Artificial Intelligence for Caribbean Sustainable Development

Toward AI Policies for the Caribbean

Artificial Intelligence offers extraordinary opportunities for accelerating human progress across a range of fields from healthcare and education, to combating climate change and disasters. However, if left unregulated, AI could exacerbate inequalities, undermine human rights and threaten peace.…

Improving broadband quality and affordability in the Caribbean: Policies to advance digital inclusion in the subregion. Policy Brief

In this digitally transforming world, digital inclusion is becoming increasingly important to social inclusion and sustainable development. Affordable access to broadband is an essential precondition to digital inclusion. Internet quality, as measured by speed and other indicators, is also important, as digital inclusion is ultimately about ensuring equal access to the benefits and opportunities offered by digital technologies and the Internet. This policy brief provides insight into Internet speed and affordability across the Caribbean, and offers some recommendations for policymakers working…

Conceptualizing a circular economy in the Caribbean: perspectives and possibilities. Policy Brief

Although the notion of a circular economy (CE) has been conceived and debated for more than half a century (Henrysson and Nuur, 2021), it has gained considerable popularity in the lexicon of economists, ecologists and other development thinkers over the past two decades. The increasing evidence of the existential threat of human-induced climate change and the related imperatives of decarbonizing the global economy, have led to greater focus on strategies for a more sustainable use of the natural and environmental resource base.…

Digital Public Goods: Driving the Development of Digital Public Infrastructure in the Caribbean

Promoting productive jobs and confronting the challenge of new forms of informal employment in LA

Fomentando empleos productivos y enfrentando los desafíos de las nuevas formas de informalidad en AL

Data Protection in the Caribbean

Economic impact of de-risking on the Caribbean: Case studies of Antigua and Barbuda, Belize and Saint Kitts and Nevis

This study examines the impact of de-risking on the study countries—bank and non-bank sectors. The study approach is based on survey instruments, consultations and analysis of secondary data. The impacts that have been observed, to date, have generally been discounted in most analysis as “anecdotal” and not valid for “reliable inference”1. However, in small economies such as those in this study what is anecdotal may be indeed reasonable for inference. The typically small number of banks as well as their dominance in the financial sectors of these small states suggests that reduced banking serv…

An assessment of the challenges to Caribbean offshore financial centres: Saint Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda

Offshore Shore Centres (OFCs) are generally small, low tax jurisdictions. In defining International Financial Centers (IFC’s) the International Monetary Fund (IMF) notes that there must be a large number of financial institutions functioning in a simplified regulatory environment, with low or no tax, and with the majority of its transactions initiated offshore. Regional Financial Centres (RFCs) are groups or blocks of countries, viewed as IFCs and which have specialties in the offshore financial business . Many Caribbean islands, including Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Mont…

The Hummingbird Vol.4 No.12

Prospects for blockchain-based settlement frameworks as a resolution to the threat of de-risking to Caribbean financial systems

Caribbean countries have been seriously impacted by the trend toward “de-risking” in the global financial system, and this is damaging to their economic security and the ability of Caribbean businesses to innovate. De-risking is the name given to the tendency of banking institutions to turn away from working relationships and lines of business for which the cost of regulatory compliance—and the risk of non-compliance— is deemed to be too high in comparison to the returns. This is a phenomenon that is affecting developing economies around the world, but the small and vulnerable economies of the…

Exploring financial technology

Caribbean economies

Corporate governance in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru: The determinants of risk in corporate debt issuance

This study builds on the Corporate governance and development of capital markets in Latin America report published by the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which looked at the regulatory framework related to the principles of corporate governance in the region and assessed its contribution to the development of capital markets. This book complements the previous study and is the result of a joint effort by CAF, the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB) and ECLAC to identify the key elements of corporate governance …

Is price dispersion always an indication of price discrimination?

It has been established for a long time that there is significant dispersion in prices charged for seemingly homogeneous goods. This may happen in competitive markets because the world is not frictionless, and certainly in other markets where price discrimination is carried out by firms with oligopolistic power. This paper is the first survey of the economic literature on price dispersion that addresses the following three key issues: i) its characteristics as a result of optimizing search behavior; ii) its relevance as a reflection of price discrimination and its consequences for social welfa…

Prevention of Money Laundering and of the Financing of Terrorism to Ensure the Integrity of Financial Markets in Latin America and the Caribbean

This paper reviews the current status of the international fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, highlighting the importance of its prevention for economic and financial stability in Latin America and the Caribbean. It synthesizes the recent history of international legislation and agreements with respect to the issues, and presents the framework of public and private sector actors engaged in combating these threats. It reviews Latin American and Caribbean countries’ compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) (40 + 9) Recommendations, and analyzes the regio…

Reformas fiscales y regulatorias en la gestión y manejo de residuos sólidos: América Latina frente al cambio climático

El objetivo de este estudio es realizar un diagnóstico del sector de residuos sólidos en Colombia, Chile, Perú y Uruguay, y contribuir a la identificación de oportunidades de incorporar reformas en el marco regulatorio del sector de gestión y manejo de dichos residuos. Asimismo, se analizan los posibles efectos de diferentes opciones de política pública en la gestión y manejo de los residuos sólidos y sus potenciales efectos sobre las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero. De manera particular, se destaca el papel que pueden tener los incentivos económicos para contribuir a optimizar el ser…

Políticas de apoio a micro e pequenas empresas no Brasil: avanços no período recente e perspectivas futuras

Este estudo tem como objetivo fornecer uma visão ampla das micro e pequenas empresas no Brasil e a experiência recente na formulação e implementação de políticas para seu fomento, especialmente considerando o acesso a fontes de financiamento e iniciativas de fomento a produção e a inovação. Busca-se dar centralidade a questões cruciais na discussão acerca da política industrial e de inovação, tais como a adequação das iniciativas e instrumentos, os construtos institucionais e as condições de aplicação e de coordenação e o ambiente macroeconômico, legal e regulatório.…

Apoyando a las PYMES: políticas de fomento en América Latina y el Caribe

Esta publicación es fruto de los esfuerzos de la Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID) y la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) por analizar sistemas de apoyo a las pymes en diferentes países de la región. Su objetivo es identificar instrumentos innovadores y buenas prácticas surgidas en los últimos años. En este trabajo se incluyen estudios de políticas e instituciones de apoyo a las pymes en Bolivia (Estado Plurinacional de), el Brasil, Colombia, la República Dominicana, el Uruguay y Venezuela (República Bolivariana de), junto a un an…