https://www.caf.com/en/knowledge/ CAFs management inKnowledge https://www.caf.com/en/knowledge/ https://www.caf.com/media/4662825/caforiginalcaribeh-eng.svg en-US Copyright 2026 CAF Knowledge/sustainable development/Latinamerica/Conocimiento umbraco 7.15.6 sciotecaItem CAF, with 24 shareholder countries, assesses the development contributions of its annually approved lending operations, with a focus on investment projects, sovereign and non-sovereign loans, and equity investments. This factsheet presents key figures on the impact achieved in the areas of energy transition, climate change adaptation and mitigation, social infrastructure, and green financing. http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2623 Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2623 sciotecaItem This study examines the responses of household electricity consumption to temperature changes, focusing on asymmetries between welfare deciles. Our analysis exploits a unique panel dataset for Peru that links household survey microdata with repeated administrative records on energy use and local temperature. Using fixed-effects models, we estimate how electricity consumption varies with temperature, highlighting the unequal capacity of households across income deciles to adapt to climate change. Based on this evidence, we propose and implement a novel measure of adaptive energy poverty, which captures households’ ability to respond to rising ambient temperatures through increased electricity consumption. http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2610 Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2610 sciotecaItem CAF’s Education Strategy 2030 sets out a roadmap to transform education systems in Latin America and the Caribbean in the face of historical disparities and gaps exacerbated by the pandemic, proposing concrete actions to ensure an inclusive, equitable, high-quality education system adapted to the demands of the 21st century. The document outlines three strategic objectives: to strengthen learning environments through resilient infrastructure, personalized teaching, and the comprehensive adoption of technologies; to develop safe, efficient, and inclusive educational environments that improve governance, management, financing, and links with the productive sector; and to address rural challenges through territorial policies, flexible and intercultural teaching approaches, and the strengthening of local capacities. The strategy is complemented by innovative financial instruments, technical cooperation, and strategic partnerships, directing educational investment toward measurable and sustainable results to drive the region’s human, social, and economic development. http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2609 Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2609 blogPost For the region to be a leader in the environmental struggle, financial support is necessary, and this can only be achieved with instruments that put a fair price on carbon and give economic value to ecosystem services. https://www.caf.com/en/blog/latin-america-and-the-caribbean-a-key-player-in-global-productive-transformation/ Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.caf.com/en/blog/latin-america-and-the-caribbean-a-key-player-in-global-productive-transformation/ sciotecaItem Do second chances at a high-stakes admission exam yield long-term gains? Leveraging fifteen years of Chilean administrative data and an RDD, we examine the causal effects of retaking on educational and labor market trajectories. Narrowly missing a preferred program cutoff triggers a 44% increase in retaking, leading to substantial score gains (0.27 SD) and improved placement and enrollment chances. However, these immediate gains do not persist. Retakers graduate at the same rate and from programs with similar earnings and employability profiles as their counterfactual peers. Our results suggest that retaking serves as a reshuffling mechanism yielding null net welfare gains. http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2607 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2607 sciotecaItem The Housing Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean 2025 presents a unique comparative database for 15 countries, integrating 261 variables on housing markets, financing, land, informality, and affordability. It shows a region with incipient macroeconomic stability but marked by high labor and housing informality, persistent qualitative deficits, and growing difficulties in accessing formal housing. The publication highlights the low depth of mortgage credit, subsidies with limited targeting, a shortage of well-located land, and sustainability challenges, while emphasizing the urgency of more inclusive financial instruments, better urban land management, and policies that integrate quality, location, and resilience. The central issue—housing informality—reveals structural failures in regulation, access to land, and financing, and points toward comprehensive urban solutions based on evidence and regional cooperation. http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2602 Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2602 sciotecaItem We examine the relationship between family size and children’s human capital, commonly known as the quantity–quality trade-off in Latin America. Despite historically high fertility rates and a rapid convergence toward levels observed in high-income countries, evidence on this trade-off in the region remains limited. Using census data from five countries and a twin instrumental variable strategy, we estimate the causal effect of family size on educational outcomes. We document a trade-off in households with three or more children: an additional sibling increases the likelihood of falling behind in school, reduces primary school completion, and lowers total years of schooling. The magnitude of the trade-off is related to tighter financial constraints, more traditional gender norms, and insufficient local school supply. Identifying the contexts in which these trade-offs arise is essential for understanding how fertility patterns shape gaps in human capital accumulation and for informing policies aimed at narrowing intergenerational disparities. http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2598 Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2598 sciotecaItem In this edition, Visions of Development addresses the main challenges and opportunities that mark the agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean in a rapidly changing world. Its pages analyze geopolitical tensions, the demands of the energy transition, and the growing climate emergency, as well as the possibilities arising from new international alliances and coordinated action between governments, the private sector, and civil society. From the redefinition of the bi-regional relationship between the European Union and LAC to the region's role as a source of climate and territorial solutions, the publication highlights innovative proposals in areas such as the green economy, productive integration, sustainable infrastructure, the blue economy, and youth leadership. With a vision that combines realism and aspiration, this edition invites us to rethink the future of regional development with a sustainable, inclusive approach that is deeply connected to the communities and ecosystems that define the region. http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2592 Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2592 sciotecaItem This study examines the lasting impact of the Amazon Rubber Boom (1870-1914) on contemporary income, inequality, Indigenous presence, and forest conservation. Em pirically we combine variation in historical rubber distribution with an instrumental variable strategy using FAO-based rubber suitability and a Regression Discontinuity design around con cession boundaries. Municipalities with greater rubber presence experienced short-term gains in 1920 but long-run reversals by 2010, showing lower income, population density, and higher inequality and Indigenous extinction. Grid-level analyses across the Amazon further show that historical rubber suitability is associated with lower economic activity and sparser population today, alongside greater deforestation. The findings, consistent across Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, indicate that the rub ber boom’s short-lived wealth reinforced extractive institutions and violence against Indigenous peoples, leaving long-lasting economic, social, and environmental scars across the Amazon. http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2593 Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2593 sciotecaItem This article analyzes how extending the school day by 3.5 hours in Mexican elementary schools affected time use patterns of mothers and fathers. Using a rotating panel of households with within-individual variation in access to full-time schools (2005- 2017), we find heterogeneous effects by household composition. In households with both school-age children and younger kids, both parents reduce childcare time, but mothers’ share of care activities increases, strengthening specialization patterns. Importantly, extended school days do not change female labor outcomes in these households, highlighting the need for complementary interventions covering all dependent ages. In households with only school-age children, we find no adjustments in time allocated to care by any family member, but female labor force participation increases. We also find suggestive evidence of reduced hours worked by domestic workers, consistent with these families outsourcing care to non-family members prior to the policy. http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2585 Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2585