This book is the synthesis of a multi-year project to investigate the impact of the economic reforms in Latin America and the Caribbean. The project was a joint venture between the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and local researchers in the nine countries covered by the study: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, and Peru. The methodology of the project, which is presented in chapter 1, resulted from the long-term interaction between two ECLAC divisions: the Economic Development Division and the Division of Production, Productivity, and Management. This collaboration produced an innovative approach to the evaluation of the impact of the reforms, which focuses on the interaction of macroeconomic, sectoral, and microeconomic variables. Coordinating different research methodologies was not an easy task, but the learning process it implied was useful for our approach in this book and should lead to other research advances in the future. The project produced a large amount of new data as well as new interpretations of the reform process. While much of the macroeconomic and social data came from existing ECLAC sources, we were also able to draw on a historical database of output and investment statistics. The sectoral information on investment was produced by the project, while information on productivity and firm performance derived from other closely related ECLAC research activities. Important sources for the analysis of employment and equity resulted from special processing of household surveys.