Aunque la mayoría de la población total y de la población
pobre en América Latina y el Caribe se encuentra en los centros
urbanos, en términos relativos la pobreza sigue siendo un
fenómeno rural en la región. La incidencia de la pobreza y de
la pobreza extrema es mucho mayor en las zonas rurales que
en las urbanas. Sin ir más allá, en 1997 más de la mitad de los
hogares rurales vivía en la pobreza y cerca de un tercio en
situación de pobreza extrema. Además, la difícil situación económica
de la mayoría de los países de la región en los últimos
dos años seguramente ha deteriorado esas cifras. A…
En términos de equidad de oportunidades educativas, la región
muestra grandes problemas y lo mismo se comprueba respecto
de El Salvador. El análisis de la inequidad educativa en el país
se inicia con una descripción general de las líneas de acción
fundamentales propuestas por la reforma educativa. Luego se
aborda el estudio de las diferencias en el acceso a la educación,
la transmisión intergeneracional de las oportunidades
educativas y las disparidades en la calidad de la educación. Se
señala que la educación tiene una función instrumental
reproductora del orden económico, pero que también ti…
The episodes of great financial volatility and wide fluctuations in the level of activity of a number of economies have heightened the debate on how major macroeconomic fluctuations are generated and spread. Although it is acknowledged that much can be learned from the study of specific cases, in the literature decisions are often presented as though the agents adopting them were fully aware of all the relevant probability distributions. It is desirable, however, that in analysing these phenomena it should be recognized that both the economic agents and policy-makers are acting in variable con…
In this article, indicators of fiscal discretionality are estimated using a simple methodology, and in this way the cyclical component of the public accounts balance (i.e., the amounts of income and expenditure associated with transitory movements of the level of activity); is identified for a number of Latin American countries in the 1990s. The difference gives a measure of the discretional balance, which represents a medium-term indicator of the state of the public accounts. Budgetary rules which take account of these mechanisms not only ensure sustainability over time but also reduce the cy…
There is a marked contrast between the growing sense of insecurity among the population and the absence of consolidated statistics that would allow the phenomenon to be measured more objectively. This article seeks to make a contribution to the knowledge of the situation of citizen insecurity affecting the region, taking a comparative view based on the limited and not always reliable information available and looking at the problem from various standpoints, both social and economic. The authors begin by examining some manifestations of criminal violence in the 1990s, especially in urban areas,…
This article analyses the process whereby domestic violence in Chile became a subject of open discussion and a public issue included in the institutional agenda of the Executive and the Legislature, giving rise to preventive programmes against such violence and public services for aiding its victims, together with the adoption of a law against intra-family violence in 1994. The analysis highlights the dynamic and complex nature of the process, whose course and results were not and could not be determined a priori. Public issues do not exist in their own right, as purely objective phenomena, bu…
Although most of the total population and the majority of the people living in poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean are in urban centres, poverty is, in relative terms, still a rural phenomenon in the region. The incidence of poverty and of extreme poverty is much larger in rural areas than in urban settings. As recently as 1997, more than half of all rural households were living in poverty, and close to a third of them were in extreme poverty conditions. Moreover, the fragile economic situation of most countries in the region during the past two years may well have worsened those figure…
In terms of equity of educational opportunities, the region displays great problems, and El Salvador is no exception to this. The analysis given here of the shortcomings in respect of equity of education in that country begins with a general description of the fundamental lines of action proposed in the educational reform process. A study is then made of the differences in access to education, the intergenerational transmission of educational opportunities, and disparities in the quality of education. It is noted that education has an instrumental function -economic reproduction- but it also h…
Resumen Hoy, en América Latina, la planificación aparece como más necesaria pero menos dotada política, técnica e institucionalmente para superar los retos del momento. Los retos -internos y externos- exigen avanzar en la construcción de un balance dinámico entre eficiencia, equidad y democracia, tarea que si bien demanda una elevada capacidad técnica, es fundamentalmente política: la de poner en perspectiva los diversos intereses particulares, y articularlos dentro del proceso más general y de largo alcance del desarrollo de la sociedad en su conjunto.Una visión estratégica exige la definició…
Resumo As instituições fiscais do Brasil passaram por profundas reformas ao longo das duas últimas décadas. Essas reformas tiveram por objetivo unificar e universalizar o controle e tornar mais visível para a sociedade a atuação do governo na gestão dos recursos públicos. A despeito dos inegáveis avanços obtidos persistem algumas disfunções que impedem a consolidação do equilíbrio das finanças públicas em bases permanentes. O presente texto tem por finalidade analisar os principais avanços verificados no período 1979-97, identificar as causas que dificultam — depois de quase vinte anos de refo…
Resumen Las reglas se definen como restricciones formales y observables al comportamiento de las autoridades económicas, que deben permanecer por un período prolongado y con cambios no triviales de las circunstancias.En la conducción de las políticas económicas en general, y de las políticas cambiaras, monetarias y fiscales en particular, la imposición de reglas deterministas en un mundo estocástico no puede más que introducir rigideces innecesarias. En cambio, la discrecionalidad dentro de normas, que se propone la aplicación de reglas anticíclicas en tiempos normales, pero que pres…
Latin American railway privatization has achieved significant results, since the situation today is better than if the railways had remained under management and operation by the State. Traffic volumes have generally increased, although with wide variations between individual cases; government subsidies have been cut, and productivity has improved. On the other hand, the privatization of railways in Latin America has not been an unqualified success, because of certain features of the privatization models used and the environment of the transport sector in which the railways have to compete.…
La privatización ferroviaria latinoamericana ha logrado alcances importantes, puesto que la situación resultante es mejor a la que se habría producido bajo la gestión y operación por parte de las administraciones estatales. En general, los volúmenes de tráfico han aumentado, aunque con mucha variación entre casos, las subvenciones gubernamentales han disminuido y los índices de productividad se han elevado. Sin embargo, la privatización ferroviaria en América Latina no ha constituido un éxito total, debido a determinadas características de los modelos de privatización adoptados y al entorn…
Presentación
Los jóvenes latinoamericanos tienen por delante un enorme desafío: ser conductores de un proceso de desarrollo económico y social que permita, a la vez, reducir la pobreza y los abismantes índices de desigualdad socioeconómica que atentan contra la estabilidad y la convivencia, promover un crecimiento económico basado en fundamentos sustentables a largo plazo y competitivos en el contexto mundial, y mejorar la calidad de vida en los países de la región.
Se trata, sin duda, de un objetivo difícil de lograr y que, de hecho, ha sido esquivo para las generaciones anteriores. Sin embar…
Background
The mandate for gender mainstreaming underpins the comprehensive provisions of the Beijing Platform for Action which itself finds continuity with the concern for the development of institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women contained in the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies.
Governments in the Caribbean have attempted in various ways to advance gender equity not only through substantive policy but also through administrative reform. In these attempts, governments have both made progress and confronted conceptual and operational difficulties. The United Nations
mid-term r…
United Nations