CEPAL Review no. 129

Competitiveness and its determinants: a systemic analysis for developing countries / Victor Medeiros, Lucas Gonçalves Godoi and Evandro Camargos Teixeira .-- The gross domestic product (GDP) shares of the agriculture sector and the hydrocarbon and mining sector in the countries of South America between 1960 and 2014 / Pedro Henrique de Abreu Paiva and Carlos José Caetano Bacha .-- Green jobs in Argentina: opportunities to move forward with the environmental and social agenda / Christoph Ernst, Ana Sofía Rojo Brizuela and Daniele Epifanio .-- Income elasticities and inequality of poverty in urb…

Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 2019

This edition of the Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean is released amid an extremely complex economic and social context for the region. Latin America is showing a synchronized economic slowdown at the country and sector levels. In contrast to previous years, in 2019 growth in economic activity is slowing in 18 of the 20 countries of Latin America, and in 23 of the 33 countries of the Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole. The slackening of domestic demand has been accompanied by low aggregate external demand and more fragile international financi…

The Hummingbird Vol.6 No.12

Draft biennial programme of regional and international cooperation activities 2020-2021, of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

Report on the outcomes of the 2018-2019 Biennial Programme of Regional and International Cooperation Activities of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

Report on the Activities of the Statistical Coordination Group for the 2030 Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean

Report on the Activities of the Statistical Coordination Group for the 2030 Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean

Proposal for a generic law on official statistics for Latin America

Annotated provisional agenda. Tenth meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

Provisional agenda. Tenth meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

A multidimensional approach to the well-being of the population of the states of Mexico

This article adapts a multidimensional index of the well-being of the population in the Mexican States, based on the recommendations of the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (CMEPSP). This study’s contributions can be summarized in three key points: (i) factor analysis of principal components is used, to allow for different weights of dimensions; (ii) consideration is given to inequality of material well-being within the population of each state, and; (iii) representative state data are considered for all dimensions. The results show that the dimensions …

CEPAL Review no. 128

Monetary regimes and labour institutions: an alternative interpretation of the downward trend in exchange-rate pass-through in peripheral countries / Martín Cherkasky and Martín Abeles . -- Models of the developmental state / Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira .-- The development of venture capital in Latin America and the Caribbean: a comparative perspective / Ernesto H. Stein and Rodrigo A. Wagner .-- The heterogeneity of effects of preschool education on cognitive outcomes in Latin America / Juan Antonio Dip and Luis Fernando Gamboa .-- Economic growth and financial development in Brazil: a flexib…

The development of venture capital in Latin America and the Caribbean: a comparative perspective

Venture capital (VC) contributes to the financing of high-growth companies. In Latin America and the Caribbean, this capital is lower than in China and India as well as the developed economies. Nonetheless, between 2005 and 2011, regional VC investments grew by 30% per year. Venture capital investments in Latin America and the Caribbean tend to be larger, focus less on high-technology industries and are more likely to be funded from abroad than those in benchmark regions. Transactions in Latin America and the Caribbean are made by less experienced investors and in fewer rounds than in comparat…

Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2019

This ECLAC annual report sets out and analyses the main foreign direct investment (FDI) trends in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. In the region, FDI inflows were up (by 13.2%) year on year for the first time in five years, at US$ 184.287 billion. This performance is explained by higher flows into just a few countries, however, mainly Brazil and Mexico. Moreover, it does not reflect equity investment, but higher inflows in the form of intercompany loans and, to a lesser extent, reinvestment of earnings. Manufactures and services were the sectors receiving most equity, although…

Report of the Eighteenth Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

U.S. Economic Outlook: Quarterly developments

Highlights: • In the first quarter of 2019, the U.S. economy grew at an above-trend annualized rate of 3.1%, despite the government shutdown and concerns about residual seasonality. Growth was driven by exports and a buildup in inventories. • In May, U.S. employers added just 75,000 jobs, one of the smaller gains since the recession ended in mid-2009. • U.S. consumer price inflation moderated in May, suggesting inflationary pressures remain muted. Over the last 12 months, the all items Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 1.8%. The core CPI was up 2.0%. • The U.S. current account deficit fell to US…

Challenges in innovation management for Latin America and the Caribbean: an efficiency analysis

Applying data envelopment analysis (DEA) to data from the 2016 Global Innovation Index (GII) (Cornell University/INSEAD/WIPO, 2016), the paper evaluates the efficiency of 19 Latin American and Caribbean economies in creating innovation-friendly environments. Where the region performs best is on infrastructure and adaptation of information and communication technologies (ICTs), but there are problems with human capital formation, the conduct and impact of research, and institutional aspects. The output of countries such as Chile and Colombia proved lower than expected given their factors, meani…

CEPAL Review no. 127

Labour market fluidity and employment outcomes in Colombia: evidence from employer-employee linked data

Labour market flexibility has been a traditional subject of study in labour economics; recent literature has focused on the related concept of fluidity, broadly understood as the mobility of workers and jobs in the labour market. Here, we compute standard measures of fluidity for the Colombian urban labour market, finding evidence of increased fluidity, especially after 2010. Recent developments in equilibrium unemployment models predict, in general settings, a negative relationship between some fluidity measures and the equilibrium rate of unemployment. Recent literature on worker and job flo…

Who has been driving the creation of industrial employment in Argentina? An analysis of the role of innovation

This paper analyses the relationship between innovation and job creation in firms. In particular, it seeks out data on the role played by innovation during the latest phase of expansion in Argentine manufacturing employment (2010–2012). It uses the model proposed by Harrison and others (2014), taking an instrumental variables approach and drawing data from the recently concluded National Survey of Employment Dynamics and Innovation (ENDEI). The results show that process innovations do not influence employment growth, but that this is positively affected by product innovations. The latter also …