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dc.titleSaving Rates in Latin America: A Neoclassical Perspective
dc.contributor.authorFernandez, Andres
dc.contributor.authorImrohoroglu, Ayse
dc.contributor.authorRud, Juan Pablo
dc.contributor.orgunitDepartment of Research and Chief Economist
dc.coverageLatin America
dc.date.available2017-09-21T00:00:00
dc.date.issue2017-09-21T00:00:00
dc.description.abstractLatin American countries have long exhibited low levels of saving rates when compared to other countries in relatively similar stages of economic development (e.g., Asian economies). Motivated by this fact, this paper examines the time path of the saving rates between 1970 and 2010 in three Latin American countries— Chile, Colombia, and Mexico—through the lens of the neoclassical growth model. The findings indicate that two factors, the TFP growth rate and fiscal policy (via tax rates and government expenditure), are capable of accounting for some of the major fluctuations in saving rates observed in these years. For instance, the impressive increase in Chile’s saving rate following the early 1980s debt crisis is likely to have resulted from a combination of high TFP growth and a tax reform that substantially reduced capital taxation. Counterfactual experiments also reveal that average saving rates in Latin America could have been some three percentage points higher, had the region experienced TFP growth similar to that of the Asian countries. This increase, however, is insufficient to bridge the observed gap between saving rates in the two regions.
dc.format.extent37
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0011810
dc.identifier.urlhttps://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Saving-Rates-in-Latin-America-A-Neoclassical-Perspective.pdf
dc.language.isoen
dc.mediumAdobe PDF
dc.publisherInter-American Development Bank
dc.subjectPublic Expenditure
dc.subjectSaving Rate
dc.subjectTax Reform
dc.subjectProductivity Growth
dc.subjectFiscal Policy
dc.subjectTax Rate
dc.subject.keywordsTotal factor productivity;Saving rate;Latin America
dc.typeWorking Papers
idb.identifier.pubnumberWorking Papers
idb.operationRG-K1098
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