Economic complexity and employment in Brazilian states

This paper has three objectives: (i) to identify promising sectors worth encouraging with a view to fostering the development of the Brazilian states; (ii) to evaluate the impact of economic complexity on the volume of employment; and (iii) to simulate how many new jobs would be created if each state were to become competitive in the activities considered promising for it. The results obtained vindicate the approach of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which emphasizes the contribution of changes in the production structure to the development process, and rea…

Productive development policy for Chile: an alternative to stagnation

Since 1998, Chile has been experiencing a significant slowdown in its economic growth. The Chilean economy’s recent poor performance is attributable to a halt in productive and export diversification around the beginning of the twenty-first century. State interventions have been horizontal, eschewing those to support specific industries. Intermediate interventions have focused on promoting activities (such as new exports and technologies) that form only a small part of the Chilean economy, leaving a wide margin for market forces to select companies and sectors. In terms of vertical policies, s…

Health system privatization, the pandemic and deprivatization under discussion

This article analyses the privatization processes that have been implemented in the health systems of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. It describes and characterizes the participation of the public and private components of each of these systems, and analyses the politics of the public policies involved in these privatization processes. The results reveal the presence of multiple public-private relationships that adopted different forms over time. The article also analyses some of the responses provided and the challenges faced by the health systems during the coronavirus disease (COVID-…

Education during the pandemic: an opportunity to transform education systems in Latin America and the Caribbean

The COVID-19 pandemic has meant a prolonged economic and social crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean, with profound consequences on the population’s well-being and a silent and devastating impact on education. The abrupt transition to distance learning, with one of the most extended school closures in the world, has had an unequal impact and highlighted pre-existing gaps in the region. The crisis has resulted in paradigm shifts, innovations and lessons learned concerning adapting to remote education, which impede education systems from returning to how things were and force them to restr…

The importance of time-use surveys in guiding social policies: the gendered impact of COVID-19 on paid and unpaid work in the Caribbean

Recognizing the importance of unpaid work is critical to achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, which is Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Like most SDGs that are focused on the people dimension of the 2030 Agenda, the COVID-19 pandemic has reversed some of the gains made in gender equality and women’s empowerment. Following the onset of COVID-19, many women have been forced to devote greater time to unpaid work activities, the extent of which has not been previously well-documented in the Caribbean. In this study, we evaluate how women and men allo…

Income distribution and wealth: new conceptual and methodological approaches. Summary

This study analyses how value from labour (intellectual and manual) and natural resources (which also provide value) is created (gross national product), allocated (national income), distributed (disposable income), used (expenses and savings) and accumulated (wealth) in society. Instead of measuring subjective welfare inequality (happiness) through consumption, this study analyses how the value created by labour and natural resources is distributed. The purpose is to study inequality in the distribution of the value created in the economy. Although capabilities and freedom are essential, this…

Report of the Sixty-second meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean

Gender equality and women’s and girls’ autonomy in the digital era: contributions of education and digital transformation in Latin America and the Caribbean

This document was prepared —within the framework of the sixty-fourth meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean— as part of the preparations for the sixty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the priority theme of which was “Innovation and technological change and education in the digital era to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.” The purpose of this document and the recommendations it contains is not only to advance towards the achievement of gender equality and sustainable deve…

Advances in care policies in Latin America and the Caribbean: towards a care society with gender equality

The commitments made over the last 45 years have led to the development of a robust Regional Gender Agenda in which women’s rights and gender equality are recognized as central and cross-cutting elements of all State action geared toward strengthening democracy and enabling a new style of sustainable development with equality. The right to care, understood as the right to receive care, to provide care and to exercise self-care, is part of the human rights already recognized in international covenants and treaties that benefit all people. The right to care also implies the recognition of the va…

Report of the Twenty-first meeting of the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

Capital flows to Latin America and the Caribbean: 2022 year-in-review and early 2023 developments

Latin American and Caribbean issuers placed US$ 64 billion in bonds on international bond markets in 2022, the smallest annual amount since 2008. In January 2023, sovereign and corporate bond issuers from the region placed almost US$ 17 billion in international bonds, a sizable improvement from the last few months of 2022, but a weaker January issuance than in previous years. The region’s international bond issuance of green, social, sustainability and sustainability-linked (GSSS) bonds followed the broader market trend of declining bond activity owing to worsening macroeconomic conditions. Th…

The Hummingbird Vol. 10 No. 3

The Role of Data for SDG Advancement in the Caribbean

Policy considerations for sustainable transportation in three Caribbean small island developing States: options for improving land transportation efficiency. Barbados, the British Virgin Islands and Jamaica

As the Caribbean subregion seeks to implement strategies for meeting its obligations under the Paris Agreement, the sustainable development of its land transportation subsector has emerged as a significant challenge. This relates to both the need to reduce green house gas emissions, for which the subsector is a major emitter, as well as the necessity for reducing its overall dependence on imported fossil energy. While several policy initiatives have sought to address these issues, the evidence of growing land transportation problems now motivates a closer examination of challenges in the subse…

Report of the Sixty-third meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean

Report of the Fourteenth session of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean

Exploring the elements of an optimal hydrocarbon fiscal regime

The study analyzes the process for the awarding of blocks among select countries within the western hemisphere, namely Brazil, Guyana, Mexico, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. The findings allow for the determination of key elements of what can be considered an optimal hydrocarbon fiscal regime for Caribbean economies that would allow governments to get their fair share of hydrocarbon rents, while ensuring sufficient exploration and production activity. The study therefore suggests that for the Caribbean, the optimal fiscal regime should include a reservation price, royalties, and a windfall …

Anuario Estadístico de América Latina y el Caribe 2022 = Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean 2022

En el Anuario Estadístico de América Latina y el Caribe de la CEPAL se presenta un conjunto de estadísticas básicas que caracterizan la situación económica, sociodemográfica y ambiental de la región referidas a un período en particular. Esta información forma parte del conjunto de estadísticas disponibles en CEPALSTAT, el portal de bases de datos y publicaciones estadísticas de la CEPAL. La presente edición del Anuario contiene datos que se encontraban disponibles hasta mediados de diciembre de 2022. El Anuario consta de tres capítulos. El primero, en que se presentan los indicadores demográfi…

Monitoring of Sustainable Development Goal 7 indicators in Latin American countries

This document, prepared by the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), is intended to assess the status on energy indicators relating to Goal 7 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean. It was prepared in the framework of the “Energy Efficiency Indicators Database” project, which aims to build technical capacities in the countries of the region to monitor progress towards affordable, efficient, safe and modern energy.…

Beyond GDP: statistical challenges of measuring development. Seminar within the framework of the Twenty-first meeting of the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean