Istmo Centroamericano: el carácter de la crisis económica actual, los desafíos que plantea y la cooperación internacional que demanda = Central America: nature of the present economic crisis, the challenges it raises and the international co-operation for which it calls

Incluye Bibliografía

The Caribbean in the context of the global economic crisis

Includes bibliography

The economic crisis: policies for adjustment, stabilization and growth

Includes bibliography

Crisis económica y medio ambiente en América Latina y el Caribe = Economic crisis and environment in Latin America and the Caribbean

Incluye Bibliografía

Crisis económica internacional y la capacidad de respuesta de América Latina = International economic crisis and Latin America's capacity to respond to it

Incluye Bibliografía

The economic crisis and the maritime and port sector

This bulletin examines the impact of the economic crisis on the maritime and port sector.

The tourism sector and the global economic crisis: development implicatins for the Caribbean

Over the past two years the global economy has experienced substantial economic turmoil, resulting in severe economic contraction. While there has been a recent return to growth, this situation has impacted all economic sectors worldwide. In the highly tourism-dependent region of the Caribbean, the impact of the global economic crisis has been most notable on the tourism sector, which, from the early 1990s, became the key driver of economic growth for the region. The eventual emergence of this sector reflects an economic development history which was previously underpinned by the export of agricultural commodities, and subsequently by the adoption of the import substitution industrialization model as promulgated by Arthur Lewis. This was further stimulated by spectacular economic contraction in Caribbean economies during the 1980s as a result of changes in the global terms of trade for commodities, generally low levels of competitiveness for manufactured goods, as well as weak institutional and governance frameworks. Ultimately, many economies began to reflect fiscal and balance of payments constraints. By the end of the 1990s, too, evidence of declining competitiveness even in the tourism sector began to become apparent particularly when evaluated under the framework of the Butler Tourism Area Life- Cycle (TALC) model. The recent economic crisis, therefore, provides an opportunity to reflect on the overall approach to economic development in the Caribbean, and to assess the implications of the region’s response to the crisis. This analysis makes the case for the future development of the sector to be based on two broad strategies. The first is to deepen the integration of the tourism sector into the broader economy through the diversification of the regional tourism product, as well as the enhancement of linkages with other sectors, while the second is to expand the tourism sector into a total service economy through the introduction of new services. Considering linkages, the development of clusters and value chains to support the tourism sector is identified with respect to agriculture and food, handicraft, and furnishings. Among the new services identified are education, wellness, yachting and boating, financial services, and information and communications technologies (ICT). This overall strategy is deemed to be better suited to the macroeconomic realities of the Caribbean, where high labour costs and other structural rigidities require a high-valued specialty tourism product in order to sustain the sector’s global competitiveness.

The current financial and economic crisis: empirical and methodological issues

In this paper we describe the main causes of the recent financial crisis as a result of many theoretical, methodological, and practical shortcomings mostly according to heterodox, but also including some important orthodox economists. At theoretical level, there are problems concerning teaching and using economic models with overly unrealistic assumptions. In the methodological front, we find the unsuspected shadow of Milton Friedman’s ‘unrealisticism of assumptions’ thesis lurking behind the construction of this kind of models and the widespread neglect of methodological issues. Of course, the most evident shortcomings are at the practical level: (i) huge interests of the participants in the financial markets (banks, central bankers, regulators, rating agencies mortgage brokers, politicians, governments, executives, economists, etc. mainly in the US, Canada and Europe, but also in Japan and the rest of the world), (ii) in an almost completely free financial and economic market, that is, one (almost) without any regulation or supervision, (iii) decision-taking upon some not well regarded qualities, like irresponsibility, ignorance, and inertia; and (iv) difficulties to understand the current crisis as well as some biases directing economic rescues by governments. Following many others, we propose that we take this episode as an opportunity to reflect on, and hopefully redirect, economic theory and practice.

Tourism: low-cost airlines, climate and economic crisis

Programa de doctorado: Economía

Effects of Bologna, the economic crisis and the immigration in enrollment at the UPM

Over the past 20 years, the economic landscape has changed dramatically in Spain, undergoing a growth explosion and a subsequent decline which has led to the current economic crisis. This growth has led to heavy immigration from both developed and developing countries, which provided skilled and unskilled labour. This article aims to analyze the impact of immigrant students at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, pondering the effect that the economic crisis is having and will have on this group, and evaluating the implementation of new plans of Bologna. We analyze the enrolment at the UPM and particularize to the Civil Engineering school (previous EUITOP), crossing with the effect of the economic crisis on foreign students. The exponential increase of foreign students, most of them from Latin American and born in Spain, and students of European countries that have started to register considerably from 2002 and 2003, lead us to consider a renewal in certain areas of learning, and to exploit the possibility of interaction with other countries so successful through the acquisition of transversal skills, as well as to guide and improve, support and integrate these groups at our university Keywords: knowledge, learning, Bologna, academic record

The impact of the economic crisis and policy actions on GHG emissions from road transport in Spain

Road traffic is the greatest contributor to the carbon footprint of the transport sector and reducing it has become one of the main targets of sustainable transport policies. An analysis of the main factors influencing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is essential for designing new energy- and environmentally efficient strategies for the road transport. This paper addresses this need by (i) identifying factors which influence the carbon footprint, including traffic activity, fuel economy and socioeconomic development; and (ii) proposing a methodological framework which uses Modified Laspeyres Index decomposition to analyze the effect of important drivers on the changes in emissions of road transport in Spain during the period from 1990 to 2010. The results demonstrate that the country׳s economic growth has been closely linked to the rise in GHG emissions. The innovative contribution of this paper is the special analysis of the changes in mobility patterns and GHG emissions during the economic crisis, when, for the first time, Spanish road traffic emissions decreased. The reduction of road transport and improved energy efficiency has been powerful contributors to this decrease, demonstrating the effectiveness of energy-saving measures. On the basis of this analysis, several tailored policy recommendations have been suggested for future implementation.