(18 April 2012) In order to promote sustainable development in Latin America, it is necessary to transform industrial structures so that they include sectors related to knowledge and dynamic productivity, and to avoid those focusing on energy consumption, as stated in an ECLAC study published in the English edition of CEPAL Review Nº 105 - already available online.
In the article "The dynamics of industrial energy consumption in Latin America and their implications for sustainable development", ECLAC officials Hugo Altomonte, Nelson Correa, Diego Rivas and Giovanni Stumpo analyzed data from Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico between 1997 and 2006, and concluded that the clear regional focus on natural resources intensive sectors has contributed to a high energy consumption pattern and slow productivity dynamics.
The authors state that improving both productivity and energy efficiency will require a process of structural change that would not only imply filling the productivity gap between Latin American economies and the United States (taken as a technological benchmark), but also promote a growth patern that is, in time, more sustainable in terms of energy.
The CEPAL Review Nº 105 also includes the article "Trinidad and Tobago: Inter-industry wage differentials". According to the authors Allister Mounsey and Tracy Polius, some sectors pay often 52% more than the average for a specific job, whereas other sectors pay 25% below the average wage. The knowledge of such differentials is relevant for researchers and policy-makers.
In the study "Income inequality and credit markets", Professor of the Catholic University of Peru Adolfo Figueroa presents the relationship between income inequality and bank credit markets. The author remarks that there is a clear segmentation in the financial sector, where the high-income sector and banks constitute one market; the middle-income sector and formal, non-banking institutions constitute another; and the low-income sector and small money lenders constitute the informal sector.
He concludes that as long as income inequality remains high, this financial structure will prevail. He also mentions the consequences of this model in public policies.
Likewise in this edition of ECLAC's main academic publication, an article of Jaime Ruiz-Tagle and Pablo Tapia, both professors at the University of Chile, can be found. The article makes reference to the Chilean pension system and how life expectancy in the future - and the impatience therefrom generated - affects the likelihood of choosing an anticipated retirement. In turn, María Marta Formichella analyzes the factors determining the quality of education in Argentina with an emphasis on specific school administrative structures, i.e. public and private.
The article "Mexico: Food price increase and growth constraints" by experts Moritz Cruz and Armando Sánchez from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and Edmund Amann from the University of Manchester (UK) assesses to what extent food price inflation could affect national growth in the long term.
Other articles found in the present edition of CEPAL Review are "Dissecting the Chilean export boom" by scholars Raphael Bergoeing, Alejandro Micco and Andrea Repetto; "Profit margins, financing and investment in the Peruvian business sector (1998-2008)" by Germán Alarco; "Technology, trade and skills in Brazil: evidence from micro data" by authors Bruno César Araújo, Francesco Bogliacino and Marco Vivarelli; and "Brazil: structural change and balance-of-payments constrained growth" by researchers João Prates Romero, Fabrício Silveira and Frederico G. Jayme Jr.
Created in 1976 by Raúl Prebisch, CEPAL Review has become an academic forum for debating ECLAC-generated ideas and disseminating the efforts of researchers regarding approaches, strategies and policies that contribute to and equal development of the region.
For further questions, please contact ECLAC's Public Information and Web Services Unit. E-mail: dpisantiago@cepal.org ; Tel.: (56 2) 210 2040.
Follow us on: Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.
