World Bank Discussion Paper 236. Agricultural support services play an important role in increasing agricultural productivity. Given the importance of agriculture to developing countries, governments have taken the lead in providing such services.
Beneath the streets of Averalaan, capital city of the Essalieyan Empire, lie the three Princes of the firstborn, doomed to sleep until the end of days. When gods walked the world, they feared the Sleepers. They fear them even now. If the Sleepers wake, the city will not survive--and the Sleepers are waking.
This book provides the first in-depth and empirically grounded analysis of the foundations and evolution of the four Latin American and Caribbean regional economic courts: the Central American Court of Justice (CACJ), the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the Andean Tribunal of Justice (ATJ), and the Mercosur Permanent Review Court (MPRC). While these Courts were established to build common markets and to enforce trade liberalisation, they have often developed bodies of jurisprudence in domains not directly associated with regional economic integration. The CCJ has been most successful in the area of human and fundamental rights; the CACJ has addressed issues related to the enforcement of the rule of law in national legal arenas and longstanding border disputes between the countries of the region; and the ATJ is an island of effective adjudication on intellectual property issues. The particular trajectories of these four Courts suggest that there is no universal formula for success. Challenging the mainstream account, this book argues that the Courts' operational path is not necessarily a function of their formally delegated competences or the will of the Member States. Rather, local socio-political contextual factors play a far more decisive role in influencing the direction of regional economic courts during and after their establishment.
Organized crime and the mob figures who run it have long captured the imagination of the American public, appearing since the early twentieth century as characters in a host of popular books, movies, and television programs. But often what the public knew of such figures and their criminal careers was as much myth as fact. This book offers highly readable, carefully researched biographies that dispel the the myths but preserve the fascination surrounding 10 infamous New York mob leaders of the twentieth century. Each in-depth biography will help interested readers understand how and why each of these men achieved special notariety within the world of organized crime. Each biography describes the early years of each man, assessing how he came to a criminal career; his rise to prominence within the mob, providing reaction from those who knew him and witnessed his actions; and the last years of his career, assessing why it ended as it did. Each biography is illustrated with a picture of its subject and concludes with a listing of additional information resources, both print and electronic. A detailed subject index provides further access to the large amount of information contained in each biography. A timeline allows readers to quickly and easily track the birth, death, and important events in the life of each mobster.
The recent economic liberalization in developing countries is making many sectors succumb to new competitive pressures. Governments face the dilemma of how to help firms compete without falling back into failed dirigiste policies. Based on recent findings on the importance of inter-firm cooperation, public-private collaboration and local policies in boosting competitiveness, this book analyzes how much these elements explain the new dynamism of two agroindustrial sectors in Argentina and Chile, dairy and fresh fruit respectively.
Latin American and Caribbean Trade Agreements: Keys to a Prosperous Community of the Americas is the essential reference guide for companies trading with Latin America and the Caribbean or wishing to use a country in the region as an export platform. This work fills the void in academic texts that are used to teach courses on economic integration in the Western Hemisphere. It provides a road map for the Obama Administration to launch an ambitious project designed to encourage economic growth, promote energy security, and reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions, while at the same time realistically meeting the development needs of Latin America and the Caribbean. Latin American and Caribbean Trade Agreements: Keys to a Prosperous Community of the Americas posits that the myopic focus of past United States administrations on free markets to spur economic development in the Western Hemisphere is not enough. A bolder and more ambitious project that also seeks to redress many of the deep-seated problems that have long plagued the region is required. The Community of the Americas proposed in this book rests upon the important work that has already been done at the sub-regional level in terms of economic and political reform, identifying infrastructure and human capital needs, and regulating migration. It provides a new and cohesive vision for U.S. policy in Latin America and the Caribbean.