The effects of growth and economic reform on income distribution in Latin America

Includes bibliography

International tax cooperation and capital mobility

Includes bibliography

Mortgage loans and access to housing for low-income households in Latin America

Includes bibliography

Overcoming the empty box syndrome": eterminants of income distribution in Latin America"

Includes bibliography

Capital flows to Latin America: third quarter 2001

Events in Argentina dominated most of the third quarter of 2001 until September 11, when the terrorist attacks against the United States prompted a sell-off of emerging markets assets, increasing uncertainty and risk aversion against a background of global economic slowdown. Emerging markets' short term prospects to tap international capital markets deteriorated significantly. In the third quarter of 2001, Latin American countries issued US$7.6 billion in bonds, following US$11.2 billion in the second quarter and US$13.2 billion in the first quarter, which had been a jump from only US$2.9 billion in the last quarter of 2000. At first, it seemed that the pace of debt issuance would slow down considerably given Argentina's troubles in July, as Argentina's bond auction at the beginning of the month was poorly received, forcing the government to shorten the maturity of the new debt and to pay rates as high as those during the Russian crisis in 1998. By August, however, emerging markets rebounded strongly on the back of a new US$8 billion IMF assistance package to Argentina, with both Mexico and Brazil successfully launching large issues. International markets displayed considerable flexibility as investors gave Mexico's US$1.5 billion 30- year bond and Brazil's JPY200 billion two-year samurai issue a warm reception. This return to capital markets was interrupted by the events of September 11, which caused debt issuance to fall sharply in September and October. Following the events of September 11, EMBI+ spreads widened above 1,000 basis points for the first time in nearly two years. According to J.P. Morgan there was a 3.7% market decline in September, which brought year-to-date returns for the EMBI+ to only 0.06%. Emerging markets debt, however, fared better than most other fixed income and equity markets in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. U.S. high-yield market suffered its worst month since August 1998, declining by 6.5%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq declined by 8.2% and 17%, respectively. Emerging equity markets suffered even greater declines, with losses as severe as 24% in local currency terms and 31% in U.S. dollar terms.

Capital flows to Latin America: first quarter 2003

Includes bibliography

The redistributive potential of taxation in Latin America

This study uses internationally comparable methodologies to analyse the distributional impact of income tax and public transfers in 17 countries of Latin America. The results indicate that fiscal policy plays a limited role in improving the distribution of disposable income; the Gini coefficient decreased by barely three percentage points after direct fiscal action. On average, 61% of this reduction was due to public cash transfers and the rest to direct taxes, reflecting the pressing need for personal income tax to be strengthened. Analysis of household surveys gives an indication of the potential effects of tax reforms aimed at increasing the average effective tax rate of the top income decile. Allocating this additional revenue to targeted transfers would produce significant results. Consequently, tax reforms must be evaluated bearing in mind how those resources are used.

Do demand and profitability stimulate capital accumulation? An analysis for Brazil

This article tests whether the profit share of gdp and capacity utilization affect capital accumulation in Brazil in the period 1950-2008 (in the sense of Granger causality). The methodology developed by Toda and Yamamoto (1995) is used to verify the Granger non-causality hypothesis. The results show that capacity utilization “Granger-causes” capital accumulation in the Brazilian economy and, also that the profit share of gdp does not “Granger-cause” the national investment-capital ratio. This corroborates the Kaleckian proposal based on the fundamental role of the accelerator, and suggests that the Brazilian economy can grow with either a concentration or a de-concentration of income, provided a suitable institutional arrangement is in place.

Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2016: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the challenges of financing for development

This, the sixty-eighth edition of the Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean, which corresponds to the year 2016, consists of three parts. Part I outlines the region’s economic performance in 2015 and analyses trends in the first half of 2016, as well as the outlook for the rest of the year. It examines the external and internal factors influencing the region’s economic performance and highlights some of the macroeconomic policy challenges that have arisen in an external context of weak growth and high levels of uncertainty. Part II analyses the challenges that the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean face at the domestic and international levels in mobilizing financing for development. On the domestic front, slower growth and tighter fiscal restrictions pose significant challenges for the mobilization of resources. Externally, the classification of many of the region’s countries in the middle-income category limits their access to concessional external financing or international support. Part III of this publication may be accessed on the web page of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (www.eclac.org). It contains the notes relating to the economic performance of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2015 and the first half of 2016, together with their respective statistical annexes. The cut-off date for updating the statistical information in this publication was 30 June 2016.