Competition and complementarity between road and rail transport in the carriage of freight

A seminar on competition and complementarity between road and rail transport in the carriage of freight was conducted at ECLAC Headquarters on 6-7 November 2001. The seminar was attended by experts on transport matters from a range of countries, and their presentations covered the current state of integration of transport in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. Also in attendance was an expert from Central America, who spoke about modal integration of freight transport in that region. Three round-table discussions were held with the participation of representatives of the trucking and rail sectors, drawn from both the private and public spheres.

The opportunities and risks associated with privatizing railways in Latin America

Most railways in Latin America were built by private firms, often foreign owned. Over time, owing to a combination of nationalizations and competition from road transport, virtually all railways passed into government hands; the railroad industry became more and more of a white elephant for the Government because of the ever-increasing subsidies it swallowed up, its dwindling role in national economies, and a conviction that Governments should not be involved in productive activities. Consequently, the late 1980s saw the start of a trend towards denationalization of railways, with the latter being turned over to private, often foreign, interests. In this way, the railway industry in Latin America has come full circle in the space of 150 years. So far, there has not been any assessment of the recent privatization of railways in Latin America. However, the conclusion would probably be that: (i) privatization has on the whole been successful, and (ii) the results achieved would have been more positive still, had some things been done slightly differently. One problem is that the bidding process has failed to take into account the positive externalities associated with railways, such as the contribution they make to reducing road maintenance costs and environmental damage caused by road transport. Another unresolved issue is whether to put the entire railway system up for tender, or to invite separate bids for infrastructure and services. Economies of scale operate in the railway industry, favouring the existence of a number of rail companies. In the past, the railway companies of neighbouring countries such as Argentina and Paraguay, and Bolivia and Chile, enjoyed ties at director level, but these came to an end with the nationalization of railways. Now that the era of State involvement is itself drawing to a close, we can expect to see the formation of integrated railway systems, one of which might extend from Quijarro, on the border between Bolivia and Brazil, to Puerto Montt in the south of Chile.

Nuevas instituciones para la innovación: Prácticas y experiencias en América Latina

Incluye bibliografía.

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

Includes bibliography.

Structural change in four Latin American countries: An international perspective

Incluye bibliografía.

Work, family and public policy changes in Latin America: Equity, maternalism and co-responsibility

Taking account of the substantial increase in female labour market participation that has occurred throughout the Latin American region, this article describes policies adopted with the aim of reconciling work and family responsibilities between 2003 and 2013, and the implications of their design for socioeconomic and gender equity. We look at the cases of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay, five countries which, on the basis of their track records, are the best placed to implement policies to reorganize time, income and services. The empirical analysis indicates, first, that these changes have contributed to socioeconomic equity more consistently than to gender equity. Second, the scale and type of change was found to vary significantly from one country to another. The article concludes by raising a number of substantive questions about the measures, their implementation and effectiveness, and the variations between countries.

Estimación del gasto público en protección ambiental en Chile

La creciente preocupación de los países por proteger el medio ambiente ha motivado la generación de más y mejor información que sustente las decisiones de política pública. En esta línea, el Gobierno de Chile, respondiendo a sus compromisos internacionales e institucionales, a través del Ministerio del Medio Ambiente de Chile y en colaboración con la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), ha estimado por primera vez el gasto público en protección ambiental (GPPA) con estándares estadísticos internacionales.

Determinants and home-country effects of FDI outflows: Evidence from Latin American countries

Foreign direct investment (FDI) by Latin American companies has increased sharply since the beginning of the 2000s. While most investment flows correspond to firms from large economies (i.e. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Colombia), small economies have also witnessed the increasing internationalisation of their domestic companies. This study examines the strategies followed by multinational enterprises (MNEs) from Latin America when they decide to invest in other countries, highlighting differences by sector and issuer-country size. To that end a new database, which comprises quantitative information on the main operations abroad of Latin American enterprises (both greenfield, and mergers and acquisitions) was constructed, based on fDi Markets and Thomson Reuters Datastream. It also investigates the home-country effects of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by conducting a case study of Costa Rica through a representative sample of firms investing abroad.

Envejecimiento e institucionalidad pública en América Latina y el Caribe: conceptos, metodologías y casos prácticos

Presentado en el Seminario Técnico Institucionalidad Pública y Envejecimiento. Santiago, Chile, 30 de Junio 2016

Modeling spatial distribution of cancer incidence in Cordoba, Argentina

Background: Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Argentina, and there is little knowledge about its incidence. The first study based on population-based cancer registry described spatial incidence and indicated that there existed at least county-level aggregation. The aim of the present work is to model the incidence patterns for the most incidence cancer in Córdoba Province, Argentina, using information from the Córdoba Cancer Registry by performing multilevel mixed model approach to deal with dependence and unobserved heterogeneity coming from the geo-reference cancer occurrence. Methods: Standardized incidence rates (world standard population) (SIR) by sex based on 5-year age groups were calculated for 109 districts nested on 26 counties for the most incidence cancers in Cordoba using 2004 database. A Poisson twolevel random effect model representing unobserved heterogeneity between first level-districts and second level-counties was fitted to assess the spatial distribution of the overall and site specific cancer incidence rates. Results: SIR cancer at Córdoba province shown an average of 263.53±138.34 and 200.45±98.30 for men and women, respectively. Considering the ratio site specific mean SIR to the total mean, breast cancer ratio was 0.25±0.19, prostate cancer ratio was 0.12±0.10 and lower values for lung and colon cancer for both sexes. The Poisson two-level random intercepts model fitted for SIR data distributed with overdispersion shown significant hierarchical structure for the cancer incidence distribution. Conclusions: a strong spatial-nested effect for the cancer incidence in Córdoba was observed and will help to begin the study of the factors associated with it.

NEW RECORD OF CALYPTRAEID HOSTS FOR THE PEA CRAB CALYPTRAEOTHERES GARTHI (FENUCCI, 1975) (DECAPODA, PINNOTHERIDAE) IN ARGENTINA

Calyptraeotheres garthi (Fenucci, 1975) is one of nine species of Pinnotheridae occurring in Argentina and the only species of that genus located in this region. This species can be found from the San Maths Gulf, Argentina to Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil where it lives in symbiotic association with limpets of the family Calyptraeidae. Currently, two species of limpets have been reported as hosts of this species: Crepidula protea (d'Orbigny, 1841) and Crepidula argentina Simone, Pastorino & Penchaszadeh, 2000. We report here four more species of limpets serving as hosts of C. garthi, namely Bostrycapulus odites Collin, 2005, Crepidula cachimilla Cledon, Simone & Penchaszadeh, 2004, Crepidula plana Say, 1822 and Trochita pileus (Lamarck, 1822). Thus, this pinnotherid appears to be, as others members of the family, a generalist symbiotic species since it dwells on almost all the potential limpet species reported for Argentina. However, there are notable differences in prevalence of C. garthi on each host, which suggest that the symbiont might prefer species of Crepidula over the others genera (Trochita and Bostrycapulus). Additionally, there exists an apparent relationship between host size and prevalence (e.g., Crepidula cachimilla, the limpet with the highest prevalence, is clearly larger than the others hosts). Perhaps it is premature to conclude that the size of the host might be of benefit for the symbiont, but it is a hypothesis worthy of being explored.

La regulación de los servicios de electricidad en Argentina y Brasil (1890-1962)

El artículo analiza la evolución de la regulación del sector eléctrico en Argentina y Brasil entre 1890 y 1960. Desde la instalación de las primeras usinas eléctricas a fines del siglo diecinueve hasta los años treinta, el control de las empresas concesionarias estuvo a cargo de las autoridades municipales en ambos países. No obstante, la similar estructura de los sistemas eléctricos en Argentina y en Brasil, la participación del estado en la regulación de este sector estratégico para el desarrollo económico, se produjo en diferentes coyunturas. Como resultado de la crisis de 1930, el gobierno brasileño transformó los principios jurídicos que reglamentaban la gestión de la electricidad aplicando un criterio de regulación discrecional; mientras que el estado argentino intervino una década más tarde, nacionalizando las empresas. Mediante la comparación de las trayectorias regulatorias en ambos países, se identifican las divergencias en las políticas eléctricas y su impacto en los sistemas eléctricos en los años de la segunda posguerra.

Egemonia, socialismo e democrazia nell’occidente periferico. Gli studi gramsciani di Aricó e Portantiero tra Argentina e Messico.

La ricerca si propone di mostrare come il pensiero gramsciano sia stato riferimento prioritario di due intellettuali argentini in esilio in Messico dal 1976 al 1983: Juan Carlos Portantiero e José Maria Aricó. In quel periodo incentrarono le loro elaborazioni teorico-politiche sull’analisi della relazione tra Stato, società civile, democrazia e socialismo, partendo da una prospettiva gramsciana. Il fallimento della guerra di movimento in Argentina nei primi anni settanta li condusse a riflettere su strategie alternative di transizione al socialismo, il cui punto focale fu il concetto di "Egemonia". A partire dal 1975 indirizzarono la ripresa del pensiero di Gramsci alla creazione di un progetto politico adatto ad un contesto sempre più "occidentale", caratterizzato dalla presenza di una "società civile complessa", in cui risultava necessario combattere "guerre di posizione" e non "guerre di movimento". La prospettiva che connotò questo approccio alle riflessioni gramsciane rappresenta il culmine di un percorso che iniziarono negli anni ’50, quando sorsero i primi studi del pensiero gramsciano in Argentina. Sin da allora, Aricó e Portantiero si occuparono di Gramsci insieme al dirigente del PC argentino Agosti e continuarono a farlo anche durante gli anni sessanta e i primi anni settanta sulla rivista Pasado y Presente. Fu, però, nel periodo dell’esilio che ne ripresero il pensiero considerandolo nella sua totalità, a partire dagli scritti giovanili sino ai Quaderni del Carcere, rielaborandolo in maniera originale e costruendo una propria proposta di cammino verso socialismo nell' "occidente periferico" dell'Argentina, influenzati dall'azione del Partito Comunista Italiano.

Montaigne, Lying and Early Modern Self-Fashioning: A Discursive Dialogue with Lope's El perro del hortelano on the Page and on Stage

A shared code of connection arguably exists between two plays by Lope de VegaEl mayordomo de la duquesa de Amalfi and El perro del hortelanoand the work of Michel de Montaigne. Nevertheless, one cannot but ask: how it can be that in two works produced so close in time, the same situation is resolved so differently? Montaigne can be said to provide an answer in his Essays, explaining that a similar situation can produce wholly different results: how in the first, one is saved', and in the second, one is destroyed. One might imagine, too, that Belflor's countess and her ennobled secretary, who together sustain a lie in a society that lived by the lie, would have been likewise consoled' by a set of interlocking tropes and similitudes' in the words of Stephen Greenblatt, which linked two contemporary and complementary fashioners of human nature, Lope and Montaigne, in a discursive dialogue on how otherwise honest women and men were subject to the vice of lying in their process of self-fashioning, as well as potentially enslaved' by it.

Mid-Holocene Climate and Culture Change in the South Central Ande

This chapter reviews the history of study and the current status of Mid-Holocene climatic and cultural change in the South Central Andes, which host a wide range of different habitats from Pacific coastal areas up to extremely harsh cold and dry environments of the high mountain plateau, the altiplano or the puna. Paleoenvironmental information reveals high amplitude and rapid changes in effective moisture during the Holocene period and, consequently, dramatically changing environmental conditions. Therefore, this area is suitable to study the response of hunting and gathering societies to environmental changes, because the smallest variations in the climatic conditions have large impacts on resources and the living space of humans. This chapter analyzes environmental and paleoclimatic information from lake sediments, ice cores, pollen profiles, and geomorphic processes and relates these with the cultural and geographic settlement patterns of human occupation in the different habitats in the area of southern Peru, southwest Bolivia, northwest Argentina, and north Chile and puts in perspective of the early and late Holocene to present a representative range of environmental and cultural changes. It has been found that the largest changes took place around 9000 cal yr BP when the humid early Holocene conditions were replaced by extremely arid but highly variable climatic conditions. These resulted in a marked decrease of human occupation, “ecological refuges,” increased mobility, and an orientation toward habitats with relatively stable resources (such as the coast, the puna seca, and “ecological refuges”).