IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/25896.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Central America's Macroeconomic Environment and the Role of the Investment Climate under Free Trade

Author

Listed:
  • Gould, David
  • Loening, Josef L.

Abstract

Central America's economic performance in recent years has benefited from improved macroeconomic management, a favorable external environment, as well as rising investor confidence since the region has pursued greater access to global markets, particularly with the signing of DR-CAFTA in 2004. Nonetheless, while important reforms have been made, at the sectoral level, much remains to be done. The context of a less favorable global environment underlines the need to improve competiveness and enhance productivity. An improved investment climate would contribute to both and help to unleash the full potential of DR-CAFTA.

Suggested Citation

  • Gould, David & Loening, Josef L., 2008. "Central America's Macroeconomic Environment and the Role of the Investment Climate under Free Trade," MPRA Paper 25896, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:25896
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/25896/1/MPRA_paper_25896.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Montobbio, Fabio & Rampa, Francesco, 2005. "The impact of technology and structural change on export performance in nine developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 527-547, April.
    2. World Bank, 2007. "Economic Performance in Latin America and the Caribbean : A Microeconomic Perspective," World Bank Publications - Reports 7857, The World Bank Group.
    3. Norbert Fiess, 2007. "Business Cycle Synchronization and Regional Integration: A Case Study for Central America," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 21(1), pages 49-72.
    4. Norman Loayza & Pablo Fajnzylber & César Calderón, 2005. "Economic Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean : Stylized Facts, Explanations, and Forecasts," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7315.
    5. Mr. Shaun K. Roache, 2008. "Central America’s Regional Trends and U.S. Cycles," IMF Working Papers 2008/050, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Kazuhiro YUKI, 2007. "Determinants Of Sectoral Composition In A Small Open Economy: Theoretical And Quantitative Investigations Of The Philippines," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 45(4), pages 391-436, December.
    7. Kose, M. Ayhan & Rebucci, Alessandro, 2005. "How might CAFTA change macroeconomic fluctuations in Central America?: Lessons from NAFTA," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 77-104, February.
    8. Mr. Alfred Schipke & Mr. Dominique Desruelle, 2007. "Economic Growth and Integration in Central America," IMF Occasional Papers 2007/006, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Dollar, David & Hallward-Driemeier, Mary & Mengistae, Taye, 2005. "Investment Climate and Firm Performance in Developing Economies," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(1), pages 1-31, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Estrades, Carmen & Traore, Fousseini & Djiofack Zebaze, Calvin & Cardozo, Adriana, 2015. "DR-CAFTA Agreement and liberalization of trade in services: Evidence from Costa Rica," Conference papers 332581, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. World Bank, 2008. "Local Gains from Global Opportunities : Improving Central America's Investment Climate," World Bank Publications - Reports 7959, The World Bank Group.
    2. P&aauml;r Österholm & Jeromin Zettelmeyer, 2008. "The Effect of External Conditions on Growth in Latin America," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 55(4), pages 595-623, December.
    3. Hideaki Hirata & M. Ayhan Kose & Chris Otrok, "undated". "Regionalization vs. Globalization," Working Paper 164456, Harvard University OpenScholar.
    4. Carlos Felipe Jaramillo & Daniel Lederman & Maurizio Bussolo & David Gould & Andrew Mason, 2006. "Challenges of CAFTA : Maximizing the Benefits for Central America," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7127.
    5. Lederman, Daniel & Saenz, Laura, 2005. "Innovation and development around the world, 1960-2000," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3774, The World Bank.
    6. Teimuraz Gogokhia & George Berulava, 2021. "Business environment reforms, innovation and firm productivity in transition economies," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(2), pages 221-245, June.
    7. Oznur Ozdamar & Eleftherios Giovanis & Sahizer Samuk, 2020. "State business relations and the dynamics of job flows in Egypt and Turkey," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(4), pages 519-558, December.
    8. Jianyu Han & Min He & Honglin Xie & Tao Ding, 2022. "The Impact of Scientific and Technological Innovation on High-Quality Economic Development in the Yangtze River Delta Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-19, November.
    9. World Bank Group, 2014. "West Bank and Gaza Investment Climate Assessment : Fragmentation and Uncertainty," World Bank Publications - Reports 20268, The World Bank Group.
    10. Anos-Casero, Paloma & Udomsaph, Charles, 2009. "What drives firm productivity growth ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4841, The World Bank.
    11. Andrea Lasagni & Annamaria Nifo & Gaetano Vecchione, 2015. "Firm Productivity And Institutional Quality: Evidence From Italian Industry," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 774-800, November.
    12. Joël Cariolle & Maëlan le Goff, 2023. "Spatial Internet Spillovers in Manufacturing," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(8), pages 1163-1186, August.
    13. Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose & Roberto Ganau & Kristina Maslauskaite & Monica Brezzi, 2021. "Credit constraints, labor productivity, and the role of regional institutions: Evidence from manufacturing firms in Europe," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 299-328, March.
    14. Nikita Céspedes & Nelson Ramirez-Rondán, 2014. "Total Factor Productivity Estimation in Peru: Primal and Dual Approaches," Revista Economía, Fondo Editorial - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, vol. 37(73), pages 9-39.
    15. Günseli Berik & Yana Van Der Meulen Rodgers, 2010. "Options for enforcing labour standards: Lessons from Bangladesh And Cambodia," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(1), pages 56-85.
    16. Dollar, David & Kraay, Aart, 2006. "Neither a borrower nor a lender: Does China's zero net foreign asset position make economic sense?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 943-971, July.
    17. Moller, Lars Christian & Wacker, Konstantin M., 2017. "Explaining Ethiopia’s Growth Acceleration—The Role of Infrastructure and Macroeconomic Policy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 198-215.
    18. Luis René Cáceres, 2021. "Youth Unemployment and Underdevelopment in Honduras," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 13(2), pages 1-61, February.
    19. Calderón, César & Fuentes, J. Rodrigo, 2012. "Removing the constraints for growth: Some guidelines," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 948-970.
    20. Tidiane Kinda & Josef Loening, 2010. "Small Enterprise Growth and the Rural Investment Climate: Evidence from Tanzania," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 22(1), pages 173-207.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Macroeconomic performance; investment climate; Guatemala; El Salvador; Nicaragua; Hounduras; Costa Rica; Panama;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy
    • E66 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - General Outlook and Conditions
    • O54 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:25896. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.