Technical Notes

Technical notes encompass a wide range of sector notes, best practices, project evaluations, documentation of lesson learned, case studies, methodological notes and other documents of a technical nature. The audience for these technical notes is largely government officials and other development practitioners.

• The Role of Foreign Technology and Indigenous Innovation in the Emerging Economies

  Pietrobelli, Carlo, Fu, X.; Soete, L.

  Date : Sep, 2010

  It is widely recognised that differences in productivity are a major source of cross-country income variations and that technological change drives productivity growth. Technological innovation is therefore a key element of industrialisation and catch-up in developing countries. One of the controversies is whether the sources of technological change are indigenous or based on foreign innovation efforts or a combination of the two, and if so, which combination.

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• Measuring the Competitiveness of Selected CARICOM Countries

  Private Sector Development Discussion Paper #1

  Margareta Drzeniek-Hanouz, Irene Mia, Eva Trujillo

  Date : Aug, 2010

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• A Primer for Applying Propensity-Score Matching

  Impact-Evaluation Guidelines

  C. Heinrich; A. Maffioli; G. Vázquez

  Date : Aug, 2010

  This document provides a guide to the key aspects of implementing Propensity-Score Matching (PSM) methodology. It summarizes the basic conditions under which PSM can be used to estimate the impact of a program and the data required, presenting examples of PSM applications. It explains how the Conditional Independence Assumption, combined with the Overlap Condition, reduces selection bias when participation in a program is determined by observable characteristics. It also describes different matching algorithms and some tests to assess the quality of the matching.

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• Evaluating the Impact of Regional Development Programs

  Impact-Evaluation Guidelines

  Winters, Paul; Sitja Rubio, Susana

  Date : Aug, 2010

  The purpose of this guideline is to discuss the objectives and approaches of regional (subnational) development programs in order to provide guidance on issues related to evaluating the impact of these programs. Regional development programs are designed to improve the income-generating capacity of, and reduce poverty in, a focus region within a country.

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• A Business to Call Her Own: Identifying, Analyzing and Overcoming Constraints to Women’s Small Businesses in Latin ...

  Jennifer Powers and Barbara Magnoni

  Date : Jul, 2010

  This study identifies key barriers to women’s businesses globally and evaluates the degree to which they constrain women’s business growth in Latin America. These barriers include a lack of access to financial products and services, risk aversion, social conventions, family responsibilities, education and training and technology.

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• Freight Logistics in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Agenda to Improve Performance

  Guerrero, Pablo, José A. Barbero

  Date : Jul, 2010

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• Financing Agricultural Value Chains in Central America

  Wenner, Mark, Coon, J; Campion, A.

  Date : Jul, 2010

  Agricultural value chain financing (VCF) is an emerging phenomenon in the region but it is not well studied. Historically, small- and medium-sized famers experience problems accessing formal finance. Participation in a well-structured and dynamic supply chain seems to improve chances of obtaining financing, either directly from larger more liquid agents in the same chain or indirectly from external formal lenders based on the type of relationships and degrees of connectedness in the chain (advance sale contracts, technical assistance agreements, length of transaction history, etc.).

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• Integration & Trade Journal N° 30

  January-June 2010

  Edited by INTAL

  Date : Jul, 2010 | ISBN: 1995-9532

  Continuing along the guidelines set forth in “Integration & Trade: a New Chapter”, this time we decided to address the topic of climate change, and more specifically, its links with economic development and international trade. This decision was based not only on the extraordinary importance attached to international negotiations in the 2009-2010 biennium to define a new post-Kyoto global scenario but also on the current greater awareness of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries on these issues. This is manifested both in the appreciation of the diversity of this phenomenon as well as in the urgency to undertake national actions and reach agreement at the regional and global levels that will facilitate mitigation to climate change and adaptation to its consequences.

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• Benefits and Costs of Electronic Medical Records: The Experience of Mexico’s Social Security Institute

  Humpage, Sarah

  Date : Jun, 2010

  Electronic medical record (EMR) systems are increasingly used in developing countries to improve quality of care while increasing efficiency. There is little systematic evidence, however, regarding EMRs’ benefits and costs. This case study documents the implementation and use of an EMR system at the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS). Three EMR systems are now in operation for primary care, outpatient and inpatient hospital care. The evidence suggests that the primary care system has improved efficiency of care delivery and human resources management, and may have decreased incidence of fraud. The hospital systems, however, have lower coverage and are less popular among staff. The greater success of the primary care system may be due to greater investment, a participatory development process, an open workplace culture, and software appropriately tailored to the workflow. Moving forward, efforts should be made to exploit data housed in EMRs for medical and policy research.

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• Program Evaluation and Spillover Effects

  Impact-Evaluation Guidelines

  Angelucci, Manuela; Di Maro, Vincenzo

  Date : May, 2010

  This note defines what spillover effects are, why it is important to measure them, and how to design an evaluation that will enable researchers to measure the impact of the program in the presence of spillover effects on subjects both eligible and ineligible for the program. Several practical examples are provided to show how spillover effects can be estimated.

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