Thirty-third Board of Presiding Officers Meeting to be held in Port-of-Spain

Current conditions and outlook: Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2001

Foreword This publication corresponds to the first chapter of the Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2000-2001, and is being published simultaneously in Spanish and English. It provides an assessment of the region's economic performance during the first half of 2001 and of its prospects for the remainder of the year. An analysis is presented of the main aspects of the regional economy -its external sector, macroeconomic policy, levels of economic activity, inflation, employment, saving and investment- together with a statistical appendix containing 14 tables with data s…

Situación y perspectivas: Estudio Económico de América Latina y el Caribe 2001

Este es el primer capítulo del Estudio económico de América Latina y el Caribe 2000-2001, que se divulga por separado. Contiene una evaluación de la economía de la región durante el 2000 y los primeros meses de 2001; incluye así un resumen de los principales aspectos de los capítulos regionales del Estudio económico referentes al sector externo, política macroeconómica, nivel de actividad, inflación, empleo, ahorro e inversión. Va acompañado de un anexo estadístico que contiene 14 cuadros con series de datos por lo menos hasta el 2000. Con la distribución de este documento se procura suplir la…

Dirección del comercio exterior de América Latina, según la Clasificación Central de Productos provisional de las Naciones Unidas

Esta clasificación, tiene como propósito proporcionar un marco de comparación internacional de diversos tipos de estadísticas relacionada con los bienes, los servicios y los activos. Esto significa que puede ser utilizada para elaborar estadísticas relacionada con los bienes, los servicios y los activos. Esto significa que puede ser utilizada para elaborar estadísticas industriales y cuentas nacionales, estadísticas de los precios, estadísticas del comercio exterior (incluido el comercio de servicios) y estadísticas de balanza de pagos. Las estadísticas que se presentan en este Cuadern…

Reformas de gestión en salud en América Latina

Tras un análisis conceptual del término cuasimercados, el artículo aborda cuatro experiencias de reforma de la gestión en salud en tres escenarios con diversa vigencia de los principios de solidaridad y universalidad del modelo de salud. En Chile los cambios se insertan en la reforma previa, la más radical de la región en cuanto a socavar la solidaridad y universalidad del modelo de salud. Se concluye que sería beneficioso consolidar los aspectos netamente de gestión para avanzar hacia el uso de precios administrados, tener información pertinente sobre la calidad y costos de las atenciones y c…

Análisis econométrico de la inversión privada en Brasil

Este artículo analiza los principales factores determinantes de la inversión privada en Brasil durante el período 1956-1996, a través de un modelo empírico utilizado en los estudios más recientes sobre países en desarrollo. Los procedimientos econométricos, además de tomar en cuenta la no estacionariedad de las series de datos que se examinan, consideran las posibles dificultades vinculadas con tratar las variables condicionantes como exógenas o como instrumentos de política. Los resultados muestran, tanto en las ecuaciones de largo plazo como en los modelos de corto plazo, el impacto positivo…

Políticas para pequeñas y medianas empresas en Chile

A partir de 1991 el gobierno de Chile impulsó una nueva estrategia de fomento empresarial. El Programa de Apoyo a la Pequeña y Mediana Empresa define una serie de instrumentos orientados a corregir fallas de mercado y a mejorar la eficiencia, productividad, competitividad e inserción internacional de los productos chilenos de esas empresas. La importancia de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYME); en la economía nacional se refleja en su número y en su participación en la generación de empleo. La experiencia particularmente adversa de las crisis económicas de los años setenta y ochenta y la d…

A new look at the development agenda

This essay summarizes some of the main ideas behind proposals for a new development agenda. It highlights first the need to strike a new balance between the market and the public interest, and to understand by public policies any initiative organized in pursuit of common goals, and not just State actions. The author makes five proposals for a new agenda: i); more balanced globalization with genuine respect for diversity, underpinned by a network of regional institutions; ii); a broad view of macroeconomic stability and the role of countercyclical policies; iii); the use of developm…

Managing in the public sector for investment and growth

This article will focus on the central role played by imperfect or incomplete markets in the spread and perpetuation of recessionary situations. It is a known fact that demand volatility perpetuates such situations, and this can only be mitigated by sustainable economic stimulus policies. Macrofiscal rules, which are important for enhancing the tarnished credibility of State action, need to combine two basic principles: responsibility and stability. This means preserving regulation mechanisms so that excessive macroeconomic fluctuations can be stabilized. The best thing the authorities can do …

Corporate competitiveness in Latin America and the Caribbean

This article looks at the evolution of international competitiveness in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1990s, focusing on the microeconomic and sectoral aspects. It evaluates the competitive performance of the region's countries, contrasting it with that of their main competitors in the developing world; it analyses the corporate actors involved, including the subsidiaries of transnational enterprises and large locally owned firms; and it sets forth some political considerations. Although progress has been made with competitiveness in the region, this has been lar…

The small economies of Latin America and the Caribbean

Population, natural resources and domestic market size have been the traditional components of the equation determining the wealth of nations, according to classical economists. The new lines of research opened up by endogenous growth theories and the results of comparative statistical studies into the factors determining this growth have reawakened interest in the relationships between scale effects, market size and the role of international trade in the economic growth of small economies. At a time of ever-increasing globalization, these economies are being confronted with a number of challe…

The WTO entry of China and its impact on the countries of the Caribbean Basin

The entry of China into the World Trade Organization, if it takes place, will unquestionably have a major impact on many nations. What is focused on here is the impact it would have on trade between the United States and the countries of the Caribbean Basin. The problems caused to the latter by Mexican membership of the North American Free Trade Agreement could be exacerbated by the shift of forces that would result from this new situation. The major expansion of textile and clothing exports from China to the United States that is in prospect would intensify the competition faced by the countr…

Reflections on development financing

This article sets forth some reflections on the position of the region's countries and the different segments of their domestic financial structures in the international financial system. In the light of the financial globalization taking place in Latin America, it considers the circumstances of the largest countries in the region, looking beyond the stylized arguments of conventional wisdom to analyse different factors influencing the financial situation: sovereignty risk, financial globalization, the degree of financial integration, the cost of capital and the burden of country risk pre…

The banking supervision agenda in Latin America

The banking sector reforms that the countries of Latin America undertook in the 1990s were an important step forward, but proved insufficient. Although it is true that the region as a whole progressed significantly, particularly in reducing the role of the State, and that market mechanisms and the regulatory framework in which banking institutions operated were improved, while at the same time the presence of foreign operators increased, it is no less true that most of the Latin American countries continued to experience systemic crises or severe banking instability. This shows that there are …

Reforming health-care management in Latin America

Following a conceptual analysis of the term quasi-market , this article will look at four national efforts to reform health-care management in what can be regarded, in respect of the degree of solidarity and universality applied, as three different health-care models. The changes in Chile are a continuation of the country's previous reform, which went further than any other in the region in undermining the solidarity and universality of the health-care model. The conclusion is that it would be beneficial to consolidate purely managerial aspects so that progress can be made with…

An econometric analysis of private-sector investment in Brazil

This article analyses the main determinants of private-sector investment in Brazil during the period 1956-1996, using an empirical model employed in the most recent studies on developing countries. The econometric procedures followed not only take into account the non-stationarity of the data series examined, but allow for the possible difficulties involved in treating the conditioning variables as exogenous ones or as policy instruments. The findings -both the long-term equations and the short-term models- reveal the positive impact of the output, public investment and financial credit variab…

Policies for small and medium-sized enterprises in Chile

In 1991, the Government of Chile began to pursue a new business development strategy. The Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Support Programme (Programa de Apoyo a la Pequeña y Mediana Empresa); provides for a number of instruments to correct market failures and improve the efficiency, productivity, competitiveness and international trading position of Chilean products made by these firms. The importance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); in the national economy is illustrated by their number and by the share of jobs they create. The particularly adverse experience of the economic cr…

CEPAL Review no.74

Revista de la CEPAL no.74

La gestión pública orientada a la inversión y al crecimiento

En este artículo se pone de relieve el papel central que desempeñan mercados imperfectos o incompletos en la propagación y persistencia de las situaciones recesivas. La persistencia generada por la volatilidad de la demanda es un hecho cierto que sólo puede ser atenuado por políticas sostenibles de estímulo al nivel de actividad. Las reglas macrofiscales, importantes para mejorar la mermada credibilidad de la acción pública, deben combinar dos principios fundamentales: la responsabilidad y la estabilidad. Esto supone preservar los mecanismos de regulación para estabilizar fluctuaciones macroec…