Situation of unpaid work and gender in the Caribbean: The measurement of unpaid work through time-use studies

Includes bibliography.

Evaluating policies to improve total factor productivity in four large Latin American countries

Includes bibliography.

Coyuntura laboral en América latina y el Caribe: los programas de transferencias condicionadas y el mercado laboral

Prólogo de Elizabeth Tinoco y Alicia Bárcena

An assessment of the dynamics between the permanent and transitory components of Mexico's output and unemployment

Includes bibliography.

From the classroom to the workplace: Three decades of evidence for Latin America

Includes bibliography.

Deprivation viewed from a multidimensional perspective: The case of Brazil

Includes bibliography.

Implementation of the Cairo Programme of Action in the Caribbean (1994-2013): Evaluating Progress and Renewing Commitment

Includes bibliography.

Revista CEPAL no.113

El desarrollo ayer y hoy: idea y utopía / Rolando Cordera Campos .-- La competitividad de América Latina en el comercio de servicios basados en el conocimiento / Andrés López, Andrés Niembro y Daniela Ramos .-- Participación salarial y crecimiento económico en América Latina, 1950-2011 / Germán Alarco Tosoni .-- Patrones de progreso técnico en la economía brasileña, 1952-2008 / Adalmir Marquetti y Melody de Campos Soares Porsse .-- México: la combinación de las predicciones mensuales de inflación mediante encuestas / Pilar Poncela, Víctor M. Guerrero, Alejandro Islas, Julio Rodríguez y Rocío Sánchez-Mangas .-- Expectativas y producción industrial en el Uruguay: interdependencia sectorial y tendencias comunes / Bibiana Lanzilotta M. .-- Argentina: efectos del programa Asignación Universal por Hijo en el comportamiento laboral de los adultos / Roxana Maurizio y Gustavo Vázquez .-- Movilidad ocupacional y diferencial de ingresos: la experiencia del Brasil entre 2002 y 2010 / Sandro Eduardo Monsueto, Julimar da Silva Bichara y André Moreira Cunha .-- ¿Qué información proporciona el Examen Nacional de Enseñanza Media (enem) a la sociedad brasileña? / Rodrigo Travitzki, Jorge Calero y Carlota Boto .-- Fondo Constitucional de Financiamiento del Nordeste del Brasil: efectos diferenciados sobre el crecimiento económico de los municipios / Ricardo Brito Soares, Fabrício Carneiro Linhares, Marcos Falcão Gonçalves y Luiz Fernando Gonçalves Viana .-- Orientaciones para los colaboradores de la Revista cepal

Revista CEPAL no.105

La dinámica del consumo energético industrial en América Latina y sus implicancias para un desarrollo sostenible / Hugo Altomonte, Nelson Correa, Diego Rivas y Giovanni Stumpo .-- La desigualdad del ingreso y los mercados de crédito / Adolfo Figueroa .-- Trinidad y Tabago: Desigualdades salariales intersectoriales / Allister Mounsey y Tracy Polius .-- México: Alza de precios de los alimentos y restricciones al crecimiento / Moritz Cruz, Armando Sánchez y Edmund Amann .-- Una mirada al auge exportador chileno / Raphael Bergoeing, Alejandro Micco y Andrea Repetto .-- Chile: Pensión anticipada, impaciencia y aversión al riesgo / Jaime Ruiz-Tagle y Pablo Tapia .-- Márgenes de ganancia, financiamiento e inversión del sector empresarial peruano (1998-2008) / Germán Alarco T. .-- ¿Se debe el mayor rendimiento de las escuelas de gestión privada en la Argentina al tipo de administración? / María Marta Formichella .-- Tecnología, comercio y calificación en el Brasil: Evidencias de datos microeconómicos / Bruno César Araújo, Francesco Bogliacino y Marco Vivarelli .-- Brasil: Cambio estructural y crecimiento con restricción de balanza de pagos / João Prates Romero, Fabrício Silveira y Frederico G. Jayme Jr. .-- Jueces de la Revista CEPAL año 2010 y enero-agosto 2011 .-- Orientaciones para los colaboradores de la Revista cepal.

Latin American Economic Outlook 2015: Education, skills and innovation for development

The Latin American Economic Outlook analyses issues related to Latin America’s economic and social development. Since 2011, the report has been published in conjunction with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and has tied in with the economic theme of the annual Ibero-American Summit organised by the Ibero- American governments and Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB). In 2013, CAF – development bank of Latin America (CAF) joined the team of authors. This edition focuses on education, skills and innovation as key inputs for more inclusive growth in the region. It provides in-depth analysis of Latin America’s education systems and the region’s capacity to increase enrolment in good-quality education, and looks at the development of skills training to improve economic competitiveness and labour-market integration. These inputs are analysed in association with innovation policies in the production system.

CEPAL Review no.88

Celso Furtado’s contributions to structuralism and their relevance today / Ricardo Bielschowsky. -- Has investor protection been rendered obsolete by the Argentine crisis? / Michael Mortimore and Leonardo Stanley. -- The rights-based approach in development policies and strategies / Victor Abramovich. -- Can the Latin American and Caribbean countries emulate the Irish model of FDI attraction? / Ruth Rios-Morales and David O’Donovan. -- The slow comeback of industrial policies in Latin America and the Caribbean / Wilson Peres. -- A low-growth model: informality as a structural constraint / Mario Cimoli, Annalisa Primi and Maurizio Pugno. -- The Argentine labour market in a financially globalized world / Mario Damill and Roberto Frenkel. -- Social precarity in Mexico and Argentina: trends, manifestations and national trajectories / María Cristina Bayón. -- The Fiscal Covenant in Guatemala: lessons learned from the negotiations / Juan Alberto Fuentes K. and Maynor Cabrera. -- Changes in Chile’s production structure, 1986-1996: output and industrial interdependence / José Miguel Albala-Bertrand. -- Guidelines for contributors to the CEPAL Review. -- CEPAL Review on the Internet. -- Recent ECLAC publications.

CEPAL Review no.82

The devious maze of the international order: the importation of reforms / David Ibarra. -- Foreign banks in Latin America: a paradoxical result / Graciela Moguillansky, Rogerio Studart and Sebastián Vergara. -- A proposal for unitary taxes on the profits of transnational corporations / Andrew Mold. -- Regional integration and macroeconomic coordination in Latin America / Hubert Escaith. -- Import substitution in high-tech industries: Prebisch lives in Asia! / Alice H. Amsden. -- Industrial competitiveness in Brazil ten years after economic liberalization / João Carlos Ferraz, David Kupfer and Mariana Iootty. -- The influence of capital origin on Brazilian foreign trade patterns / Célio Hiratuka and Fernanda De Negri. -- Information and knowledge: the diffusion of information and communication technologies in the Argentine manufacturing sector / Gabriel Yoguel, Marta Novick, Darío Milesi, Sonia Roitter and José Borello. -- Local economic development and decentralization in Latin America / Francisco Alburquerque, in memory of Gabriel Aghón. -- Migrations, the labour market and poverty in Greater Buenos Aires / Rosalía Cortés and Fernando Groisman. -- Households, poverty and policy in times of crisis. Mexico, 1992-1996 / Benjamin Davis, Sudhanshu Handa and Humberto Soto. -- CEPAL Review on the Internet. -- Recent ECLAC publications.

Esbozo de la dinámica histórica y algunos aspectos de los sistemas nacionales de formación profesional en América Latina

En el presente documento se analizan diferentes aspectos vinculados a los Sistemas Nacionales de Formación Profesional y Capacitación (SNFPC). Se aborda una reseña histórica de las IFP, características generales de dichas Instituciones, la propuesta para los grupos vulnerables centrados en las juventudes, la educación formal y la evaluación de la capacitación para el empleo.

The employment situation in Latin America and the Caribbean: Advances and challenges in measuring decent work

At 6.4%, the unemployment rate for the Latin American and Caribbean region overall was the lowest for the past few decades, down from 6.7% in 2011. This is significant, in view of the difficult employment situation prevailing in other world regions. Labour market indicators improved despite modest growth of just 3.0% in the region’s economy. Even with sharply rising labour market participation, the number of urban unemployed fell by around 400,000, on the back of relatively strong job creation. Nevertheless, around 15 million are still jobless in the region. Other highlights of 2012 labour market performance were that the gender gaps in labour market participation, unemployment and employment narrowed, albeit slightly; formal employment increased; the hourly underemployment rate declined; and average wages rose. This rendering was obviously not homogenous across the region. Labour market indicators worsened again in the Caribbean countries, for example, reflecting the sluggish performance of their economies. The sustainability of recent labour market progress is also a cause for concern. Most of the new jobs in the region were created as part of a self-perpetuating cycle in which new jobs and higher real wages (and greater access to credit) have boosted household purchasing power and so pushed up domestic demand. Much of this demand is for non-tradable goods and services (and imports), which has stimulated expansion of the tertiary sector and hence its demand for labour, and many of the new jobs have therefore arisen in these sectors of the economy. This dynamic certainly has positive implications in terms of labour and distribution, but the concern is whether it is sustainable in a context of still relatively low investment (even after some recent gains) which is, moreover, not structured in a manner conducive to diversifying production. Doubt hangs over the future growth of production capacity in the region, given the enormous challenges facing the region in terms of innovation, education quality, infrastructure and productivity. As vigorous job creation has driven progress in reducing unemployment, attention has turned once again to the characteristics of that employment. Awareness exists in the region that economic growth is essential, but not in itself sufficient to generate more and better jobs. For some time, ILO has been drawing attention to the fact that it is not enough to create any sort of employment. The concept of decent work, as proposed by ILO, emphasized the need for quality jobs which enshrine respect for fundamental rights at work. The United Nations General Assembly endorsed this notion and incorporated it into the targets set in the framework of the Millennium Development Goals. This eighth issue of the ECLAC/ILO publication “The employment situation in Latin America and the Caribbean” examines how the concept of decent work has evolved in the region, progress in measuring it and the challenges involved in building a system of decent work indicators, 14 years after the concept was first proposed. Although the concept of decent work has been accompanied since the outset by the challenge of measurement, its first objective was to generate a discussion on the best achievable labour practices in each country. Accordingly, rather than defining a universal threshold of what could be considered decent work —regarding which developed countries might have almost reached the target before starting, while poor countries could be left hopelessly behind— ILO called upon the countries to define their own criteria and measurements for promoting decent work policies. As a result, there is no shared set of variables for measuring decent work applicable to all countries. The suggestion is, instead, that countries move forward with measuring decent work on the basis of their own priorities, using the information they have available now and in the future. However, this strategy of progressing according to the data available in each country tends to complicate statistical comparison between them. So, once the countries have developed their respective systems of decent work indicators, it will be also be important to work towards harmonizing them. ECLAC and ILO are available to provide technical support to this end. With respect to 2013, there is cautious optimism regarding the performance of the region’s labour markets. If projections of a slight uptick —to 3.5%— in the region’s economic growth in 2013 are borne out, labour indicators should continue to gradually improve. This will bring new increases in real wages and a slight drop of up to 0.2 percentage points in the region’s unemployment rate, reflecting a fresh rise in the regional employment rate and slower growth in labour market participation.

The employment situation in Latin America and the Caribbean: Countercyclical policies for a sustained recovery in employment

Latin America and the Caribbean experienced an unexpectedly vigorous economic recovery in 2010 after the output contraction of 2009. This upturn was reflected in the region’s employment and unemployment rates, which resumed the positive trends that had been broken by the crisis, and formal wages rose slightly. The strength of the recovery and labour-market performance varied markedly across subregions and countries, however. The first part of this joint ECLAC/ILO publication on the employment situation in Latin America and the Caribbean looks at how labour markets have responded to the rapid economic upswing in 2010 and early 2011, highlighting both the significant advances achieved in the post-crisis period and the sharp differences evident across subregions and countries. As well as tapping into the improved external conditions which followed upon the Asianled global economic upturn, several Latin American countries were also able to contain the impacts of the crisis and underpin their own recovery with countercyclical policies, thanks to the leeway gained by their macroeconomic management during the run of growth from 2003 to 2008. These countries were in a position to implement expansionary fiscal and monetary policies, some of which channelled higher fiscal spending through labour-market policies or softened the impact of the crisis on employment and income, as discussed in previous ECLAC/ILO bulletins. Since the region is fairly new to the use of countercyclical policies, the second part of this document reviews the experiences arising from those policies and considers lessons for institutionalizing them. Economic growth in the Latin American and Caribbean region has historically been marked by the volatility of its economic cycles, with high-growth periods being succeeded by deep crises. Volatility has conspired against the use of production resources over extended periods and short growth horizons have impeded investment in capital and labour. In the recent international crisis, the deployment of countercyclical macroeconomic policy helped to reduce the depth and duration of the impact and to leverage a more rapid recovery. It is therefore worth looking at the fundamentals of a long-term countercyclical macroeconomic policy which would provide the tools needed to deal with future crises and pave the way for economic growth that may be sustained over time. A special factor during this crisis was that a greater effort was made to support employment and income. Several of the labour-market policy measures taken acted as vehicles for conveying increased fiscal spending to individuals, reflecting greater consideration for equality concerns. Indeed, these measures were aimed not only at stabilizing andstrengthening domestic demand per se, but also at preventing the crisis from hitting lowest-income households the hardest, as had occurred in previous episodes. And —again unlike the pattern seen in previous episodes— inflation actually fell during the crisis as the high food and fuel prices seen in the run-up to it eased as a result of both existing macroeconomic policies and global conditions. This averted the surge in inequality so often seen in previous crises. Two caveats must be added, however. First, not all the countries were in a position to deploy strong countercyclical policies. Many simply lacked the fiscal space to do so. Second, some countries took this sort of measure more as an ad hoc response to the crisis than as part of a clearly established countercyclical policy strategy. The challenge, then, is to institutionalize a countercyclical approach throughout the economic cycle. Taking up this challenge is part of making economic growth more sustainable. This year —2011— was ushered in by rapid economic growth and substantial improvements in labour indicators. With the region’s GDP projected to grow well over 4% this year, ECLAC and ILO estimate that the regional unemployment rate will fall substantially again, from 7.3% in 2010 to between 6.7% and 7.0% in 2011.