Globalization and liberalization: the impact on developing countries

Summary This paper analyzes the impact of globalization on developing countries over the last several decades. The first section examines the components and mechanisms of globalization. The second turns to financial globalization –considered to be the most important aspect of a multifaceted process– and looks in more detail at the changing trends in finance for developing countries. The third analyzes the impact of the new pattern of finance in terms of growth, equity, and government autonomy. The concluding section offers policy recommendations for making globalization a more positiv…

Financial regulation and supervision in emerging markets: the experience of Latin America since the Tequila crisis

Abstract   The financial crisis of 1994-1995 sounded a wake-up call to Latin America, indicating that regulation and supervision needed to be strengthened substantially. Since then, important steps have been taken to set rules and ensure their implementation, but financial regulation and supervision do not take place in a vacuum. On the one hand, they must be consistent with domestic macroeconomic policies, and they need a supportive macroeconomic environment in which to operate. On the other hand, they have to take into account the new international rules being proposed by multilate…

Long run economic development in Latin America in a comparative perspective: proximate and ultimate causes

Abstract   This paper describes trends in economic growth and its causes in several Latin American countries in the 20th century. In the explanatory scheme, a distinction is made between 'proximate' and 'ultimate' causes of economic growth. Proximate causes are those areas of causality where models and quantification is possible, whereas ultimate causes are much more difficult to quantify. Some elements in the realm of the ultimate causes (like institutions and income distribution) will be analysed in an historical perspective and others, especially total factor p…

The evolution of world income inequality: assessing the impact of globalization

Abstract In the last two centuries (1800-2000) the world has seen an unprecedented increase in the capacity to create material wealth and undergo technical change. At the same time, this is also a period of large disparities in income per head, living standards across (and within) countries and regions of the world. Large inequalities can eventually undermine global integration and social stability thus hampering long run growth prospects and the legitimacy of globalization. Global inequalities reflect both inequalities across nations, driven mainly by divergences in economic per…

Dinámica de valorización del suelo en el área metropolitana del Gran Santiago y desafíos del financiamiento urbano

A fines del siglo XX, América Latina es la región más urbanizada del mundo en desarrollo, estimándose que alrededor del 20% de su población urbana reside en áreas metropolitanas superiores a los 5 millones de habitantes. La cuestión del suelo urbano y sus repercusiones sobre el desarrollo de las ciudades fueron tópicos centrales de las dos Conferencias de Naciones Unidas sobre Asentamientos Humanos, la de Vancouver en 1976 y la de Estambul en 1996. El Plan de Acción Regional de América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL, 1996); plantea en esta materia desafíos de mejorar la eficiencia del uso del suelo…

Evolución del comercio y de las inversiones extranjeras en industrias ambientalmente sensibles: Comunidad Andina, MERCOSUR y Chile, 1990-1999

Este informe analiza la evolución de las corrientes comerciales y de la inversión extranjera directa en los países que conforman la Comunidad Andina, el Mercosur y Chile durante los años noventa, en función de las principales características ambientales que las componen. El objetivo es lograr aproximaciones que den cuenta del posible impacto ambiental de las transformaciones que ocurrieron en el perfil exportador de los países y subgrupos, con el fin de dar elementos de repuesta a varias interrogantes: ¿están los países en un rumbo de especialización exportadora ambientalmente adecuada o se tr…

Summary of "Report of Ad-Hoc Expert Group Meeting to consider recent Implementation Exercises of the General Data Dissemination System of the IMF

Trade, environment and development: implications for Caribbean countries

Introduction Trade and development issues have been the focus of economists, policy makers and international organizations for decades. However, environmental concerns have only come to the fore within the last couple of decades largely as a result of the work of scientists on, for example, climate change and loss in biodiversity as well as the lobbying activities of environmental groups, such as Greenpeace. The linking of environment to trade only gained international prominence since the negotiations for the Canada-United States Free Trade Area in the 1980s. However, although enviro…

The impact of privatisation on the banking sector in the Caribbean

Introduction With the failure of the import-substituting industrialisation policies of the post-war period, Caribbean countries shifted to an export-promotion strategy in the 1980s. Export promotion inevitably demanded a shifting of the relative price and productivity of tradable goods and services. To provide the necessary incentives for export promotion, countries pursued a mixture of reforms and restructuring to attract investment and to promote the competitiveness of production and exchange. The period also coincided with a shift in the development paradigm of the developed countri…

Application of the concepts of agro-tourism, agricultural diversification and food and nutrition for the development of Caribbean communities with reference to standards and priority setting

Introduction There is a renewed call for a new approach to development with emphasis on community empowerment or participation, with the belief that more sustainable activities will be undertaken in those communities. Much of that call, however, is coming not from within the communities, but primarily from advocates of change who may have little to do with those communities. What then will the new approach bring apart from a change in who are the decision-makers? And how do we ensure that the change that is called for will, in fact, bring added benefits to the communities themselves? To be sur…

Trade and investment flows between the Caribbean and the rest of the hemisphere in the context of the FTAA

Introduction The evolution of trade and investment flows between the Caribbean and the rest of the western hemisphere has been influenced by historical incorporation into the world economy and changes over time. The most important historical factor was the incorporation of the region into the international capitalist economy as producers and exporters of primary products and importers of technology, manufactured goods and finance. This pattern of specialisation and exchange led to exports of primary goods such as sugar,bananas and minerals (oil and bauxite);. Investment flows followed trade an…

Establishing social statistical databases for evidenced-based social policy formulation in the Caribbean

Abstract The paper presents the challenges and lessons learnt from the Project Development of Social Statistical Databases and the Methodological Approaches for a Social Vulnerability Index (SVI); for Small Island Developing States' (NET/00/035);, which was undertaken by the Social Development Unit of the ECLAC/CDCC secretariat. The Project aims to make available to social planners and decision makers in the Caribbean, a body of social statistics comprised of data sets being generated by national central statistical offices of the ECLAC/CDCC member States. The paper situates the Pro…

Istmo Centroamericano: informe sobre abastecimiento de hidrocarburos, 2000

Presentación En virtud del convenio entre la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) y la República Federal de Alemania (a través de la agencia de cooperación GTZ), destinado para el subsector de hidrocarburos de América Central, la Unidad de Energía de la Sede Subregional de la CEPAL en México ha venido publicando informes anuales sobre el abastecimiento de hidrocarburos en el Istmo Centroamericano. Dentro de esta cooperación conviene mencionar que en el año 1998 finalizó la VI fase del proyecto para el mejoramiento del abastecimiento de hidrocarburos para la región, pero d…

Las tendencias principales del comercio, la política comercial y los acuerdos de integración de los países de la Asociación de Estados del Caribe (AEC)

Resumen Este documento es una versión abreviada y editada de otro más extenso que fué preparado a solicitud de la Secretaría de la Asociación de Estados del Caribe (AEC); para ser presentado a la IV Reunión Ordinaria del Consejo de Ministros de la Asociación, realizada el 11 y 12 de diciembre del año 2001 en la isla Margarita, Venezuela. Colaboraron en su elaboración los siguientes funcionarios de la División de Comercio Internacional e Integración de la Sede de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL); en Santiago: Carla Macario, Jaime Contador, Verónica Silva y José Durá…

La liberalización del sector de servicios: el caso del Tratado Unión Europea

Resumen Las medidas orientadas hacia el comercio de servicios del Acuerdo entre la Unión Europea (UE) y México se inscriben dentro del proceso de liberalización más amplio, el cual ha empezado formalmente a partir de 1995, con la entrada en vigor del Acuerdo General sobre el Comercio de Servicios (AGCS), después de casi una década de estudios y negociaciones bajo los auspicios del (GATT). El tema de los servicios pasó a ser parte de las negociaciones en la mayoría de los Acuerdos de Libre Comercio que entraron en vigor a partir de mediados de los noventa. Un ejemplo de ellos es el Tratado de L…

Reformas pensionales y costos fiscales en Colombia

Resumen Colombia realizó en 1993 una reforma de todo su Sistema de Seguridad Social: pensiones (invalidez, vejez y muerte);, salud, y protección contra riesgos profesionales. Se abrió la administración del aseguramiento, la inversión del ahorro, la prevención y la provisión de servicios médicos a firmas privadas así como a entidades públicas, para promover la competencia y mejorar los servicios, bajo regulación y con garantías estatales. En este documento se trata solamente el sistema ordinario de pensiones 1 , describiendo en primer lugar los principales aspectos de la reforma propuesta por e…

Debt for nature: a swap whose time has gone?

Abstract This paper purports to review the performance of the Debt for Nature Swap (DNS) Programs in light of their dual objectives of lowering deforestation rates as well as the cost of debt servicing. It evaluates the performance of private and Public DNS and inquires whether such swaps have made any significant dent on the debt and deforestation problems besetting many developing countries. It also assesses the prospects for such swaps in the future. We argue that since the prospects for DNS are limited, a more conducive solution for the deforestation problem in many developing countries ma…

Regional interdependencies and macroeconomic crises: notes on MERCOSUR

Abstract In the relatively short history of Mercosur, the countries of the region have gone through wide macroeconomic fluctuations. Macroeconomic turbulence is not a novelty for Argentina, Brazil and their partners, but it has shown different features in recent years, particularly concerning the strength and nature of regional spillovers. Despite the asymmetries in size among the economies of the area and the low starting levels of trade, the rapid growth of intra-regional commerce until the last few years, and the feeling that there was a 'mercosur component' in the intern…

La formación de un cluster en torno al turismo de naturaleza sustentable en Bonito, Brasil

Resumen En la sierra de Bodoquena, en Mato Grosso do Sul, se ha dado durante la década de 1990 un auge del ecoturismo de tal magnitud que ha transformado radicalmente a la economía y sociedad local. El presente estudio mide la importancia económica del ecoturismo en particular en el municipio deBonito, describe las transformaciones económicas y sociales experimentadas en el lugar en la última década y analiza las políticas públicas locales que han sido instrumentales en el auge del ecoturismo. El documento finaliza con una mirada prospectiva de los desafíos presentes en la situación socioeconó…

El turismo rural en Chile: experiencias de agroturismo en las regiones del Maule, la Araucanía y Los Lagos

Resumen El turismo rural y sus encadenamientos hacia los proveedores de insumos y servicios ha surgido en varios foros como propuesta para diversificar la economía rural y crear empleos e ingresos adicionales. En efecto, las experiencias de turismo rural y agroturismo en Chile han tenido, por lo general, un efecto positivo en los ingresos de las personas que ofrecen sus servicios (alojamiento, merienda, venta de artesanías, música y presentaciones folclóricas, transporte, guía, etc.).Sin lugar a dudas, la actividad tiene un futuro prometedor porque existe un creciente interés de la población…