Firm Innovation and Productivity in Latin America and the Caribbean

This volume uses the study of firm dynamics to investigate the factors preventing faster productivity growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, pushing past the limits of traditional macroeconomic analyses. Each chapter is dedicated to an examination of a different factor affecting firm productivity - innovation, ICT usage, on-the-job-training, firm age, access to credit, and international linkages - highlighting the differences in firm characteristics, behaviors, and strategies. By showcasing this remarkable heterogeneity, this collection challenges regional policymakers to look beyond one-size-fits-all solutions and create balanced policy mixes tailored to distinct firm needs.      

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO license.     

• Inter-American Development Bank
• enterprise
• micoreconomics
• enterprise performance
• Latin America
• Caribbean

“Why Latin American productivity growth has been systematically low, and certainly lower than in other regions of the world continues to be a major perplexing paradox…  This book brings fresh air into a highly polluted analytical environment overloaded with macro preconceptions and value judgments concerning market functioning and the sources of economic growth. I strongly recommend its reading.” (Jorge Katz, Professor, University of Chile, Chile; former Director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC))      

“Grazzi and Pietrobelli have assembled a highly skilled team of internationally prominent scholars offering careful and meticulous analyses to identify what exactly is holding back this important region and how the challenges for economic development can best be achieved. This book is required reading not just for policy makers and scholars concerned with Latin America and the Caribbean, but for all those interested in what impedes and facilitates economic development.” (David Audretsch, Distinguished Professor, Ameritech Chair of Economic Development, and Director, Institute for Development Strategies, Indiana University, USA)  

“The dearth of productivity growth is the biggest puzzle and the biggest win-win opportunity for Latin American development. This book explores many of the connections that we need to understand to realize this opportunity.” (Ricardo Hausmann, Director of the Center for International Development and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development Harvard Kennedy School , Harvard University, USA; External Faculty, Santa Fe Institute, USA)  

• Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, USA

  Inter-American Development Bank, Matteo Grazzi

• Inst Development Sector, E0603, Inter-American Development Bank, Bethesda, USA

  Carlo Pietrobelli