Unshackling the Private Sector

During the past decade, many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean implemented highly effective policies that brought about economic stability and allowed the private sector to be the principal source of growth. This study analyzes the region's economic transformation and its effect on the development of the private sector. The authors examine evidence showing that the transformation is the product of complex interactions among macroeconomic stabilization, incentive reforms, and...
More Description

During the past decade, many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean implemented highly effective policies that brought about economic stability and allowed the private sector to be the principal source of growth. This study analyzes the region's economic transformation and its effect on the development of the private sector. The authors examine evidence showing that the transformation is the product of complex interactions among macroeconomic stabilization, incentive reforms, and institutional adaptation. They discuss issues that strongly influence development of the private sector, including factors that raise the risk and cost of business transactions and weaken the response to new incentives and macroeconomic reform. The report also presents the results of interviews with officials of a large number of firms in the region.