Latin America. The optimistic view predicted that they would do well overall and that the crisis would not have a significant impact on them because their economies were decoupled from the rest of the world. The pessimistic view saw these economies as vulnerable to the financial crisis, which meant they would become unstable and perform poorly. Over a year later, the outcome is something in between. This article will explain the current state of the financial crisis in Latin America …
The Impact Of Crime On Trust In Institutions In Mexico, Luisa Blanco
The Impact Of Crime On Trust In Institutions In Mexico, Luisa Blanco
Luisa Blanco
Using survey data from the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) and Encuesta Nacional Sobre la Inseguridad (ENSI) from Mexico during the period of 2004-2010, this paper analyses the impact of insecurity and crime victimization on support and satisfaction with democracy and trust in institutions. The analysis shows that perceptions of higher insecurity decrease support and satisfaction with democracy. We also find that perceptions of insecurity and crime victimization reduce trust in institutions, particularly in those that directly deal with crime (police and judicial system). There is regional variation in relation to trust in institutions that are associated with drug-trafficking …
Does Experience Matter For Patterns Of Expansion By U.S. Companies In Latin America And The Caribbean, Luisa Blanco, W. Charles Sawyer, Rossitza Wooster
Does Experience Matter For Patterns Of Expansion By U.S. Companies In Latin America And The Caribbean, Luisa Blanco, W. Charles Sawyer, Rossitza Wooster
Luisa Blanco
We describe expansion patterns by U.S. companies in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) between 1980 and 2005 using a unique sample that utilizes country, industry and time-series information on firms’ investments. We build on previous research to explore the effect of experience on firms’ preference for equity commitment. Using the time series properties of our data, we examine the extent to which previous investments in the region influence firms’ expansion patterns. Our analysis includes the traditional determinants of entry mode choices such as firm-specific factors, market seeking factors, resource seeking factors, and country specific factors. Bivariate probit results indicate …
The Impact Of Insecurity And Crime On Democracy And Trust In Institutions, Luisa Blanco, Isabel Ruiz
The Impact Of Insecurity And Crime On Democracy And Trust In Institutions, Luisa Blanco, Isabel Ruiz
Luisa Blanco
This paper examines the impact of crime and insecurity on support for and satisfaction with democracy and trust in institutions. We use survey data from the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) for Colombia during the 2004-2010 period. We find that perceptions of insecurity, crime victimization, being asked for a bribe and being affected by the armed conflict have a negative significant effect on satisfaction with democracy and trust in public institutions. Our findings show an important indirect channel through which crime can hinder development because distrust in institutions is associated with lower levels of social capital.
Long Live Democracy: The Determinants Of Political Instability In Latin America, Luisa Blanco, Robin Grier
Long Live Democracy: The Determinants Of Political Instability In Latin America, Luisa Blanco, Robin Grier
Luisa Blanco
In this paper, we investigate the determinants of political instability in Latin America. In a panel of 18 Latin American countries from 1971 to 2000, we find that democratic countries experience less average instability in the region, indicating that the move to increased democracy in the last couple decades may alleviate the persistent problem of instability in the area. We also find that income inequality and ethnic fractionalization are important determinants of instability. Countries with low levels of inequality also suffer less instability on average, while ethnic diversity has a non-linear effect on instability. Many macroeconomic variables commonly thought to …
Tax Havens And Fdi Spillovers: Implications For Ldcs, Luisa Blanco, Cynthia Rogers
Tax Havens And Fdi Spillovers: Implications For Ldcs, Luisa Blanco, Cynthia Rogers
Luisa Blanco
Tax competition and spillover models offer ambiguous predictions concerning the economic impact of tax havens on non-tax havens. The implications of tax havens for less developed countries (LDCs), in particular, are not well understood and are little studied. This paper investigates the impact of tax havens on non-tax haven countries in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI). We investigate the importance of agglomeration effects by accounting for the level of FDI inflows as well as the role of geography by measuring proximity to the nearest tax haven. Our analysis yields several interesting findings. First, using panel data for 142 countries, …
Competition Between Tax Havens: Does Proximity Matter?, Luisa Blanco, Cynthia Rogers
Competition Between Tax Havens: Does Proximity Matter?, Luisa Blanco, Cynthia Rogers
Luisa Blanco
We study whether proximity to the nearest tax haven affects FDI and the number of American affiliates in a tax haven. Our results show that distance to the nearest tax haven is positively related to FDI inflows and the number of American affiliates in tax havens. These findings suggest that there is a harmful competition between tax havens. We also find evidence of positive spillovers: the number of American affiliates in a tax haven is positively related to the number of in its closest neighboring tax haven. This suggests the presence of agglomeration benefits given there is an affiliate in …
Do Tax Havens Really Flourish? Accounting For Endogeneity In Growth Regressions, Luisa Blanco, Cynthia Rogers
Do Tax Havens Really Flourish? Accounting For Endogeneity In Growth Regressions, Luisa Blanco, Cynthia Rogers
Luisa Blanco
That tax haven policies contribute to favorable economic growth in tax haven countries is commonly accepted. There is, however, minimal empirical evidence to substantiate this assertion and empirical investigations are subject to endogeneity bias. Using a sample of 155 countries from 1982 to 2003, we find that the standard tax haven variable is endogenous to the error term in a typical growth regression. We offer land area measures as valid instruments for tax haven status. Results based on two-stage least squares estimation with heteroskedastic standard errors and controls for initial conditions provide support for the claim that tax havens “flourish” …
Explaining The Rise Of The Left In Latin America, Luisa Blanco, Robin Grier
Explaining The Rise Of The Left In Latin America, Luisa Blanco, Robin Grier
Luisa Blanco
Latin American politics has taken a left-hand turn in the last decade, with an increasing number of chief executives hailing from left-of-center parties. We investigate the political and socio-economic factors explaining political ideology of the chief executive in a sample of 100 elections taking place between 1975 and 2007 in eighteen Latin American countries. We find that the commodity booms in agricultural, mining and oil are positively and significantly related to the probability that a country will have a chief executive from a left-of-center political party. However, for oil exports, we observe that this effect only holds for Venezuela. We …
Powering America: The Impact Of Ethanol Production In The Corn Belt States, Luisa Blanco, Michelle Isenhouer
Powering America: The Impact Of Ethanol Production In The Corn Belt States, Luisa Blanco, Michelle Isenhouer
Luisa Blanco
This paper investigates the impact of ethanol production in the Corn Belt states (Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin). Employing data at the county level, from 2005 and 2006, we investigate the effect of ethanol production on employment and wages. Our empirical results show that ethanol production has a positive significant effect on employment and wages, but this effect is of insignificant magnitude. We also find that counties with high and medium levels of ethanol production capacity show higher levels of employment and wages than those counties that do not produce ethanol. …
The Finance–Growth Link Revisited And The Role Of Institutions As A Source Of Finance In Latin America, Luisa Blanco
The Finance–Growth Link Revisited And The Role Of Institutions As A Source Of Finance In Latin America, Luisa Blanco
Luisa Blanco
In a panel framework that includes 18 countries, this paper studies the short and long run effect of financial development on economic growth and the determinants of financial development in Latin America. Financial development shows a positive effect on economic growth in the long run, but a negative effect in the short run for the full sample. When the sample is divided by income levels, this result holds only for the high income group. For the low income group, financial development has no significant effect on economic growth in the short run or in the long run. In the analysis …
Life Is Unfair In Latin America, But Does It Matter For Growth?, Luisa Blanco
Life Is Unfair In Latin America, But Does It Matter For Growth?, Luisa Blanco
Luisa Blanco
I analyze the effect of inequality on economic growth in Latin America, where inequality is measured as the area of family farms as a percentage of the total area of agricultural holdings. Using data from 18 Latin American countries between 1960 and 2004, I find that inequality has a nonlinear effect on economic growth. Overall, for the countries included in this analysis, the share of family farms has a positive significant effect on economic growth. These findings are robust to controlling for several factors, using a different indicator of inequality (land Gini), and addressing for endogeneity.
The Impact Of Research And Development On Economic Growth And Productivity In The Us States, Luisa Blanco, James Prieger, Ji Gu
The Impact Of Research And Development On Economic Growth And Productivity In The Us States, Luisa Blanco, James Prieger, Ji Gu
Luisa Blanco
We estimate the impact of R&D on TFP and output in the private sector at the state level in the US from 1963 to 2007. R&D has a large effect on both output and TFP at the state level in the long run. The R&D elasticity in a state averages 0.056 to 0.143, implying returns to state GDP from R&D spending of 83% to 213%. There are also positive R&D spillovers, with 77% of the total returns accruing to other states. The R&D elasticities are either stable or increase slightly after 1993. The effects of R&D are dependent on the …
Retirement Planning Among Middle-Aged And Older Hispanics, Luisa Blanco, Emma Aguila, Arturo Gongora, Beverly Weidmer, O. Kenrik Duru
Retirement Planning Among Middle-Aged And Older Hispanics, Luisa Blanco, Emma Aguila, Arturo Gongora, Beverly Weidmer, O. Kenrik Duru
Luisa Blanco
The goal of this study is to deepen the understanding of how middle age and older Hispanics plan for retirement, where we conducted four focus groups in the Los Angeles area with a total of 38 participants. Our study provides interesting findings, specifically for women since 84 percent of the participants were female. We find that that most participants, whether they were already retired or not, are not well prepared for retirement since they have been unable to save for retirement and have not made specific retirement plans, such as determining desired retirement age, estimating retirement budget, and collecting information …
The Impact Of Fdi On Co₂ Emissions In Latin America, Luisa Blanco, Fidel Gonzalez, Isabel Ruiz
The Impact Of Fdi On Co₂ Emissions In Latin America, Luisa Blanco, Fidel Gonzalez, Isabel Ruiz
Luisa Blanco
This paper uses panel Granger causality tests to study the relationship between sector specific FDI and CO2 emissions. Using a sample of 18 Latin American countries for the 1980-2007 period, we find causality running from FDI in polluting intensive industries (“the dirty sector”) to CO2 emissions per capita. This result is robust to controlling for other factors associated with CO2 emissions and using the ratio of CO2 emissions to GDP. For other sectors, we find no robust evidence that FDI causes CO2 emissions.
Hispanic Immigrant Workers In Paradise: Malibu Day Laborers In A Time Of Insecurity, Luisa Blanco, Daniel Morrison, George Carlsen, Lila Carlsen, Ashley Chaparro, Erick Molina
Hispanic Immigrant Workers In Paradise: Malibu Day Laborers In A Time Of Insecurity, Luisa Blanco, Daniel Morrison, George Carlsen, Lila Carlsen, Ashley Chaparro, Erick Molina
Luisa Blanco
Taking a multidisciplinary approach, we conducted a study consisting of written surveys, focus groups, and individual interviews with men and women who were seeking employment through the MCLE at the time of the study and who were predominantly Hispanic immigrants. The results of this study offer insight into the ways in which this population benefits from the services of the MCLE, their labor conditions, financial and saving behavior, and overall wellbeing. Our findings clarify how this population in Malibu negotiates short-term labor relationships in the context of continuing economic instability, where we provide a better understanding of the intersecting inequalities …
Equity Commitment Under Uncertainty: A Hierarchical Model Of Real Option Entry Mode Choices, Luisa Blanco, Rossitza Wooster, W. Charles Sawyer
Equity Commitment Under Uncertainty: A Hierarchical Model Of Real Option Entry Mode Choices, Luisa Blanco, Rossitza Wooster, W. Charles Sawyer
Luisa Blanco
We develop a real option hierarchical model of entry mode choice and test predictions using a sample of US companies in Latin America and the Caribbean between 1980 and 2005. Probit results indicate that the choice between a real option non-equity mode and equity commitment is influenced by previous acquisition experience, R&D and advertising intensities, and country risk. The choice of the more flexible real option JV mode over WOEs is positively related to greater firm size and market-to-book ratio in countries with better infrastructure. In contrast, greater marketing intensity and lower country risk encourage WOEs.
Economic Growth And The Optimal Level Of Entrepreneurship, Catherine Bampoky, Luisa Blanco, Aolong Liu, James Prieger
Economic Growth And The Optimal Level Of Entrepreneurship, Catherine Bampoky, Luisa Blanco, Aolong Liu, James Prieger
Luisa Blanco
What is the “growth penalty” when a country’s entrepreneurship deviates from its optimal level? We use data on entrepreneurship for a panel of developed and developing countries over 2003-2011 to estimate growth equations. We treat the impact of entrepreneurship on real GDP growth as heterogeneous across countries. The methodology accounts for unobserved heterogeneity among countries in the optimal entrepreneurship rate and other factors affecting growth. In less developed countries, there is not enough entrepreneurship, and increases in the entrepreneurship rate have a sizeable positive effect on growth. In high income countries, entrepreneurship appears to be close to the optimum. We …
The (Non) Effect Of Natural Resource Dependence On Capital Accumulation In Latin America, Luisa Blanco, Robin Grier
The (Non) Effect Of Natural Resource Dependence On Capital Accumulation In Latin America, Luisa Blanco, Robin Grier
Luisa Blanco
In a simultaneous model of human and physical capital accumulation for 17 Latin American countries from 1975 to 2004, we show that overall resource dependence is not significantly related to physical and human capital. Disaggregating the natural resource variable into subcategories, we find that petroleum export dependence is associated with higher physical capital and lower human capital, while agricultural export dependence is often associated with lower levels of physical capital. All of these effects are quantitatively small, however, casting doubt on the idea that natural resource dependence has stifled the accumulation of capital in the region.
The Finance–Growth Link In Latin America, Luisa Blanco
The Finance–Growth Link In Latin America, Luisa Blanco
Luisa Blanco
This paper analyzes the relationship between financial development and economic growth in Latin America with a Granger causality test and impulse response functions in a panel vector autoregression model. Using annual observations from a sample of 18 countries from 1962 to 2005, it is shown that while economic growth causes financial development, financial development does not cause economic growth. This finding is robust to different model specifications and different financial indicators. Interestingly, when the sample is divided according to different income levels and institutional quality, there is two way causality between financial development and economic growth only for the middle …
Effects Of Natural Resource Abundance On Institutions: Which, Where And When?, Luisa Blanco, Jeffrey Nugent, Graham Veenstra
Effects Of Natural Resource Abundance On Institutions: Which, Where And When?, Luisa Blanco, Jeffrey Nugent, Graham Veenstra
Luisa Blanco
Much research has gone into the effects of oil and other natural resources on growth in which political institutions are often seen as the link between the two. Since institutions are difficult to measure and change very slowly over time, the analysis has largely been confined to cross-country comparisons, most frequently investigating the effects on levels of democracy. This paper builds on recent analyses of the effects of oil endowments, prices and exports on democracy to examine the effects on several different types of institutional change, making use of panel data on over 100 countries between 1975 and 2005 wherever …
The Impact Of Spatial Interdependence On Fdi In Latin America, Luisa Blanco
The Impact Of Spatial Interdependence On Fdi In Latin America, Luisa Blanco
Luisa Blanco
This analysis considers whether spatial interdependence is an important determinant of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Latin America. Two types of spatial interdependence are explored: 1) surrounding market potential and 2) spatial autocorrelation of FDI. Using a sample of 17 Latin American countries, with observations from 1986 to 2006, we find that spatial interdependence matters for world net FDI in the region. Surrounding market potential has a positive effect on FDI of significant magnitude, but there is no evidence that FDI is spatially autocorrelated. Other contributors to FDI in this analysis include governance, specifically control of corruption, and exports of …
Crime, Institutions And Sector-Specific Fdi In Latin America, Luisa Blanco, Isabel Ruiz, W. Charles Sawyer, Rossitza Wooster
Crime, Institutions And Sector-Specific Fdi In Latin America, Luisa Blanco, Isabel Ruiz, W. Charles Sawyer, Rossitza Wooster
Luisa Blanco
In this article, we explore how crime and institutions affect the flow of capital in the form of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Latin American and Caribbean countries in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors during the 1996-2010 period. We use three different variables related to violent crime: homicides, crime victimization, and an index of organized crime. We find that there is a correlation between the institutional and crime variables, where the significance of institutional variables tends to disappear when the crime variables are added to the model. We find that higher crime victimization and organized crime are associated with …
A Qualitative Analysis Of The Use Of Financial Services And Saving Behavior Among Older African Americans And Latinos In The Los Angeles Area, Luisa Blanco, Maria Ponce, Arturo Gongora, O. Kenrik Duru
A Qualitative Analysis Of The Use Of Financial Services And Saving Behavior Among Older African Americans And Latinos In The Los Angeles Area, Luisa Blanco, Maria Ponce, Arturo Gongora, O. Kenrik Duru
Luisa Blanco
For this study, we conducted 7 focus groups in the Los Angeles area with a total of 70 participants (42 Latinos and 28 African Americans) recruited from 3 senior centers and a church. Overall, participants were not well prepared for the future in terms of their health care financing. African Americans in the study tended to participate more in the formal financial sector and show a high level of sophistication when managing their finances than Latinos. African Americans also were more likely to save than Latinos, but their level of saving was not very large. We also find that participants …
The Impact Of Insecurity On Democracy And Trust In Institutions In Mexico, Luisa Blanco
The Impact Of Insecurity On Democracy And Trust In Institutions In Mexico, Luisa Blanco
Luisa Blanco
Using survey data from the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) and Encuesta Nacional Sobre la Inseguridad (ENSI) for Mexico during the period 2004-2010, this paper analyses the impact of insecurity and crime victimization on support and satisfaction with democracy and trust in institutions. With the LAPOP data, perceptions about higher insecurity decrease support and satisfaction with democracy. Perceptions of insecurity and crime victimization have a negative significant effect on trust in institutions, and this finding is robust to using LAPOP and ENSI data. Perceptions of insecurity and crime victimization have a larger negative effect on trust in institutions that …