Search

Begin New Search Political Geography Latin America Content Type Working Paper Publishing Institution Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD) Publication Year within 25 Years

1. Doing Business in Bolivia: a case study in the Andean regulatory framework

Author:
Jorge Ignacio Del Castillo Machicado
Publication Date:
04-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This article researches on the evolution of the business regulatory framework of Bolivia from 2006 to 2017 and its relationship with the country’s Labor productivity, Total Factor Productivity, and its Informal Economy size. To do this, it analyzes the Doing Business annual reports and standardizes each year overall score to the most recent methodology developed by the World Bank Group. Furthermore, it complements its finding with qualitative data through semi-structured interviews to key actors in the Bolivian economy. Overall, this paper finds that few steps have been taken to improve Bolivia’s Business regulatory framework from the period of 2006-2017, result in a lower rank in the Doing Business report and keeping its score constant. The lack of initiative in working towards more efficient policies, complex nature and poor adaptability of new technological practices have stagnated the improvements of business regulations along their lifecycles. As a consequence, Bolivia Total Factor Productivity, Informal Economy size and Labor productivity have shown no improvement over the last 10 years.
Topic:
Economics, Science and Technology, Labor Issues, World Bank, Regulation, and Business
Political Geography:
Latin America and Bolivia

2. Effects of interest rate caps on microcredit: evidence from a natural experiment in Bolivia

Author:
María José Roa, Alejandra Villegas, and Ignacio Garrón
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This paper evaluates the imposition of caps on microcredit lending rates through directed credit policies for productive sectors. This financial inclusion intervention provides a unique quasi-experiment, allowing to estimate its causal effect following a difference-in-differences analysis. Our results suggest that the imposition of interest rate ceilings negatively affected the portfolio balance of new microcredits and loans to SMEs granted by MFIs. Particularly, we find robust results indicating that the balance of the microcredit and SME loans portfolio granted by MFIs, relative to the company portfolio granted by banks, decreased by 26.1% for an average MFI for the period 2011-2018.
Topic:
International Political Economy, Microcredit, Credit, and Lending
Political Geography:
Latin America and Bolivia

3. Life and Death During the First Six Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author:
Lykke E. Andersen and Alejandra Gonzales Rocabado
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This study carries out a cross-country analysis of changes in quantity and quality of life during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic (11 March to 11 September 2020) for 124 countries. Changes in quantity of life are measured as life years lost to COVID-19, including excess deaths not officially reported as COVID-19 deaths. Changes in quality of life are proxied by the average change in daily mobility, compared to a pre-COVID baseline. We find a significant negative correlation between the two, meaning that the countries with the biggest reductions in mobility are also the countries with the biggest losses of life years. We calculate that about 15 million life years were lost during the first six months of the pandemic, corresponding to 0.006% of all expected life years. For comparison, at least three times more life years are lost every six months due to children dying of diarrhea. About 28 million life years are created every day from babies being born, so the first six months of the pandemic set us back about 14 hours in terms of quantity of life. The setbacks in terms of quality of life are several orders of magnitude larger. Some countries have suffered more than a 50% reduction in mobility sustained over half a year, with devastating effects on many aspects of quality of life. Globally, the equivalent of 400 million full-time jobs were lost. GDP is estimated to have been set back about three years, poverty about five years, and the tourism industry about 20 years. The already large inequalities in access to quality education have been further widened, leaving hundreds of millions of disadvantaged children farther behind. Even countries that have managed the pandemic relatively well are suffering large economic contractions due to the negative spill-over effects from other countries. We still have a long way to go before this pandemic is over, and we urgently need to course-correct in order not to cause even more harm than has already been done. The paper provides a series of recommendations on what needs to be done to minimize total harm.
Topic:
Political Economy, GDP, Mobility, Mortality, Coronavirus, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Quality of Life
Political Geography:
Latin America and Bolivia

4. Coworking Spaces in La Paz, Bolivia: Urban Effects and Potential Creation of New Opportunities for Local Economic Development

Author:
Lucas DuPriest
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This paper investigates the location patterns of coworking spaces, the effects of coworking spaces on the local and urban context, and coworking spaces potential opportunities for the creation of local economic development, issues that have been neglected in a Bolivian context by the existing literature. The focus of this paper is on La Paz, Bolivia’s political capital and the city in Bolivia which host the largest number of coworking spaces. The paper addresses three main questions: (1) Where are the main locations of coworking spaces in La Paz? (2) to what extent do coworking spaces generate transformative effects on the local respectively the urban scale? (e.g. physical transformations, changes in practices, community building) (3) how do coworking spaces create potential opportunities for local economic development? Desk research demonstrated that location patterns of coworking spaces are concentrated to two main commercial areas of the city, as well as to the main infrastructural and transportation axes. Field research highlighted local and urban effects, such as local community initiatives and micro-urban transformations in both spaces and practices. Lastly, field research assessed coworking spaces role in the socio-economic ecosystem. Three main typologies have been identified: the first type of coworking spaces act as “social entrepreneurship and start-up incubators” with a supportive role and closer ties to social and urban issues, the second type of coworking spaces act as “coffee and cowork incubators” providing cafés with shared workspaces, the third type of coworking spaces act as “real estate business incubators” and are mainly a commercial product responding the demand for flexible office spaces. This paper, therefore, helps to fill the gap in the literature about the location patterns of these new working spaces and their effects at different scales both in terms of spaces and practices, as well as local economic development.
Topic:
Economics, Work Culture, Urban, Local, Innovation, Economic Development, and Social Capital
Political Geography:
Latin America and Bolivia

5. Natural gas pricing GSA Bolivia: Brazil using virtual hub and expected monetary value instruments

Author:
Sergio M. Medinaceli and Jorge L. Gumucio
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to show the shortcomings of incentive policies, specifically competitiveness, if they are designed without considering fundamentals of market development such as, level of demand, level of investment, and availability of alternative sources of supply. We focus on the analysis of the main market, financial, and economic variables in the Bolivia-Brazil Gas Supply Agreement, their relationship, development and dynamics through time and the current situation before the contract is renegotiated in 2019. Our analysis centers on the effective negotiation margin that Bolivia has calculated from the overall production costs of Bolivian gas (using EMV) vis a vis the opportunity cost of Brazil importing LNG. Using 10%-15% as discount rates and WTI prices between $50 and $60/bbl, the natural gas price result of EMV is between $ 4.96 and $ 7.99/MMbtu. Using the Bolivian tax incentive gas price should be between $2.29 and $5.16/MMbtu. Under the assumptions that WTI levels would be around $ 60/bbl, investors use a 15% discount rate to invest in Bolivia, incentive policy is in place, and the price of LNG is around $ 6.84/MMbtu; the opportunity cost of Brazil importing gas from Bolivia is $ -0.55/MMbtu. The same case without incentive policy will yield a $ -3.38/MMbtu. On the other hand, if the transport tariff is reduced the margin becomes positive under the assumption that the incentive policy is still in place. Therefore, as the price of LNG becomes more competitive through increase in supply (worldwide), Brazil will set its negotiation position around the price that they could import LNG on the short to medium term.
Topic:
Markets, Regional Cooperation, Natural Resources, Monetary Policy, Gas, Macroeconomics, and Economic Development
Political Geography:
Brazil, Latin America, and Bolivia

6. The Biological Standard of Living in Urban Bolivia, 1880s – 1920s: Stagnation and Persistent Inequality

Author:
Boris Branisa, José Peres-Cajías, and Nigel Caspa
Publication Date:
06-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
Based on almost 5.000 direct observations on National Identification Cards, this paper offers the first estimation of the evolution of average heights in urban Bolivia for the decades 1880s-1920s. The analysis focuses on men aged 19-50 years registered in the city of La Paz. Despite city’s growing economic importance and modernization, average heights remained stagnant around 163 cm. This level is not so different to that found in the still disperse available evidence for rural Bolivia. Furthermore, there is evidence of inequalities throughout the period under study: those men who were indigenous, illiterate or worked in manual occupations were persistently shorter than non-indigenous, literates and non-manual workers, respectively. In coincidence with recent studies on Latin America, these findings suggest that the boost in exports and the regained dynamism of the economy that took place at the onset of the 20th century were not accompanied by improvements in biological standards of living.
Topic:
Economics, History, Urban, Welfare, Indigenous, and Modernization
Political Geography:
Latin America and Bolivia

7. Setting an example? Spillover effects of Peruvian Magnet Schools

Author:
Alejandro Herrera, Mariel Bedoya, Bruno Gonzaga, and Karen Espinoza
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
In this paper we use a Multi-Cutoff Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design to evaluate spillover effects of students enrolled into Peruvian public magnet schools, Colegios de Alto Rendimiento (COAR), on educational outcomes of younger students in their schools of origin. Using administrative data from the Ministry of Education for 2016, we find that having at least one student admitted in a COAR school causes some negative spillover effects on math test scores of students from the following cohort. No evidence of statistically significant results is found for verbal and history test scores, nor for self-reported educational expectations. We discuss potential causes and reasons that may explain our results.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Education
Political Geography:
Latin America and Peru

8. An Analysis of Firm Characteristics as Earnings Determinants: The Urban Bolivia Case

Author:
Beatriz Muriel Hernández
Publication Date:
12-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This article analyzes the importance of firm characteristics to explain earnings in urban Bolivia. Initially I propose a new simple theoretical model of segmented labor market where, in equilibrium, individual and firm variables jointly determine earnings at the worker level. The key for achieving this equilibrium is that workers have both specific preferences and heterogonous skills provided by years of schooling, which are in turn associated to certain firms. Given the household surveys information, I estimate two alternative earnings functions from this model, one for unsalaried workers, for which there is detailed firm data and one for salaried workers, in which sector, size and formality are used as firm proxies. I find not only that firm characteristics are fundamental determinants of earnings but that regressions that include only individual characteristics present highly overestimated coefficients.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Labor Issues, Urban, Microeconomics, and Private Sector
Political Geography:
Latin America and Bolivia

9. An agriculture-focused, regionally disaggregated SAM for Mexico 2008

Author:
Luis Carlos Jemio, Lykke E. Andersen, Clemens Breisinger, and Manfred Wiebelt
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This paper describes the construction of a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for the Mexican economy for year 2008. It presents the methodology and data sources used, assumptions made, criteria adopted to disaggregate the SAM’s accounts and the main results obtained. The Mexico SAM was built as the main data base for the calibration of a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Model, used to investigate the quantitative effects of climate change on the Mexican economy, with emphasis on analyzing its distributional impacts. Since the effects of climate change are mainly transmitted to the economy through the agricultural sector and since impacts on agriculture differ across regions, the Mexico SAM presents a significant disaggregation in the accounts referred to the agricultural activities and to income distribution, redistribution and income spending across households and regions. The final disaggregated SAM is quite large and is included in the accompanying spreadsheet file.
Topic:
Agriculture, Economy, and Social Accounting
Political Geography:
Latin America and Mexico

10. Gender, Ethnicity and Climate Change in Mexico: An analysis of vulnerability and resilience based on household surveys

Author:
Lykke E. Andersen, Anna Sophia Doyle, Dorte Verner, and Manfred Wiebelt
Publication Date:
11-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This paper analyzes gender and ethnic differences in vulnerability and resilience to external shocks and stresses in Mexico. Vulnerability and resilience are measured by a combination of the level of household incomes per capita and the degree of diversification of these incomes. Thus, households which have poorly diversified incomes falling below the national poverty line are classified as highly vulnerable, whereas households which have highly diversified incomes above the poverty line are classified as highly resilient. The analysis shows that both gender and ethnicity are almost irrelevant as explanatory factors of vulnerability whereas education levels, dependency ratios and the age of the head of household are very important. Determining the true factors that affect vulnerability is important in order to devise effective policies to reduce vulnerability.
Topic:
Ethnicity, Diversification, Resilience, Livelihoods, Vulnerability, Gender, and External Shocks
Political Geography:
Latin America and Mexico

11. Gender and Climate Change in Latin America: An analysis of vulnerability, adaptation and resilience based on household surveys

Author:
Lykke E. Andersen, Dorte Verner, and Manfred Wiebelt
Publication Date:
11-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This paper analyzes gender differences in vulnerability and resilience to shocks, including climate change and climate variability, for Peru, Brazil and Mexico, which together account for more than half the population in Latin America. Vulnerability and resilience indicators are measured by a combination of the level of household incomes per capita and the degree of diversification of these incomes. Thus, households which simultaneously have incomes which are below the national poverty line and which are poorly diversified (Diversification Index below 0.5) are classified as highly vulnerable, whereas households which have highly diversified incomes above the poverty line are classified as highly resilient. The analysis shows that female headed households in all three countries tend to be less vulnerable and more resilient than male headed households, despite the fact that the former usually have lower education levels.
Topic:
Diversification, Resilience, Livelihoods, Vulnerability, and External Shocks
Political Geography:
Brazil, Latin America, Mexico, and Peru

12. Productivity, Structural Change, and Latin American Development

Author:
Carlos Gustavo Machicado, Felix Rioja, and Antonio Saravia
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
We calibrate a simple neoclassical model of structural transformation to a set of Latin American countries and show that slow growth in agricultural productivity can substantially delay the development process and result in significant differences in per capita incomes. Some of our results indicate that low agricultural productivity delayed the beginning of the industrialization process in Paraguay and Bolivia by about 100 years compared to the leader of the group, Chile. The development process can be accelerated, however, by increasing productivity in the non-agricultural sector. In fact, in the long run, it is non-agricultural productivity what determines the speed of convergence. Improvements in non-agricultural productivity between 20% to over 100% would be required for the other Latin American countries in our set to significantly close the income gap with Chile by the end of the century.
Topic:
Agriculture, Manufacturing, Economic Development, and Productivity
Political Geography:
Latin America

13. Convergence Clubs in Latin America: A Historical Approach

Author:
Paola Andrea Barrientos Quiroga
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
Literature on convergence among Latin American countries is still scarce compared to other regions. Almost none of the research connects convergence to the economic history of Latin America and the usual finding is one speed of convergence assuming one globally stable steady-state. In this paper I analyze 32 countries and 108 years, more observations than any other study, which allows me to use chronological events to explain, analyze and validate the historical convergence clubs in Latin America, assuming multiple steady-states. The chronological time-line is divided into three important known phases, from which I find two to three convergence clubs. Following Thorp (1998), the first phase, called “the exporting phase” goes from 1900 to 1930, the second, “the industrialization phase” from 1931 to 1974, and the last one, “the globalization phase” from 1975 to 2007. During the last two phases, I find strong evidence of convergence among those clubs that succeeded in industrializing and / or building good institutions. The reason may be that technology diffusion and capital accumulation is easier when these two phenomena occur. Furthermore, I find no evidence that geographical aspects nor integration processes helped countries to converge.
Topic:
History, Economic Growth, and Convergence
Political Geography:
Latin America

14. Is Corruption Really Bad for Inequality? Evidence from Latin America

Author:
Carlyn Dobson and Antonio Rodríguez Andrés
Publication Date:
03-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This paper presents new evidence on the relationship between corruption and income inequality. Using a panel data methodology, we find that lower corruption is associated with higher income inequality in Latin America. This result is in contrast to other empirical studies but it makes sense in Latin America for a number of reasons. The finding of an inverse relationship between inequality and corruption suggests that institutional reform policies by themselves may be misguided.
Topic:
Corruption, Reform, and Income Inequality
Political Geography:
Latin America

15. Social Impacts of Climate Change in Mexico: A municipality level analysis of the effects of recent and future climate change on human development and inequality

Author:
Lykke E. Andersen and Dorte Verner
Publication Date:
07-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This paper uses municipality level data to estimate the general relationships between climate, income and child mortality in Mexico. Climate was found to play only a very minor role in explaining the large differences in income levels and child mortality rates observed in Mexico. This implies that Mexico is considerably less vulnerable to expected future climate change than other countries in Latin America.
Topic:
Climate Change, Municipalities, Income, and Child Mortality
Political Geography:
Latin America and Mexico

16. The Impact of Internet Use on Individual Earnings in Latin America

Author:
Lucas Navarro
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This paper uses matching techniques to examine the impact of internet use on individual earnings in six Latin American countries using recent household surveys data. Given their different internet use patterns and their implications, the analysis is done for salaried and self-employed workers separately. While salaried workers users mainly access the internet at work, self employed users access the internet mainly at other places. Therefore, the returns to internet use for salaried workers may be associated not only to individual but also to workplace characteristics. Results indicate a large effect of internet use on earnings for both groups of workers in most of the countries studied. These returns are high compared with estimates for industrialized countries. This could be explained by the much lower prevalence of internet use in the region for the international standards. Additionally, given that the estimations rely on cross-section data, they may not fully control for individuals’ characteristics before internet adoption. This calls for the need of panel-data on new ICTs diffusion in the region.
Topic:
Internet, Self-Employment, and Income
Political Geography:
Latin America

17. Inflationary memory as restrictive factor of the impact of the public expense in the economic growth: lessons from high inflation Latin American countries using an innovative inflationary memory indicator

Author:
Ernesto Sheriff
Publication Date:
08-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
A new inflationary memory indicator was developed and applied here. A panel was built with the selected countries considering the economic growth as dependent variable in function of the convergence hypothesis, the inflation rate, the public expense and, the recursive variance of the inflation (VARINF) as inflationary memory indicator. The expected results of the panel were that the inflation and their variability affect the growth negatively neutralizing the possible effects that it could have the public expense on the same one. Five Latin American countries with experiences of high inflation were included (Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and Nicaragua).
Topic:
Economy, Economic Growth, Inflation, and Public Spending
Political Geography:
Brazil, Argentina, Latin America, Nicaragua, Peru, and Bolivia

18. Social Mobility in Bolivia is Finally Improving!

Author:
Lykke E. Andersen
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This paper evaluates the degree of social mobility in Bolivia, both by comparing to other Latin American countries, and by comparing social mobility at different points in time. While Bolivia had one of the lowest levels of social mobility in the region in 1997, the last 10 years have seen spectacular improvements, especially for rural and female teenagers. This is very good news, as it suggests that Bolivia has finally escaped the low mobility – low growth equilibrium where it has been stuck for so long.
Topic:
Development, Economy, and Social Mobility
Political Geography:
Latin America and Bolivia

19. Corruption, privatisation and the distribution of income in Latin America

Author:
Antonio Rodriguez and Carlyn Ramlogan
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This paper presents some new evidence on income inequality in Latin America over the period 1980-1999, examining in particular the relationship between corruption, privatisation and inequality. Using a panel data methodology, we find that a reduction in corruption is associated with a rise in inequality. This suggests that while privatisation removes industries from government influence and government corruption, it worsens income inequality as new owners strive for efficiency and profits. The paper highlights the fact that structural reform policies aimed primarily at achieving positive and increasing growth rates do not adequately address the income distribution problem.
Topic:
Corruption, Privatization, Income Inequality, and Data
Political Geography:
South America and Latin America

20. Theory, History and Evidence of Economic Convergence in Latin America

Author:
Paolo Barrientos
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
Economic convergence exists when two or more economies tend to reach a similar level of development and wealth. The study of convergence is an important topic because besides being useful for the debate between different theories, it can respond several inquiries such as if the distribution of income between economies has become more equal over time and if poor economies are catching up with the rich. Latin American countries are characterized by having few language barriers, similar culture, religion and common history. So convergence could be expected. However, literature about convergence in Latin America is scarce and preliminary analysis shows that divergence exists in the region. The thesis tries to fill in the gap by covering theoretical, historical and statistical evidence of convergence in the region during 106 years, from 1900 to 2005. The thesis uses a neoclassical growth model based on Solow and Ramsey models. After revising the economic history of 32 countries, several groups were identified and convergence was expected to occur. Different concepts of convergence are tested inside each group through graphs, single cross section regressions and panel data estimations. In general, the results show a success with the grouping. However, the groups that converged under all concepts are those composed by countries that have succeeded in industrializing and/or were able to build strong institutions that could tight welfare and economic growth in a globalization context. The speed of convergence for those countries is around 2%. It is also found that integration processes have not helped to accelerate convergence.
Topic:
Development, History, Economy, and Economic Growth
Political Geography:
Latin America

21. Macroeconomic and Welfare Effects of Public Infrastructure Investment in Five Latin American Countries

Author:
Carlos Gustavo Machicado
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
It has been widely documented that investment in infrastructure is important for economic growth, but little work has been done in relation to the impact of infrastructure investment among other macroeconomic variables. This paper develops a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model of a small open economy to study the effects of public investment in infrastructure on output, consumption, private investment, trade balance and welfare. The model is parameterized and solved for five representative countries from The Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA), which include: Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina. I also analyze the growth effects on GDP by increasing or decreasing the effectiveness index of infrastructure in each of these countries. Naturally output will grow at a larger rate, if infrastructure is handled with greater efficiency.
Topic:
Infrastructure, Economic Growth, Macroeconomics, Welfare, and Public Investment
Political Geography:
Brazil, Argentina, Latin America, Venezuela, Chile, and Bolivia

22. What Makes a Difference in Achieving Higher Labor Productivity? The Case of Low-Income Countries in Latin America

Author:
Osvaldo Nina
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This paper uses firm level surveys from Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua to estimate the determinants of labor productivity. This study started out with the hypothesis that the adverse external business conditions that firms in poor Latin American countries face, may be an important explication of the generally low levels of productivity. However, the empirical results, based on the survey of more than 1300 businesses, do not confirm this hypothesis. Compared to all the variables that are under the firms control, such as capital intensity, energy use, and worker skills, the external business environment (macroeconomic instability and labor regulations) has very little impact on productivity.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Labor Issues, Productivity, and Income
Political Geography:
Latin America, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Ecuador