Mr.Mauricio Vargas

The External Balance Assessment (EBA) Methodology

The External Balance Assessment (EBA) methodology has been developed by the IMF’s Research Department as a successor to the CGER methodology for ass...

Commodity Cycles, Inequality, and Poverty in Latin America

Over the past decades, inequality has risen not just in advanced economies but also in many emerging market and developing economies, becoming one of ...

The Level REER model in the External Balance Assessment (EBA) Methodology

This paper offers an empirical model of the drivers of the level of the Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) that is now part of the IMF’s methodolog...

Informality in Paraguay

Macro-Micro Evidence and Policy Implications

Paraguay’s economy features a high degree of informality. Based on different estimation approaches, informal activity represents more than half of t...

Explaining Inequality and Poverty Reduction in Bolivia

We investigate the factors driving Bolivia’s success in reducing inequality and poverty during the last 15 years. Our evidence suggests that the red...

Income Inequality in Small States and the Caribbean: Stylized Facts and Determinants

Rising income inequality has emerged as a major policy issue facing policymakers, but there is a dearth of empirical work on inequality in small state...

Estimating the Impact of External Shocks on the ECCU: Application to the COVID Shock

We measure the impact of frequent exogeneous shocks on small ECCU economies, including changes to global economic activity, tourism flows, oil prices,...

Identifying Binding Constraints to Growth

Does Firm Size Matter?

As emphasized by Hausmann, Rodrik and Velasco, the policy challenge of boosting growth requires prioritization and identifying what are the most bindi...