El proceso de privatizaciones que tuvo lugar en Argentina a lo largo de la década de los noventa constituyó una herramienta a través de la cual se pretendió lograr un amplio abanico de objetivos. Muchos de ellos resultaban conflictivos entre sí y con el paso del tiempo fue cambiando su ponderación. Este derrotero estuvo influido, aunque no completamente determinado por las condiciones prevalecientes en cada caso, a la hora de definir la transferencia de activos a los nuevos operadores. Las privatizaciones que se realizaron con predominio de motivaciones fiscales y de prestigio dieron lugar en …
Prólogo En la reciente Cumbre Mundial sobre el Desarrollo Sostenible, celebrada en Johannesburgo, Sudáfrica, del 26 de agosto al 4 de septiembre de 2002, así como en los debates que tuvieron lugar durante todo el proceso preparatorio, uno de los temas centrales fue la definición y el consenso en torno a metas concretas, cuantitativas y con plazos establecidos, adicionales a las Metas de Desarrollo del Milenio, para avanzar más eficazmente en la transición hacia el desarrollo sostenible. En dicha Cumb…
Foreword Throughout the preparatory process for the World Summit on Sustainable Development and at the Summit itself, which was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002, discussions were dominated by one central concern: the need to define and reach consensus on concrete, quantitative goals, with fixed deadlines for implementation, which were to supplement the Millennium Development Goals and facilitate progress towards an effective transition to sustainable development. P…
Abstract If there is a geographical area that will be particularly affected by the tragedy of September 11, that will be the international borders of the United States. It is understandable that a country that enters in a state of war after been attacked with enormous losses, reacts by closing its international borders. Such immediate reaction has now been substituted by a more strict control over everything that crosses the border but, a fact remains, the border life is not going to be what it used to before September 11. In the short run, everything that crosses the border has slowed down by…
Resumen Las alternativas de política para fortalecer el ahorro de los estratos de menores ingresos se analizan en este documento, sobre la base de casos registrados en seis países: Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Perú y Uruguay. En la introducción se hace referencia al ahorro interno como fuente de crecimiento de la economía y a la acumulación de activos por parte de las personas de menores ingresos como mecanismo para reducir la pobreza y disminuir la desigualdad intergeneracional de ingresos. Luego, en el segundo capítulo, se examinan los factores que explican el ahorro …
Resumen En este trabajo se parte de la siguiente hipótesis central que plantea un desafío: hay un cambio estructural, tanto en la economía internacional como en el manejo de las políticas públicas, lo que determina, a su vez, un cambio en el funcionamiento económico y en los efectos sobre el empleo, la pobreza y la equidad. Esto origina una mayor inseguridad e incertidumbre y genera tensiones en las personas, las familias y la sociedad en su conjunto. El desafío es cómo enfrentar esta realidad cuando las políticas públicas se encuentran en la encrucijada entre la forma de funcionamien…
Abstract This paper uses a political economy approach to examine the nature and social impact of Ireland's economic 'miracle', namely the period of high economic growth known as the 'Celtic Tiger', which lasted from 1995 until 2000. Its principal purpose is to offer a broad and multifaceted reading of this period of Irish development, paying particular attention to the links between macroeconomic success and social vulnerability, in order to draw policy lessons for Latin America. The examination of the Celtic Tiger is prefaced by a brief introduction to some of the sa…
There was a time when tram services were critical to public transport in many of the largest cities of Latin America; however, trams disappeared about fifty years ago, for a number of reasons. They are back now, especially in the cities of the more developed world, in a modern version usually known as light rail transit. Latin America has developed its own concept of urban mass transit, namely, high-capacity buses operating in special lanes as an integral component of the overall mass transit system. As a general rule, this Latin American solution seems to be the best suited to the needs of …
Una vez, el transporte público en casi todas las principales ciudades de América Latina dependía críticamente de servicios de tranvía, los que se extinguieron hace unos cincuenta años, por una serie de razones. Ahora, especialmente en las ciudades del mundo más desarrollado, regresa el tranvía, en una versión moderna, conocida generalmente como light rail transit. Sin embargo, en América Latina se ha desarrollado un concepto autóctono de servicio urbano de transporte masivo de pasajeros, en la forma de buses de alta capacidad que transitan por vías exclusivas, de una manera integrada con el r…
Durante los años noventa, Argentina implementó un programa de estabilización económica basado en una convertibilidad fija de la moneda doméstica con el dólar que contuvo, además, reformas macroeconómicas, estructurales y regulatorias (apertura de la economía, privatizaciones, desregulación de los mercados, facilitación de flujos financieros internacionales, etc.). Este proceso ha modificado de manera sustantiva el balance regional del país incrementando la brecha de desigualdad entre las regiones. Desde el punto de vista fiscal, a medida que las relaciones finan…
A través de este trabajo de investigación se indaga acerca de las perspectivas actuales y potenciales de intervención municipal en el ámbito de la pobreza y del empleo, a nivel local. En la primera sección del documento se plantea una orientación teórica que apunta hacia la generación de una propuesta de análisis e intervención respecto de ese tema, sobre la base de una revisión de distintos enfoques y orientaciones existentes en la literatura y el debate contemporáneos, tales como las teorías de la…
(*);Este documento fue preparado en el Centro de Proyecciones Económicas, bajo la supervisión de Hubert Escaith, Oficial a cargo de la División de Estadística y Proyecciones Económicas de la CEPAL. La coordinación técnica y la realización del estudio estuvo a cargo de André Hofman, Jefe del Centro de Proyecciones Económicas. Gunilla Ryd elaboró el capítulo sobre el marco internacional y André Hofman preparó el capítulo sobre el desempeño reciente y las perspectivas regionales. Esteban Pérez colaboró en el análisis del Caribe. Participaron en la elaboración del estudio y en la preparación del t…
This paper looks at the evolution of the terms of trade between commodities and manufactures in the twentieth century. A statistical analysis of the relative price series for 24 commodities and eight indices reveals a significant deterioration in their barter terms of trade over the years 1900 to 2000. This decline was not continuous, however, nor was it distributed evenly among individual products. As is shown here, the far-reaching changes that the world economy underwent around 1920 and again around 1980 led to a stepwise deterioration which, over the long term, was reflected in a decline o…
In the national innovation systems of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD);, countries' export performance is considered to be the measure of their international competitiveness. The national specificity of economic performance is shown by the stickiness of each country's export pattern and indicates how much room for manoeuvre there is in each case for economic development policy initiatives. The authors introduce an analysis of the export specialization patterns of the Central American countries. They follow the methodology of innovative Eur…
This article presents the characteristics and situation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in a number of Latin American countries. First of all, it considers the most common definitions used in each country and establishes the number of enterprises in each category, together with their sectoral and regional distribution. It then analyses the influence that the business environment has on the management of enterprises, their problems and the public response, with consideration given to the degree of institutional development in the region and the impact of this on business behaviour.…
A potential threat to the effectiveness of institutions in Latin America promoting small and medium-sized enterprise (SME); development is that these programmes might become clientelistic agencies, advancing interests other than the welfare of the SMEs themselves. As governments in Latin America have adopted more market-oriented policies, however, government institutions in the region that promote SMEs are undergoing a similar transformation. Our hypothesis is that two factors, the extent to which an institution has adopted market-oriented practices and its degree of autonomy (both from govern…
This paper analyses the role assigned to foreign direct investment and transnational corporations in the ECLAC development project, examining the history of the institution and its most representative publications. With impressive continuity in its vision and policy recommendations, ECLAC has recognized the need for foreign investment as an aid for Latin American development, but has been cautious about its consequences. ECLAC has continually called for close scrutiny and regulation of the activities of transnational corporations. The main idea underlying these recommendations is that Latin Am…
The author argues that the effectiveness of poverty alleviation instruments largely depends on how poverty is defined. The aim of reducing absolute poverty chiefly entails a discussion of growth, historically the main factor in this process. If poverty is defined in relative terms, on the other hand, then it is changes in inequality that are the main factor behind variations in its incidence. In any event, the relationship between the two potential sources of poverty reduction is crucial. This article summarizes the growth and distribution implications of growth-oriented policies in the first …
Despite the reforms undertaken by several countries in Latin America, the coverage of the region's pension systems remains inadequate. Underlying that circumstance are both context-sensitive factors and those of a more structural nature, such as the level of relative development, the difficulty of covering certain segments of the labour market, and the way in which the systems and incentives are designed. Given the decisive influence of the structural factors, the expansion of coverage will require the right combination of contributory and non-contributory systems, to which end this artic…