CEPAL Review no.65

Income distribution, poverty and social expenditure in Latin America / José Antonio Ocampo. -- Military expenditure and development in Latin America / Eugenio Lahera and Marcelo Ortúzar. -- Growth, distributive justice and social policy / Andrés Solimano. -- Equity, foreign investment and international competitiveness / Adolfo Figueroa. -- Tensions in Latin American structural adjustment: allocation versus distribution / Daniel M. Schydlowsky. -- Competitiveness and labour regulations / Luis Beccaria and Pedro Galin. -- Latin American families: convergences and divergences in models and policies / Irma Arriagada. -- Free trade agreements and female labour: the Chilean situation / Alicia Frohmann and Pilar Romaguera. -- Macroeconomic trends in Paraguay from 1989 to 1997: consumption bubble and financial crisis / Stephane Straub. -- The strategies pursued by Mexican firms in their efforts to become global players / Alejandra Salas-Porras. -- Regulating the private provision of drinking water and sanitation services / Terence R, Lee and Andrei S. Jouravlev. -- Quality management promotion to improve competitiveness / Hessel Schuurman.

Disaster risk reduction in the education sector among selected Caribbean small island developing states

Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS), by their very nature, are vulnerable to external shocks. Research shows that the Caribbean subregion experienced 165 natural disasters between 1990 and 2008 and the total impact of natural disasters on the subregion was estimated at US$136 billion. The impact on the social sectors was estimated at US$57 billion, or 42% of the total effect. As small open economies, the Caribbean SIDS are also vulnerable to the vagaries of the international economic system and have experienced declines in tourism, merchandise exports receipts, remittances and capital flows throughout the financial crisis. The negative impact of natural hazards exacerbates the capacity of Caribbean SIDS to overcome the development challenges, such as those posed by the current global economic and financial crisis. Disaster risk reduction (DRR), therefore, is of critical concern to subregional governments and their people. For the purpose of this study, six Caribbean SIDS were selected for detailed analyses on the macro socio-economic impact of extreme events to the education sector. They are the Cayman Islands, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, and Montserrat. This paper proposes that better integration of DRR in the education sector cannot be easily achieved if policymakers do not recognize the social nature of risk perception and acceptance in Caribbean SIDS, which necessitates that risk reduction be treated as a negotiated process which engages all stakeholders.

Economic survey of the Caribbean 2008-2009

This survey provides an overview of the economic performance of countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) for the year 2008 and their outlook for 2009. The report comprises three chapters. The first provides a regional comparative analysis of the main macroeconomic variables, namely GDP growth, inflation, fiscal and external accounts, as well as fiscal, monetary and other policies, particularly those specifically devised to cope with the ongoing global economic crisis. The second chapter deals with two topics relevant for economic development in the region: economic growth and small and medium enterprises development from an analytical and empirical perspective. The last chapter presents country briefs of the seven most developed countries (MDCs) in the Caribbean – Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago – together with a subregional assessment of the eight member countries of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU).

Más allá de los controles de capital: regulación de los mercados de derivados en moneda extranjera en la República de Corea y el Brasil después de la crisis financiera mundial

En el marco de la gestión de los flujos de capital, algunas economías emergentes han afrontado, después de la crisis mundial, dilemas en términos de políticas económicas relacionados con las operaciones de instrumentos financieros, en un contexto de abundante liquidez actual en las economías avanzadas. Sin embargo, la regulación de los derivados en moneda extranjera en las economías emergentes no ha sido suficientemente tratada ni en la literatura, ni por las instituciones financieras. Aquí se analizan las medidas aplicadas en el Brasil y la República de Corea. Primero, se constata que la amplitud de las regulaciones a las operaciones de derivados en moneda extranjera depende de los agentes y del tipo de contrato. Segundo, se requiere una institucionalidad interna eficaz para la formulación y aplicación de regulaciones. Tercero, los países no debieran limitar su margen normativo mediante acuerdos multilaterales o bilaterales, y dejar espacio para la regulación financiera interna.

Neostructuralism and heterodox thinking in Latin America and the Caribbean in the early twenty-first century

The thinking that has unilaterally dominated economic science for over five decades has recently come under intensive scrutiny and its validity and conceptual and empirical coherence are the subject of controversy. Thus the limitations of the prevailing paradigm for addressing the failures of free market economies have been laid bare. For Latin America and the Caribbean, these failures are structural in nature, as indeed structuralism proposed in its time. Neostructuralism delves more deeply into the issues addressed in structuralism, aiming to improve positioning in the international economy, boost productive employment creation, reduce structural heterogeneity and improve income distribution, while maintaining financial balances capable of sustaining changes in the sphere of production by means of social and State support. Far from being an insular system of thinking, neostructuralism is an open system that lends itself to dialogue with other philosophies that recognize the limitations of the dominant paradigm and object to its methodological monism. This book offers a fresh look at neostructuralism and heterodox thinking at the start of the twenty-first century. In a context shaped by the impacts of the worst economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression and by paradigmatic changes at the global level, it aims to carve out arenas for discussion between alternative lines of thinking in order to lay the foundations for a socioeconomically inclusive and environmentally sustainable model of development for the region.