Lucas Figal Garone

Inter-American Development Bank & Universidad de San Andrés

Since the 2008 financial crisis, attention to supply chain finance has increased, as companies seek alternative funding sources. In this context, one scheme for accessing short-term credit has emerged as a promising option for suppliers, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs): reverse factoring (RF). Under RF, suppliers sell t...

This study assesses the impacts of acquiring a credit card offered by a non-financial company in Colombia. The card, which is mainly targeted at low-income and unbanked individuals, can be used to fund home improvements and purchase home and personal goods in selected stores. We find that access to the credit card fostered financial inclusion and i...

This paper estimates the direct and spillover effects of two matching grants schemes designed to promote firm-level research and development (R&D) investment in Chile on firm productivity. Because the two programs target different kinds of projects—the National Productivity and Technological Development Fund (FONTEC) subsidizes intramural R&D, whil...

While the accumulation of factors of production, both physical and human capital, has helped Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to narrow the income gap with developed economies, aggregate productivity is still relatively low. Although there are numerous determinants of aggregate productivity, it is largely based on the underlying productivity o...

This study assesses the impacts of acquiring a credit card offered by a non-financial company in Colombia. The card, which is mainly targeted at low-income and unbanked individuals, can be used to fund home improvements and purchase home and personal goods in selected stores. We find that access to the credit card fostered financial inclusion and i...

This paper estimates the impact of an agricultural technology adoption program on agricultural production and income using an experimental approach. The context of analysis is the Program for the Support of Innovation in Agricultural Technology (PATCA II) implemented in the Dominican Republic. The program aimed to increase the agricultural producti...

Using a 16-year employer–employee panel dataset that contains the entire population of firms and workers in Argentina, this paper provides evidence of the benefits of public support for firm-level innovation for the firms that received support, the workers who were employed by them, and the firms that hired beneficiary workers. The results confirm...

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) still exhibit lower adoption rates of time-saving home durables than developed economies. Moreover, significant differences across and within these countries seem to be observed. This may delay the attainment of further increases in women’s labor participation, as well as other positive impacts on...

Industrial policies affecting entire sectors in regions, provinces, or districts can account for large portions of sub-national government spending. Yet because of the methodological challenges related to the identification of a counterfactual when a single unit is treated, the causal effects of these policies on the growth of the industry, or spec...

This monograph explores productivity, innovation, and firm performance, important issues that affect private sector development in the Caribbean region. Using unique and recently available datasets consisting of more than 4,000 surveys at the firm level, and covering 13 Caribbean countries, it examines a set of variables that affect productivity an...

Este estudio presenta evidencia empírica sobre los determinantes de la adopción de certificaciones internacionales de calidad (ISO) y sus efectos sobre el desempeño de las empresas argentinas en los años 2006 y 2010. Los resultados indican que las firmas exportadoras, extranjeras y de mayor tamaño en términos de empleados presentan mayor nivel de a...

Este estudio evalúa el impacto de asistencias técnicas a micro, pequeñas y medianas empresas (MiPyME) cofinanciadas por el Programa de Acceso al Crédito y Competitividad (PACC) en Argentina. El programa tiene como objetivo incrementar la competitividad de las MiPyME mediante aportes no reembolsables que cofinancian proyectos para desarrollar capaci...

Este libro desea reflejar el paso de la política de innovación en América Latina y el Caribe (ALC) hacia una etapa de creciente sofisticación y de mayor impacto sobre el desarrollo. Una evolución como esta es en parte producto de la transformación que las mismas economías y la actividad empresarial están atravesando en la región, y es también eco d...

This paper estimates the effects of knowledge spillovers on firms' long-term performance and workers' wages. For this purpose, we use the participation in an innovation support program as an exogenous shock to the knowledge stock of non-participant firms. We pinpoint the knowledge diffusion process by tracking the mobility of skilled workers among...

In this study, we evaluate the effect of innovation promotion programs administrated by the Colombian Innovation Agency (COLCIENCIAS). The evaluation focuses on programs that provide financial incentives for research and development (R&D)—matching grants and contingent loans—and encourage the formation of linkages among firms, universities, and oth...

This paper investigates the impact of tourism policy on employment, using the Tourism Development Policy (TDP) implemented in the Argentinean province of Salta during the years of 2003 to 2010 as a case study. Following the Synthetic Control Method for comparative case studies, we use a combination of non-treated Argentinean provinces to construct...

This paper studies the impact of the Brazilian Arranjos Productivos Locais (APL) policy, a cluster development policy, on small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) performance. Using firm-level data on SMEs for the years 2002–2009, this paper combines fixed effects with reweighting methods to estimate both the direct and the indirect causal effects of p...

This paper analyses the role of national research funds in promoting scientific production in emerging economies. The study focuses on the impact of the Chilean National Science and Technology Research Fund (FONDECYT). The analysis uses data drawn from international sources of bibliometric information combined with the administrative records of the...

We assess for the first time inequality of opportunity (IOp) in education in Argentina following a parametric approach proposed by Bourguignon, Ferreira and Menéndez (2007). We use this methodology to quantify the degree of IOp associated with an empirical distribution of academic achievement from a sample of 15-year old students provided by the PI...