CEPAL Review No. 143

Sustainability and development in the municipalities of the State of Paraná: mapping and analysis using the sustainable city development index of Brazil (IDSC-BR)

In consideration of the importance that the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development have acquired in the economic, social and environmental spheres, this article uses the sustainable city development index of Brazil (IDSC-BR) methodology to map SDG attainment in the 399 municipalities of Paraná. The main findings reveal that the municipalities with the lowest SDG fulfilment scores are concentrated in the central region of Paraná. Analysing the results by the individual Goals, the State performed best with Goal 11, sustainable cities and communitie…

Support for technological innovation in the Brazilian machinery and equipment sector since the 2000s: analysis based on the Innovation Survey (PINTEC)

This article analyses how technological innovation has evolved in the machinery and equipment sector in Brazil, comparing innovation by firms that benefited from government schemes to support innovation versus those that did not. The data used were from six editions of the Innovation Survey (PINTEC) and a special tabulation prepared by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The results indicate that the industrial and science, technology and innovation policies of the 2000s had positive effects in the sector: firms’ innovative activities were boosted by government support …

Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2024

Latin America and the Caribbean is caught in three development traps: weak capacity for growth; high inequality and low levels of social mobility; and limited institutional capacities, along with ineffective governance. Incorporating foreign direct investment (FDI) into productive development policies could help to address these challenges. ECLAC presents the 2024 edition of the annual report Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean against this backdrop. As is the case every year, the first chapter provides an overview of global and regional FDI and identifies the main tre…

The Hummingbird Vol. 11 No. 8

On tragedy and hope: homo economicus, the invisible hand and reality

This article classifies goods according to their technical characteristics of rivalry and excludability, with the inclusion of new categories ranging from zero rivalry to infinite rivalry and from excludability to imposed access. The conceptual framework reveals concrete challenges in meeting the conditions of the first theorem of welfare economics, demonstrating that only private goods are the epitome of market theory, with an immense range of goods for which provision by means of free prices does not exist or is Pareto inefficient. A theoretical origin of externalities is proposed, as well a…

Does the decision to participate in the labour market affect people’s subjective well-being?

This article provides evidence regarding the potential effect of labour participation on life satisfaction. To take into account possible endogeneity in the decision to participate in the labour market, a two-stage least squares estimation is carried out. Hence, an excluded instrument is used for the decision to participate, where the existence of a weak instrument is rejected. Then, to take into account the ordinal nature of the dependent variable, an ordered probit model with a binary endogenous explanatory variable is estimated. This method makes it possible to jointly estimate all the para…

Economic development in Colombia since the early twentieth century

This article analyses Colombia’s economic growth performance since the early twentieth century, the evolution of the public policies that have contributed to this and its main effects on social development and regional inequalities. Economic performance is divided into three periods: 1905–1929, 1930–1980 and 1981–2023. The first was characterized by the expansion of coffee production, an infrastructure investment boom and the beginning of oil extraction. The second saw the consolidation of industrial development and the diversification of agricultural production and exports. The last was chara…

Determinants of inward foreign direct investment in Colombia: an empirical analysis

This research delves into the determinants of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in Colombia in the context of the economic integration promoted by recent governments. Colombia’s trade liberalization has sought not only to boost trade flows but also to make the country more attractive to FDI in a framework of fiscal discipline and a stable economic environment conducive to economic growth, albeit characterized by challenging institutional conditions. Government reforms have revitalized FDI inflows into Colombia, with the oil and mining sectors receiving the largest influx of new capital in…

Opportunities and challenges in the construction of indicators on climate change and disasters in the small island developing States of the English-speaking Caribbean

The publication ECLAC Statistical Briefings, in its 14th edition, addresses opportunities and challenges in constructing climate change and disaster indicators in the English-speaking Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS), organized into four sections. The first section presents the context and vulnerability of the region to climate change, highlighting the need for adequate statistics. The second section introduces the Global Set of Climate Change Statistics and Indicators, a framework for developing relevant indicators. The third section details a project that strengthe…

Digital Trade Regulatory Review for Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. June 2024

As a preliminary step towards deepening understanding of the digital trade policy environment in the Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean regions, this report offers an overview of the digital trade policy landscape in the three regions. It presents aggregate findings based on the unified frameworks utilized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). This framework is known as the Region…

Regional Digital Trade Integration Index 2.0: A Guide

This RDTII Guide, now in its second edition, serves as a handbook designed to assist policymakers and policy researchers in analysing digital trade regulations. The Guide complements RDTII version 2.0, a common framework developed in collaboration with the European University Institute and utilized by ESCAP, ECA and ECLAC for digital trade regulatory analysis. Users of this guide are recommended to use it in conjunction with the ESCAP-ECA-ECLAC Digital Trade Regulatory Review for Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, 2023 and 2024 versions. The guide provides essential explana…

Recommendations for measuring perceptions in household surveys

Recent years have seen a growing international interest in incorporating information on how citizens perceive and evaluate well-being into the monitoring of social progress. The emerging consensus maintains that conventional measurements of well-being are insufficient to provide a complete overview of quality of life. In turn, the recent wave of protests in different parts of the world, together with the crises in labour markets and in health, education and care systems, further aggravated by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, has underscored the need to make progress with measuring …

Subnational accounts: selected indicators for Latin America and the Caribbean

The main purpose of this issue is to describe the current status of subnational accounts in Latin America and the Caribbean, to detail the methodological considerations underpinning the estimates and to present, on the basis of available data, indicators that are published and disseminated through CEPALSTAT. To illustrate the possibilities that subnational accounts offer and the inferences that can be made from such accounts, three countries of the region were selected for practical exercises: Colombia, Mexico and the Plurinational State of Bolivia. These countries offer a small sample of how …

Regulatory sandboxes in developing economies: an innovative governance approach

The report examines the development and impact of regulatory sandboxes in low- and middle-income countries. With a focus on understanding the viability and effectiveness of these innovative spaces, it provides a comprehensive analysis aimed at policymakers, international organizations and national authorities considering regulatory sandboxes for new sectors and technologies. Key insights include the emergence of regulatory sandboxes as vital tools for grappling with disruptive technologies, such as artificial intelligence, 5G and cryptocurrencies. Originally popularized by financial authoritie…

Financing for food security and nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean

Hunger and malnutrition persist as global challenges, also affecting Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). There are different proposals about policies and interventions to address these problems jointly as a region and for each country, but they are generally not accompanied by proposals on how to finance the actions necessary to eliminate hunger and combat malnutrition. This document presents a first approach to the issue of the financing required to eradicate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms in LAC.…

Code of Good Practice in Statistics for Latin America and the Caribbean 2023

The update to the Regional Code of Good Practices in Statistics for Latin America and the Caribbean was prepared as part of the activities proposed by the work group of the Peer review mechanism in Latin America and the Caribbean, formed by Argentina, Belize, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and the Plurinational State of Bolivia, and coordinated by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) of Colombia, with technical support from ECLAC.…

Population, Development and Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean: second regional report on the implementation of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development

Eleven years on from the adoption of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development and 30 years on from the adoption of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, in Cairo in 1994, this second regional report on the implementation of the Montevideo Consensus outlines progress in the implementation of its priority measures in Latin America and the Caribbean over the period 2018–2023, taking into consideration the specific characteristics of each country and the varying degrees of implementation. By collating, systemizing and analysing a wide …

The Hummingbird Vol. 11 No. 7

Report on the activities conducted by the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Centre (CELADE)-Population Division of ECLAC during the period 2022–2024

Over the past two years, the activities of the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Centre (CELADE)-Population Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) have been governed by subprogramme 6 of the programme of work of the ECLAC system (Population and development) and by resolutions 743(XXXVIII) “Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean” and 760(XXXIX) “Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean”, adopted at the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth sessions of ECLAC, respect…