Cuando el modelo económico neoliberal, con cuya vigencia expira el milenio en América Latina, cumple ya algunos años de aplicación, se hace más oportuno evaluar la experiencia acumulada hasta la fecha. A esta tarea se abocan los economistas, desgranando y analizando las diversas características y componentes de los programas aplicados en los distintos países. Un aspecto a menudo descuidado en tales evaluaciones es el de la viabilidad social y política de las medidas adoptadas, que no depende sólo de la valoración técnica de ellas. La aceptación de tales medidas por los diversos sectores de la …
En el presente artículo se pretende sistematizar y analizar las pruebas de cambio estructural en la industria automotriz brasileña entre 1990 y 1996, procurando relacionarlas con las medidas de política económica de mayor impacto sobre el sector. Se examina el aumento explosivo de la demanda interna de vehículos automotores, sus factores determinantes e implicaciones principales, sobre todo el alcance de escalas eficientes de producción y el inicio de una ola de inversiones que se ha intensificado en los últimos tres años. Se estudia el aumento del dinamismo tecnológico del sector, consecuenci…
Los procesos de ajuste y reestructuración de los sectores productivos a un nuevo régimen de incentivos macroeconómicos son lentos, costosos y más imperfectos que lo que la teoría microeconómica convencional lleva a suponer. Los autores exploran aquí el proceso de reestructuración productiva de una firma metalmecánica chilena, y la forma en que ella fue modificando su operatoria a partir de los setenta, adaptándola a nuevas señales macroeconómicas y mesoeconómicas. Como se sabe, en las últimas dos décadas del régimen de incentivos y el marco regulatorio en el que se desenvuelve la actividad pro…
La generación de ventajas competitivas dinámicas en América Latina y el Caribe no puede confiarse exclusivamente al logro de la necesaria estabilidad macroeconómica y a la inserción de parte del tejido productivo en algunos segmentos (o nichos); dinámicos en el ámbito internacional. La información empírica reciente sobre el despliegue de iniciativas de desarrollo económico local en los países desarrollados indica que es preciso acompañar las políticas de ajuste macroeconómico con otras políticas específicas a nivel microeconómico y mesoeconómico. Estas políticas deben incorporar a los diferent…
This article aims to make a walk-through in the virtual reality of budgetary and fiscal matters in order to identify the possible degrees of freedom to achieve a higher level of convergence between the public discourse on equity and the real content of public policies aimed at that goal. To this end, the author explores possible answers to four questions: what is the current meaning of the concept of equity; how much leeway is there in the field of taxation for expanding resources and improving vertical equity; what means are there for giving priority to the objective of equity in managing pub…
Pension system reforms seek to combine and reconcile both economic and social functions. On the basis of both conceptual aspects and the actual experience of Chile, this article illustrates the difficulties encountered in trying to make reforms ensure the fulfillment of both types of functions. These difficulties stem from two factors: i); the need to consider the reform of the pension system as a whole, where, parallel with the capitalization component, it is necessary to develop another pay-as-you-go component to finance the costs of the transition from one pension system to another, minimum…
In recent years the question of the environment has been increasingly prominent in studies and proposals on the development of the Latin American and Caribbean countries. The serious processes of ecological imbalance in the world, together with numerous disasters and the ongoing loss of natural resources, have given rise to increasing concern over these matters. To a greater or lesser extent, all the governments of the region have tried to strengthen their environmental policies through various legal, technical, institutional and economic measures. Much still needs to be done, however, to corr…
An inventory and analysis has been made of 15 non-market-based valuation studies in Central American and Caribbean countries. The method most frequently used for determining the willingness to pay for drinking water or protected areas was that of contingent valuation. Its main shortcomings were that it was based on open questions, it used contingent scenarios and information frames with a low level of detail, it used small population samples, and it displayed the possible cultural and strategic skews associated with surveys of national residents. The study based on the travel cost method, for …
This article seeks to calculate a simple integrated macroeconomic model for the Caribbean subregion. Using a homogeneous data series covering the period from 1980 to 1991 for a sample of 12 countries of the subregion and a relatively simple model with non-conflicting specifications of structural relations, a representative and systematic group of estimates is generated for a given set of parameters, with grouped and individual calculations for the countries.…
Now that the neoliberal economic model, which is still in force as Latin America prepares to see out the milennium, has completed a number of years of application, it is becoming increasingly desirable to assess the experience gathered so far. Economists are busily engaged in this task by breaking down and analysing the various characteristics and components of the programmes applied in the different countries. An aspect which is often overlooked in these assessments, however, is the social and political viability of the measures adopted, which does not depend solely on their technical qualiti…
In the six Central American countries --Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, which make up the Central American Common Market, and Panama-- non-traditional exports increased in the 1970s, went down between 1980 and 1986 because of macroeconomic imbalances, armed conflicts and the crisis in the Central American Common Market, but grew once again in the second half of the 1980s and the early 1990s. Except in Nicaragua and Honduras, the share of such exports in total exports increased, reflecting the general trend towards modernization of the export structure and reduction …
This article aims to classify and analyze the efforts at structural change made in the Brazilian motor industry between 1990 and 1996, seeking to relate them with the economic policy measures which had most impact on the sector. The study begins by examining the explosive increase in domestic demand for motor vehicles, its determining factors, and its main implications, especially the achievement of efficient scales of production and the initiation of a wave of investments which has been further intensified in the last three years. It goes on to study the increase in the technological dynamism…
Processes of adjustment and restructuring of the production sectors to a new system of macroeconomic incentives are slow, costly and more inefficient than conventional microeconomic theory would lead one to suppose. In this article, the authors explore the process of the restructuring of production of a Chilean metal products and machinery company and the way it gradually modified its operations from the 1970s onwards, adapting them to new macroeconomic and mesoeconomic signals. As is well known, in the last two decades the system off incentives and the regulatory framework for production acti…
The generation dynamic competitive advantages in Latin America and the Caribbean cannot be assumed to result automatically from the achievement of the necessary macroeconomic stability and the incorporation of part of the system of production into some dynamic segments (or niches); of the international economy. Recent empirical information on local economic development initiatives in the developed countries indicates that macroeconomic adjustment policies must be accompanied by other specific policies at the microeconomic and mesoeconomic levels. These policies must incorporate the various loc…
Resumen
En Chile se han realizado profundos cambios en la institucionalidad pública desde la década de los ochenta. Sin embargo, y a partir de 1990 se ha dado un importante estímulo a la descentralización en la toma de decisiones gubernamentales.
En 1993 se promulgó la Ley sobre Gobierno y Administración Regional con lo que se establece una institucionalidad intermedia entre el Gobierno central y las Municipalidades: los Gobiernos Regionales. Producto de las reformas legales, se han traspasado importantes funciones y atribuciones, sin embargo se reclama por la escasez de recursos asociada a es…
Resumen A pesar de que el nivel regional se ha desarrollado de manera importante durante la década de los 90, se observa una baja participación del gasto regional dentro del gasto público total. La dependencia de los gobiernos regionales de transferencias externas, sean condicionadas o no, impone un énfasis en la desconcentración más que en la descentralización fiscal. Las funciones de estos, se ha restringido a la de asignar recursos de inversión pública relacionados a servicios básicos, e incluso ésta tiene una baja cobertura regional. Existen carencias importantes, que son necesario redu…
The present and subsequent editions of the Bulletin will deal with the issue of road maintenance, its close connection with transport costs and its impact upon the international competitiveness of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. When roads are in poor condition, vehicle operating costs increase by 30 to 50% or even more. Autonomous, adequate and regular funding contributes to effective road maintenance and, consequently, to reducing vehicle operating costs.…
La presente y subsiguiente ediciones del Boletín abordan el tema de la conservación vial, su estrecha relación con los costos de transporte y su impacto en la competitividad internacional de los países de América Latina y el Caribe. Cuando los caminos se presentan en mal estado, los costos operacionales de los vehículos se incrementan entre un 30% y un 50% o incluso más. Un financiamiento autónomo, suficiente y estable contribuiría a una conservación vial efectiva y, por ende, a la reducción de los costos operacionales de los vehículos.…
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