Revista de la CEPAL no.66

Foreign Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 1998

This study approaches foreign direct investment (FDI) in Latin America and the Caribbean from a new perspective by analysing the strategies of transitional corporations in an attempt to overcome the limitations of official FDI statistics (whether from destination countries or the main investor countries). This is achieved through a study of the information obtained from research programmes of the Unit on Investment and Corporate Strategies and from information obtained from secondary sources, mainly from specialized financial journals. This approach affords a better understanding of the nature…

La Inversión Extranjera en América Latina y el Caribe 1998

En el presente documento se aplica un nuevo enfoque para interpretar la inversión extranjera directa (IED) en América Latina y el Caribe, con el que se intenta superar las limitaciones de las estadísticas oficiales sobre las corrientes de IED (tanto de las economías receptoras como de los principales países inversionistas) a través del análisis de las estrategias de las empresas transnacionales. Esto se logra sobre la base del examen de los antecedentes obtenidos de programas de investigación de la Unidad de Inversiones y Estrategias Empresariales y de fuentes secundarias, sobre todo de la pre…

Uruguay en el MERCOSUR: perspectivas del comercio intrarregional

Carta Circular de la Red de Cooperación en la Gestión Integral de Recursos Hídricos para el Desarrollo Sustentable en América Latina y el Caribe N° 9

The Cuban economy

At the end of the 1950s, Cuba's economic structure was marked by serious technological lags and insufficient industrial development. The growth rates of production and investment were low, while income distribution displayed a notable bias towards concentration. Over the period from 1959 to 1989, the product grew at an average rate of around 4% per year and economic policy gave the State a leading role in the production of goods and services, with a marked predominance of planning over the market mechanisms in the regulation of economic activity. In this stage, the economy underwent far-r…

Determinants of inequality among urban households

This article summarizes the results of an analysis of the long-term factors affecting income distribution in five countries of the region (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico);, on the basis of household surveys made in those countries between 1979 and 1992. After a brief introduction (section I);, the article describes the methodology applied (section II); and then details the main findings (section III);. These include in particular the lower labour remuneration received by the first income deciles, associated among other things with inequalities in the educational levels attained.…

Health management contracts in Costa Rica from a comparative perspective

This article analyses the recent establishment of quasi-markets in the field of public health in Costa Rica through the internal separation of the functions of collection of contributions, financing, purchasing and the provision of services in the Costa Rican Social Security Fund; the application of a new financing model; and the introduction of management contracts with hospitals and health areas as a key instrument for allocating and transferring resources as a function of performance and fulfilment of goals. The context and bases of the management reform are examined, and a description is g…

A development strategy founded on natural resource-based production clusters

This article contends that the rapid development of Latin America and the Caribbean --a region rich in natural resources-- will depend on how fast it learns to industrialize and process its natural resources and to develop the necessary input suppliers, engineering services and equipment for this. Consequently, this will not be a form of development based on the mere extraction of natural resources, as at present, but rather one based on the processing of such resources and the development of the activities that naturally tend to spring up and concentrate around this base (production complexes…

Big Latin American industrial companies and groups

This article seeks to summarize the results of some studies on the structure and dynamics of the big domestically owned industrial companies and groups in five Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico); and presents supplementary elements for placing them in an overall perspective. The studies include individual analyses of 46 leading companies (in Brazil, Chile and Colombia); and 15 economic groups with an industrial base (in Brazil and Mexico);, together with aggregated studies of such groups in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. In all cases, the studies were based…

Tariffs and the Plano Real in Brazil

This article analyses the economic rationale of Brazil's tariff policy during the first two years of the Plano Real. To this end, a study is made of the changes made in import duties for all the products traded. The tariff reform process in Brazil was begun in 1988, after the old Tariff Act had been in effect for thirty years, and represented a marked intensification in the process of trade openness, with the definition of a schedule of gradually decreasing tariffs which was further speeded up as from 1990. The Plano Real began in July 1994 and had many effects on import policy. The trade…

El uso de variables sintomáticas en la actualización de población de áreas menores

Entre el control político y la eficiencia: evolución de los derechos de propiedad agraria en México

Directorio de organismos nacionales a cargo de las políticas y programas para las mujeres de América Latina y el Caribe = Directory of national organizations dealing with programmes and policies on women in Latin America and the Caribbean

Introduction Since the first version issued in 1997, the Directory of national organizations dealing with programmes and policies on women in Latin America and the Caribbean (LC/L.1065); lists national authorities for the advancement of women and gender equity, specific programmes organized by ministries of foreign affairs and other official bodies responsible for women's issues at the sectoral level in each member State and associate members of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC);. For the purposes of this update, countries were once again requested to pr…

Directorio de organismos nacionales a cargo de las políticas y programas para las mujeres de América Latina y el Caribe = Directory of national organizations dealing with programmes and policies on women in Latin America and the Caribbean

Introduction Since the first version issued in 1997, the Directory of national organizations dealing with programmes and policies on women in Latin America and the Caribbean (LC/L.1065); lists national authorities for the advancement of women and gender equity, specific programmes organized by ministries of foreign affairs and other official bodies responsible for women's issues at the sectoral level in each member State and associate members of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC);. For the purposes of this update, countries were once again requested to pr…

Institucionalidad de la equidad de género en el Estado: un diagnóstico para América Latina = The institutionality of gender equity in the State: a diagnosis for Latin America and the Caribbean

Institucionalidad de la equidad de género en el Estado: un diagnóstico para América Latina = The institutionality of gender equity in the State: a diagnosis for Latin America and the Caribbean

Consultancy study for the development of a strategy for institutionalizing the gender perspective in the substantive work of ECLAC

Determinantes de la inversión en el sector petróleo y gas en la Argentina

Resumen A comienzos de la década de los 90's, el sector petrolero argentino sufrió una profunda transformación, en el marco del proceso de reforma económica que experimentó a nivel global la economía argentina. La desregulación y privatización de la industria petrolera pusieron fin a un período prolongado de gestión estatal en la industria energética, directamente a través de las empresas públicas, e indirectamente a través de controles en las decisiones de precios, producción, comercio exterior, etc.En 1992 fue privatizada Gas del Estado (dividida en 2 empresas de transporte y 8 distribu…

Algunos determinantes de la inversión en sectores de infraestructura en la Argentina

El objetivo del trabajo es: 1) identificar y discutir los temas que afectan el nivel y el patrón de las inversiones de las empresas de servicios públicos regulados, y 2) ilustrar los efectos macroeconómicos y distributivos que estas inversiones tienen sobre otros sectores de la economía y sobre las familias. Para abordar el primer aspecto se elabora un modelo de inversiones en una empresa regulada, poniendo énfasis en la interacción entre modelo regulatorio e incentivos a la eficiencia y capital deseado de largo plazo. Surge así una interacción entre modelo regulatorio (método price-cap o ROR …