Latin America has been central to the main debates on development economics, ranging from the relationships between income inequality and economic growth, and the importance of geography versus institutions in development, to debates on the effects of trade, trade openness and protection on growth and income distribution. Despite increasing interest in the region there are few English language books on Latin American economics. This Handbook, organized into five parts, aims to fill this significant gap. Part I looks at long-term issues, including the institutional roots of Latin America's underdevelopment, the political economy of policy making, the rise, decline and re-emergence of alternative paradigms, and the environmental sustainability of the development pattern. Part II considers macroeconomic topics, including the management of capital account booms and busts, the evolution and performance of exchange rate regimes, the advances and challenges of monetary policies and financial development, and the major fiscal policy issues confronting the region, including a comparison of Latin American fiscal accounts with those of the OECD. Part III analyzes the region's economies in global context, particularly the role of Latin America in the world trade system and the effects of dependence on natural resources (characteristic of many countries of the region) on growth and human development. It reviews the trends of foreign direct investment, the opportunities and challenges raised by the emergence of China as buyer of the region's commodities and competitor in the world market, and the transformation of the Latin America from a region of immigration to one of massive emigration. Part IV deals with matters of productive development. At the aggregate level it analyzes issues of technological catching up and divergence as well as different perspectives on the poor productivity and growth performance of the region during recent decades. At the sectoral level, it looks at agricultural policies and performance, the problems and prospects of the energy sector, and the effects on growth of lagging infrastructure development. Part V looks at the social dimensions of development; it analyzes the evolution of income inequality, poverty, and economic insecurity in the region, the evolution of labor markets and the performance of the educational sector, as well as the evolution of social assistance programs and social security reforms in the region. The contributors are leading researchers that belong to different schools of economic thought and most come from countries throughout Latin America, representing a range of views and recognising the diversity of the region. This Handbook is a significant contribution to the field, and will be of interest to academics, graduate students and policy makers interested in economics, political economy, and public policy in Latin America and other developing economies.

Part I: Development Paradigms and Long-term Growth Performance
1. Shifting Paradigms in Latin America's Economic Development, . Jose Antonio Ocampo and Jaime Ros
2. Institutions and the Historical Roots of Latin American Divergence, Luis Bertola
3. Political Institutions, Policymaking, and Economic Policy in Latin America, Mariano Tommasi, Martin Ardanaz, and Carlos Scartascini
4. The Washington Consensus: Assessing A 'Damaged Brand', Nancy Birdsall, Augusto de la Torre, and Felipe Valencia Caicedo
5. From Old to New Developmentalism in Latin America, Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira
6. Environmental Sustainability, Carlos de Miguel and Osvaldo Sunkel
Part II. Macroeconomics and Finance
7. Taming Capital Account Shocks: Managing Booms and Busts, Ricardo Ffrench-Davis and Stephany Griffith-Jones
8. Exchange Rate Regimes in Latin America, Roberto Frenkel and Martin Rapetti
9. Monetary Policy in Latin America: Performance under Crisis and the Challenges of Exuberance, Pablo Garcia and Manuel Marfan
10. Domestic Financial Development in Latin America, Jose Maria Fanelli
11. Fiscal Policy in Latin America, Guillermo Perry and Mauricio Cardenas
12. Fiscal Legitimacy, Inequalities and Democratic Consolidation in Latin America, Javier Santiso and Pablo Zoido
Part III: Integration into the World Economy
13. Latin America in the World Trade System, Diana Tussie
14. Regional Integration, Paolo Giordano and Robert Devlin
15. The Effects of Trade Liberalization on Growth, Employment and Wages, Eduardo Lora
16. Recent Commodity Price Boom and Latin American Growth: More than New Bottles for an Old Wine?, Edmar Bacha and Albert Fishlow
17. Curse or Blessing? Natural Resources and Human Development, Francisco Rodriguez and Jose Gregorio Pineda
18. Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America., Joao Carlos Ferraz, Michael Mortimore and Marcia Tavares
19. China and the Future of Latin American Economic Development, Kevin Gallagher and Roberto Porzecanski
20. Latin America in the Recent Wave of International Migration, Alejandro Canales
Part IV: Productive Sector Development
21. Structural Transformation and Economic Growth in Latin America, Ricardo Hausmann
22. Learning, Technological Capabilities and Structural Dynamics, Mario Cimoli and Gabriel Porcile
23. Why Has Productivity Growth Stagnated In Most Latin American Countries Since The Neo-Liberal Reforms?, Jose Gabriel Palma
24. Agricultural and Rural Development, Salomon Salcedo, Fernando Soto-Baquero, Jose Graziano da Silva, Rodrigo Castaneda, and Sergio Gomez
25. An Energy Panorama of Latin America, Humberto Campodonico
26. Infrastructure in Latin America, Cesar Calderon and Luis Serven
Part V: Social Development
27. The Rise and Fall of Income Inequality in Latin America, Leonardo Gasparini and Nora Lustig
28. Multidimensional Poverty in Latin America: Concept, Measurement and Policy, Rebeca Grynspan and Luis Felipe Lopez Calva
29. Economic Insecurity and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, Robert Vos
30. Employment: The Dominance of the Informal Economy, Victor Tokman
31. Latin American Labor Reforms: Evaluating Risk and Security, Maria Victoria Murillo, Lucas Ronconi, and Andrew Schrank
32. Education, Miguel Urquiola
33. Social Assistance in Latin America: Achievements and Limitations, Francisco Ferreira and David Robalino
34. Social Security Reforms in Latin America, Andras Uthoff