Understanding the business cycle in Latin America: Prebisch's contributions

This paper analyzes Raúl Prebisch's less familiar contributions to economic theory, related to the business cycle, and heavily informed by the Argentinean experience. His views of the cycle emphasize the common nature of the cycle in the center and the Latin American periphery as one unified phenomenon. While his rejection of orthodoxy is less than complete, some elements of what would become a more Keynesian position are developed. In particular, a preoccupation with the management of the balance of payments and the need for capital controls as a macroeconomic management tool, considerab…

Climate change and challenges for tourism in Central America

Tourism has been a very dynamic activity worldwide over the last fifteen years (until the 2008-2009 economic crisis);. Some developing countries have been very active in promoting this activity and have been successful. Among these countries are several from the Central American region, where tourism accounted for more than 8% of Costa Rican and Panamanian GDP in 2006. Tourism is a very broad activity, which includes leisure, business and family visits, but statistics for this region do not allow a distinction between these categories. Some countries are more specialized in leisu…

A regional basic income: towards the eradication of extreme poverty in Central America

Centroamérica sigue enfrentando niveles muy altos de pobreza e indigencia, siendo además la región más desigual del mundo. Por lo tanto, este ensayo propone la erradicación de la pobreza extrema en la región a través de la implementación de una transferencia monetaria universal e incondicional. Esta Renta Básica garantizaría la sobrevivencia a todo ciudadano, independientemente de su condición personal, familiar, u ocupacional. Simultáneamente, la propuesta fomentaría la redistribución de ingresos, avanzaría la educación, productividad futura y crecimiento, promovería la estabilidad macroeconó…

The economics of climate change in Central America: summary 2010

Although it is estimated that Central America will continue to generate only a minimal part of the planet's Greenhouse Gasses, it is already one of the regions most vulnerable to the consequences of these emissions. Central America's historical socio-economic vulnerabilities are exacerbated by the region's location on a narrow isthmus that serves as a land bridge between two continents, surrounded by two oceanic systems, the Pacific and the Atlantic. The region is gravely affected by droughts, cyclones and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation phenomenon. Given that…

Income poverty and unsatisfied basic needs

Abstract This study consists of two substantive components that provide an overview of the different methodologies currently being applied to the measurement of multidimensional poverty for Mexico and Central America. In the first component a typology of different practical methodological concepts is organized according to how different methods deal with the two fundamental decisions in the measurement of poverty, identifying the poor and aggregating the groups into a single index value that is informative. The typology is able to encompass most different methods of multidimensio…

Trade and economic growth: a Latin American perspective on rhetoric and reality

There is a longstanding tradition of analyzing trade and growth in economics, going back to the discipline's founders. But for Latin America, the debate on the significance of this relationship has had much more than academic relevance. It has been one of the central components of the different approaches to development that have shaped the region's economic history, the other (closely related) component being the roles of the State and of the market in economic development. In Latin America, the dominant understanding of the relationship between trade and growth has evolved radicall…

Economic impact of disasters: evidence from DALA assessments by ECLAC in Latin America and the Caribbean

Over the last 35 years the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has assessed major disasters in the Latin American region. Based on those exercises, which that have been conducted in a systematic manner using an evolving but comparable methodology over the years1, there is now historical evidence of the economic consequences these events have on the region's economies. This evidence-based approach sheds light on the link between economic performance, development dynamics and how disasters, as external shocks, generate lingering…

Analysis of selected millennium development goals in Nicaragua

This study presents an analysis of factors related to selected Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in education, health and water and sanitation in Nicaragua. Using available household survey data, complemented with selected supply side data, empirical econometric models of education enrolment, child mortality and the provision of water and sanitation are employed to examine the relationship of individual, household and municipal factors to the achievement of these MDGs. The MDG formulation also provides for a comparison of two different modelling methodologies, the standard logit estimation f…

Regional integration and public policy. Evaluation of the European experience and possible implications for Latin American integration

Information on disaster risk management: case study of five countries: Jamaica

Jamaica, as a result of its location in the north-western Caribbean basin, is prone to numerous specific natural hazards. These include hurricanes, of which recent hurricanes experienced within the last few years (and in fact since 1988 with hurricane Gilbert), have reminded us of Jamaica's great vulnerability to the effects of this hazard. Next, it is also envisaged that a large earthquake could do considerable damage to sectors of the population and to infrastructure and could result in displacement and homelessness among large sections of the population, particularly in the hig…

Information on disaster risk management: case study of five countries. Summary report = Información para la gestión del riesgo de desastres: estudios de caso de cinco países. Informe resumido

Existe la opinión generalizada en América Latina y el Caribe de que una gran limitación para una efectiva gestión del riesgo de desastres es la insuficiente información de que disponen los responsables de las distintas fases del proceso de gestión para guiar sus decisiones. Para contribuir a subsanar esta deficiencia, el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) y la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) realizaron conjuntamente un proyecto sobre Información de Gestión de Riesgo de Desastres. El proyecto se orientó a determinar qué tipo de información sobre riesgo…

Information on disaster risk management: case study of five countries. Main technical report = Información para la gestión del riesgo de desastres: estudios de caso de cinco países. Informe técnico principal

Existe la opinión generalizada en América Latina y el Caribe de que una gran limitación para una efectiva gestión del riesgo de desastres es la insuficiente información de que disponen los responsables de las distintas fases del proceso de gestión para guiar sus decisiones. Para contribuir a subsanar esta deficiencia, el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) y la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) realizaron conjuntamente un proyecto sobre Información de Gestión de Riesgo de Desastres Naturales. El proyecto se orientó a determinar qué tipo de información…

Socio-economic vulnerability to natural disasters in Mexico: rural poor, trade and public response

The increasing frequency and economic losses from natural disasters within the framework of decreasing agricultural prices is becoming crucial in increasing poverty in the Mexican rural economy. During the past two decades, the governmental withdrawal from supporting the agricultural sector with investments in physical, financial and logistic instruments continues to stress agricultural livelihoods, as current private mechanisms have not replaced them effectively. Natural disasters occurrence is increasingly producing severe damages to the so-called traditional agriculture, highly exposed to c…

Growth, poverty and inequality in Central America

This study measures and analyses the household income growth performance of six countries in Central America between 1990 and 2004. Using national household surveys over the period, new empirical and methodological tools were employed to measure the growth in the incomes of the poor and provide an indication of some of the pertinent factors in the trends that occurred in the region. In particular the decomposition of the growth of poor incomes permitted an investigation of the relative contributions of economic growth and income redistribution. The results show that growth effects have been po…

Transaction costs in the transportation sector and infrastructure in North America: exploring harmonization of standards

Since the implementation in 1994 of the North American Free Trade Agreement, trade between the three North American countries has almost tripled. However there are substantial impediments for the efficient freight movements between the three countries. Major obstacles derived from transaction costs which reduce and sometimes eliminate the benefits gained from the removal of tariffs resulting from NAFTA. The paper analyzes North American truck, rail and maritime trade and transportation characteristics and operations that serve as the foundation to identify and quantify transaction costs caus…

Best practices in defence of competition in Argentina and Brazil: useful aspects for Central America

Developing countries with a relatively long expertise in competition policy, such as Argentina and Brazil, may provide a very valuable point of reference for developing countries that have acquired more recently a competition legal and institutional framework. Among the recommendations that can be derived from Argentina and Brazil for other more recent comers to the competition institutional arena are: i) the importance of having a single and independent body in charge of applying the competition law; ii) the need for competition policy and the judiciary system to coordinate their acti…

Norms, regulations and labor standards in Central America

This report addresses the organization, nature, and prospects for labor law enforcement in Central America and the Dominican Republic. It draws a distinction between the Anglo-American approach to enforcement, which is rooted in deterrence and punishment, and the Latin alternative, which is rooted in conciliation and training. And it argues that the Latin approach is--at least in theory--better able to reconcile the labor force's need for protection with the economy's demand for flexibility. Finally, it reviews recent changes in the subregion's labor inspection systems, …

The political economy of Mexico's dollarization debate

Between 1998 and 2002 Mexico was host to an intense debate over dollarization. This paper examines the conjunctural factors which led to the emergence of this debate, reviews the main participants in the debate and their arguments, and discusses why the debate ended. We further argue that the Mexican debate can best be understood not as one between rival ideological positions but between different, say, mainstream neoliberal positions. There is no mainstream consensus on the preferred form of the institutional governance of money. The Mexican debate on dollarization reflects this rathe…

The effectiveness of technical assistance, socio-economic development and the absorptive capacity of competition authorities

Using survey data on technical assistance projects that was collected by the International Competition Network's Competition Policy Implementation Working Group during 2004 and 2005, I estimate the effect of different types of technical assistance on several performance measures of recipient competition authorities. Moreover, I examine whether the impact of each type of technical assistance varies with the capacity of a recipient authority to absorb technical assistance (which I will refer to as absorptive capacity) and the socioeconomic development of the recipient country. A cle…

Central American Isthmus: economic evolution during 2005 and perspectives for 2006 (final evaluation)

1. Rasgos generales de la evolución reciente La actividad económica en el Istmo Centroamericano registró en 2005 una expansión igual a la del año anterior (4%), apenas por debajo del promedio de América Latina y el Caribe (4,3%). Excluyendo a Panamá, la tasa de crecimiento se elevó de 3,3% a 3,6%. También fue notable una menor dispersión de las tasas alrededor del promedio. Todos los países se hallan en la fase expansiva del ciclo económico, ya que se cumplieron tres años de incremento del producto interno bruto (PIB) por habitante, después del retroceso ocurrido en el bienio 2001-2002. Si …