Leading experts from academia and development institutions will address topics including educational achievement and growth, alcohol consumption and crime, innovation policy and environmental taxes
Watch the seminar on Livestream and follow us in Twitter using #LACchallenges
While Latin America and the Caribbean face complex development challenges including crime, low growth rates and lagging educational achievement, scholars and policymakers will gather at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for a seminar to examine recent policy-relevant findings that can assist the region in reaching its vast potential.
The seminar, "Development Challenges in Latin America: What Are the Issues?”, will take place June 13–14 at the IDB’s headquarters in Washington, DC at 9:00 a.m. The fourth annual gathering of the Bank’s Development Challenges Network will bring together experts on development economics from government as well as academia. Seven sessions over two days will address topics including links between educational achievement and growth, alcohol consumption and crime, innovation policy and environmental taxes.
Other issues to be discussed include the impact of financial integration, the implications of behavioral economics for tax policy and how the analysis of trade policy must take into account the greatly varying characteristics of firms within as well as across countries.
The following are only a few of the insights to be presented:
- Banking integration does not synchronize countries’ business cycles. In fact, it can have the opposite effect.
- There is strong evidence that tax and age-based restrictions on alcohol availability reduce crime, but this cannot be said for restrictions on locations and hours.
- Policies to foster innovation can be largely negated by the unintended consequences of a corporate income tax.
- Low educational achievement as measured by national and international tests explains much of Latin America’s slow growth in comparison to other regions.
WHAT: Seminar on Development Challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean
WHEN: Thursday and Friday, June 13–14, 2013 - 9:00 a.m.
WHERE: Inter-American Development Bank, 1300 New York Avenue, NW, Conference Room Andrés Bello, 9th floor, Washington, D.C.
The event will be webcast live at http://www.livestream.com/IDBEvents1