Structural reforms, technological gaps and economic development: a Latin American perspective

This paper explores the impact recent structural reforms have had on macro-to-micro linkages, as well as upon the pattern of production specialization, the entry and exit of firms during the adjustment process, and the sources of technical change in the present more open and de-regulated Latin American scenarios . Having described some of the above one final question emerges quite clearly: is the new market-oriented growth paradigm sustainable in the long run? The story hereby presented suggests that the present pattern of production specialization - strongly biased in favor of in…

The sustainability of development in Latin America and the Caribbean: challenges and opportunities

Summary The original aim of this study was to serve as an input for the Regional Preparatory Conference of Latin America and the Caribbean for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 23 and 24 October 2001. This document was produced by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In preparing the study, national preparatory activities and inputs from subregional meetings were taken int…

The development of science and technology indicators in the Caribbean

Developed countries have for a long time collected statistics on science and technology (S&T); activities and their contribution to development and have also focused on how interpretation of these statistics could inform policy. In addition, these indicators, as they are called, have been used to determine and compare the relative positions of the various countries in the global economy. For such comparisons to be meaningful, however, it was necessary to standardize the units and methodologies. That process led to the development and adoption of a number of manuals, namely, Frascati, Oslo …

Highlighting the World Summit on Sustainable Development and the Perspectives of Caribbean SIDS

Production sharing in Latin American trade: a research note

Abstract The recent literature on industry globalisation and global production sharing has called attention to the changing nature of world trade with the predominance of trade in manufactures, the fragmentation of the production process and contractual relations between firms. Even when those changes do not question the most fundamental notion of trade and production specialisation according to factor services endowments, the literature points to a specialisation within a narrow set of activities and likely to be more fragmented. Enterprises may select labour intensive activities from a numbe…

Foreign Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2000

This study seeks to provide greater insight into foreign direct investment (FDI) in Latin America and the Caribbean. A corporate strategy-based analytical framework has been used to interpret the copious yet heterogeneous information available on the subject. The research programme employed by the Unit on Investment and Corporate Strategies is structured around the examination of specific situations in selected investor countries, FDI host countries and FDI recipient industries in the region. This research, together with the statistical and qualitative data compiled by the Unit's Informat…

Structural reforms, productivity and technological change in Latin America

Preface More than two decades have passed since the region's first attempts to move towards a development strategy that was more open to foreign competition and more deregulated, in which the State had a smaller role in production activities. Those earliest efforts were made at the start of the 1970s by Chile and were later followed by similar initiatives in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica and Brazil in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The change in development paradigm, which entailed the abandonment of the inward-oriented, state-led model of the postwar period, brought about grea…

ECLAC Officials Assist Government of Belize in a Social, Environmental and Macroeconomic Assessment of the Damage Caused by Hurricane Keith

First Europe-Latin America Dialogue on Promotion of Energy Efficiency

Abstract This report contains a recap of the presentations given by the speakers at the 'first Europe-Latin America Dialogue on Promotion of Energy Efficiency', held in Brussels from 28 to 30 October 1998. The event was organized within the framework of the 'promotion of Energy Efficiency in Latin America' Project, which is cofinanced by ECLAC, through its Natural Resources and Infrastructure Division, and the SYNERGY Programme of the European Commission's XVII Directorate-General of Energy. The project is under the direction of Fernando Sánchez Albavera, ECLAC Regiona…

The current situation of small and medium-sized industrial enterprises in Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados and St. Lucia

Abstract This study analyses the period 1990 to 1996 of the current situation of the small and medium-sized industrial enterprises (SMIs) in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and St. Lucia. It describes the evolution of SMIs, the country experiences regarding linkages amongst firms and the policy instruments aimed at promoting SMIs and their impact. The small enterprises have well established support programmes and they are considered to be dependent on direct government support through subsidized financing and other mechanisms and are essentially inward looking in terms of development. The medium…

ECLAC Creates Database of SIDS Projects in the Caribbean

Foreign Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 1999

This study attempts to contribute to a better understanding of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Latin America and the Caribbean by examining the plentiful but disparate statistical information available on the subject within the context of a conceptual framework based on an analysis of corporate strategies. The research programme of the Unit on Investment and Corporate Strategies is structured around the analysis of the specific situations of individual investor countries and of FDI recipient countries and destination industries in the region. This research, combined with the statistical inf…

CEPAL Review no.67

Foreign Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 1998

This study approaches foreign direct investment (FDI) in Latin America and the Caribbean from a new perspective by analysing the strategies of transitional corporations in an attempt to overcome the limitations of official FDI statistics (whether from destination countries or the main investor countries). This is achieved through a study of the information obtained from research programmes of the Unit on Investment and Corporate Strategies and from information obtained from secondary sources, mainly from specialized financial journals. This approach affords a better understanding of the nature…

Social equity and changing production patterns: an integrated approach

In accordance with the mandate it received at the twenty-third session, in this document the secretariat has attempted to delve further into the links among technical progress, international competitiveness and social equity, although it does not, certainly, purport to have exhausted these subjects. Two qualifying remarks are called for here. First, the secretariat is deliberately abstaining from becoming embfoiled in the theoretical aspects of a controversy which has raged for centuries, and particularly since the French revolution, i.e., the debate surrounding the cause-and-effect relationsh…