There are many reasons why potentially-rich Latin American nations are growing at a slower pace than their Asian counterparts but one of the least noticed factors — and one in need of urgent attention — is that a Latin American may grow old before being able to enforce a business contract in many countries of the region.
A new study by the World Bank and the International Financial Corporation, entitled Doing Business 2014, provides a ranking of the world’s countries with the most cumbersome litigation systems. It shows that it’s easier to enforce a contract between two domestic private businesses in Communist China or corruption-ridden Russia than in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and virtually any other Latin American country.
And judging from what its authors told me last week, that’s one of the key reasons why many Latin Americans refrain from
