El seguro agropecuario en México: experiencias recientes

Incluye Bibliografía

Términos de referencia para la elaboración de un estudo sobre costos, mercado y sistema de transmisión para el Proyecto Regional de Interconexión Eléctrica del Istmo Centroamericano = Terms of reference for the preparation of a study on costs, market and transmission systems for the Regional Electric Interconnection Project of the Central American Isthmus

Incluye Bibliografía

Regulation, worker protection and active labour-market policies in Latin America

Includes bibliography

Women's contribution to equality in Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

SMEs in the environmental goods and services market: identifying areas of opportunity, policies and instruments: case studies: Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico

Includes bibliography

Transitional fiscal costs and demographic factors in shifting from unfunded to funded pensions in Latin America

Includes bibliography

Flexible labour markets, workers' protection and active labour market policies in the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Property rights and the rural land market in Latin America

Includes bibliography

Pension system reforms, the capital market and saving

Includes bibliography

Non-market valuation of natural and environmental resources in Central America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

An analysis of maritime transport and its costs for the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Ocean freight, shipbuilding costs and charter rates: recent trends

This issue of the Bulletin provides a brief overview of the maritime transport industry in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a focus on the behaviour of freight rates and the costs associated with chartering and shipbuilding, all of which increased sharply in 2003. Three separate markets will be analysed: 1) the containerized general cargo market; 2) the dry bulk cargo market and 3) the liquid bulk (crude oil and oil products) market. This study has incorporated contributions made by professional experts in the field and institutions associated with ports and maritime transport in the region, received subsequent to the study prepared and disseminated in January 2004.

An assessment of the economic impact Of climate change on the health sector in Saint Lucia

Climate change has the potential to impact on global, regional, and national disease burdens both directly and indirectly. Projecting and valuing these health impacts is important not only in terms of assessing the overall impact of climate change on various parts of the world, but also of ensuring that national and regional decision-making institutions have access to the data necessary to guide investment decisions and future policy design. This report contributes to the research focusing on projecting and valuing the impacts of climate change in the Caribbean by projecting the climate change-induced excess disease burden for two climate change scenarios in Saint Lucia for the period 2010 - 2050, and by estimating the non-market, statistical life-based costs associated with this excess disease burden. The diseases initially considered in this report are a variety of vector and water-borne impacts and other miscellaneous conditions; specifically, malaria, dengue fever, gastroenteritis/diarrhoeal disease, schistosomiasis, leptospirosis, ciguatera poisoning, meningococcal meningitis, and cardio-respiratory diseases. Disease projections were based on derived baseline incidence and mortality rates, available dose-response relationships found in the published literature, climate change scenario population projections for the A2 and B2 IPCC SRES scenario families, and annual temperature and precipitation anomalies as projected by the downscaled ECHAM4 global climate model. Monetary valuation was based on a transfer value of statistical life approach with a modification for morbidity. Using discount rates of 1, 2, and 4%, results show mean annual costs (morbidity and mortality) ranges of $80.2 million (in the B2 scenario, discounted at 4% annually) -$182.4 million (in the A2 scenario, discounted at 1% annually) for St. Lucia.1 These costs are compared to adaptation cost scenarios involving direct and indirect interventions in health care. This comparison reveals a high benefit-cost ratio suggesting that moderate costs will deliver significant benefit in terms of avoided health costs from 2010-2050. In this context indirect interventions target sectors other than healthcare (e.g. water supply). It is also important to highlight that interventions can target both the supply of health infrastructure (including health status and disease monitoring), and households. It is suggested that a focus on coordinated data collection and improved monitoring represents a potentially important no regrets adaptation strategy for St Lucia. Also, the need for this to be part of a coordinated regional response that avoids duplication in spending is highlighted.

Exports from the Brazilian automotive sector to the Southern Common Market: Trade diversion or cost reduction?

The automotive sector is one of the sectors in which trade between mercosur countries has grown most strongly. This article examines the possibility that trade diversion occurred in that sector during the period 1991-2010, assuming that product costs fell as a result of market expansion. The analysis is based on the concepts of “cost reduction” and “trade suppression” coined by Corden (1972), which capture the effects of economies of scale. Indices of regional orientation and revealed comparative advantages are used in combination to assess whether the trade bloc is evolving in line with comparative advantages. The results suggest efficiency gains for automotive-sector products, exports of which from Brazil to mercosur grew more vigorously because the expanded and relatively protected market made it possible to exploit the economies of scale that are characteristic of the automotive industry.