Development Roast Giving international development a proper roasting

By international comparisons, income inequality in Latin America is extremely high. Most Latin American countries have Gini coefficients in the 0.45 – 0.65 range, while most European countries fall in the 0.20 – 0.40 range together with China and India. United States fall in between the two groups with a …

Economists play an important role in the implementation of economic policies and thus in the construction of societies. So, it is logical to think that a good design and implementation of economic policies require good economists. These economists should be solidly formed not only in the handling of analytical tools …

The Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) observed, in 1906, that twenty percent of the Italian people owned eighty percent of their country’s accumulated wealth. This 20/80 ratio has since been observed in a large variety of situations, and the general idea of the “Pareto Principle” or the “80/20 rule” is that …

Recently, the Bolivian government has made a generous change to the universal pension payment scheme (formerly BONOSOL, now Renta Dignidad) lowering the pension reception age from 65 to 60 years, and increasing the annual payment from Bs. 1.800 to Bs. 2.400. This means an immediate doubling of universal pension payments. …

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.“ Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” Mark Twain (1835 – 1910) Every year, more than 130 million children are born on this globe (1). Each of them are endowed with a set …

Women in the informal sector generate much lower incomes than other population groups in Bolivia, and it is natural for the development community to want to help this group through specific policy initiatives targeted at this group. Indeed, I have been hired to study the problem and come up with …

During the crisis of 1999-2003, most economic and social indicators in Bolivia showed significant deteriorations — even the ones you would not expect to. While poverty rates and unemployment rates may go up during a recession and progress in the provision of basic services may stagnate, you would not expect …

The “Explaining African Economic Growth” project was launched in 1999 as a common research project between top world universities under the leadership of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC). As a result of this project, the book “The Political Economy of Economic Growth in Africa, 1960-2000” (1) is considered as …

“The only justifiable purpose of political institutions is to ensure the unhindered development of the individual.” Albert Einstein Having good institutions that guarantee citizens a large degree of economic freedom has been shown to be strongly correlated with the usual development indicators, such as GDP per capita, life expectancy, and literacy rates, …

“Poverty, like beauty, lies in the eyes of the beholder.” Mollie Orshansky According to official estimates, there are at least 3 million extremely poor people in Bolivia (about 38% of the total population). Judging from their very low incomes, they shouldn’t be able to buy even the minimum basket of subsistence …