This article examines commercial bank lending strategies for micro-enterprises and
small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in Mexico, and the factors that promote
or hinder lending in this segment. With this in mind, in 2011 a detailed survey was
conducted of commercial banks operating in Mexico. Although credit to microenterprises
and smes still represents a small share of the loan portfolio, the survey
results point to growing interest in broadening it. Three different business models
were identified, with major differences in strategies for offering financial services to
this segment of en…
The eclac-Climate Impacts Assessment Model (CIAM) is a modelling platform that
has been created to assess the economic consequences of climate change in the
Caribbean. The model can be freely accessed, downloaded and even modified.
The version available is a full-fledged model which can readily be used to conduct
simulation exercises. This paper provides a general description of the model and
an illustrative simulation exercise. Our results from this exercise highlight the fact
that the Caribbean is a highly vulnerable region where climate change is expected
to generate sizeable and negative e…
This article presents the main results of the Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA) for Costa Rica in 2009 and then goes on to analyse the gap
between the scores of students attending private schools and those attending public
schools. However, the estimation of an education production function using these
data shows that this gap is not entirely attributable to whether schools are public
or private, but that instead the students' family environment, personal traits and, in
particular, the student's grade level at the time that the PISA test was taken are all
quite in…
This article explores the connection between labour market segregation and
motherhood wage penalties in Argentina across the formal and informal sectors. It
uses ordinary least square and quantile regression estimation strategies and deploys
Blinder-Oaxaca and Ñopo decompositions to identify sources of wage differences.
The finding is that there is strong evidence of labour market segmentation and that
motherhood wage penalties differ substantively across the sectors and between
different wage quantiles. In particular, formal-sector working mothers do not
experience wage penalties, while infor…
Working from home is an option that differs from other forms of employment. This
type of employment is driven not only by globalization and outsourcing, but also by
unequal gender relationships within the home. Two multi-logistic regressions were
used to determine how the distribution of in-home working arrangements differs by
sex and by male/female age range, level of education, marital status and degree of
urbanization of the place of residence. The results suggest that these characteristics
have a differential influence on men's and women's employment decisions. The
results also i…
Regional and productive inequality may stem from the agricultural modernization
process, in which some agents are able to incorporate and absorb technological
content, while others are excluded, not only from the innovative organizational
environment, but also from learning processes and the dissemination of new
production techniques and knowledge. This paper analyses family farming, by
making comparisons in regional terms and by groups of producers using high,
medium and low technology. It also calculates the productive inequality index (Gini
coefficient of gross income) of the north, north-e…
No pricing system is likely to be able to do away with congestion in port cargo
transfer operations at peak times, since port use is determined not so much by
seasonal factors as, first and foremost, by the simultaneous arrival of vessels, which
results in rationing. This article shows that rationing, to be efficient, needs to go by
the value of the cargo transferred rather than following a first-come-first-served rule.
It demonstrates that efficient rationing gives priority to containerized cargo, followed
by break bulk cargo, with bulk cargo in last place. These findings are applied to
cargo…
This article analyses the performance of transnational corporations in Chilean
manufacturing industry. The findings show that while the productivity of subsidiaries
of foreign-owned firms is higher than that of local firms, the same is not true of
productivity growth. They also show that there are no significant differences in
market survival rates between transnational corporations and local firms. However,
firms under mainly foreign ownership that are small and have low productivity are
more likely to exit the market, displaying more footloose behaviour than their local
counterparts. This is…
Previous studies about the relationship between the cyclical components of Mexico's
output and unemployment suggest that it closely resembles that found in the
economy of the United States of America. This would indicate that the dynamics
between output and labour markets in the two economies are rather similar. However,
these estimates are puzzling for they do not correspond to a characterization made
to Mexico's labour market. Using a methodology first proposed by Clark (1989),
we find that the correlation between the transitory components of output and
unemployment is much lower t…
This article presents and discusses empirical evidence on external technology
absorption facilitated by activities performed inside firms. Indicators of internal
and external learning are developed and applied in statistical causality models, to
distinguish possible ways in which technology can be absorbed. Industrial activity
sectors at the three-digit level of the National Classification of Economic Activities
(NACE) are the basic reference units of the research, which uses the information
generated by Brazil's Survey of Technological Innovation (PINTEC). The results show
that in-house …
El comercio internacional es un componente fundamental de la globalización y del proceso de desarrollo económico en el cual se inserta América Latina y el Caribe. Este proceso lleva concomitante también, un proceso de financiamiento cuyas características son importantes de comprender y que constituyen el foco de este documento, orientado desde la perspectiva del desarrollo de América Latina.
Los patrones de comercio internacional han cambiado en el tiempo, con consecuencias de distinto orden. La primera ola de globalización, desde mediados del siglo XIX hasta 1913, se caracterizó por un fuerte…
En esta edición de 2013 del Panorama Social de América Latina se presentan las mediciones oficiales de la CEPAL respecto del análisis de la pobreza por ingresos y se procura ofrecer enfoques novedosos sobre pobreza y bienestar, poniendo especial énfasis en enfoques multidimensionales, de carácter exploratorio. Cabe aclarar que estos análisis, justamente por ser exploratorios, no son exhaustivos. El criterio para su incorporación responde a la certeza de que, tanto en el ámbito de la política social y de la evaluación del desarrollo social como de las nuevas demandas ciudadanas, emerge la neces…
Based on a model of the broadband ecosystem developed by the authors in their 2010 book, Fast-tracking the digital revolution: Broadband for Latin America and the Caribbean, they now analyse the evolution of this technology in Latin America, assess the economic impacts of its diffusion, propose public policies for its expansion and debate the future of the ecosystem.
The policy analyses and proposals presented in the book focus on national programmes to foster universal broadband access and the debate on Internet neutrality. The study of the current trends highlights the progress of cloud comp…
The 2013 edition of Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Economy is subtitled “A sluggish postcrisis, mega trade negotiations and value chains: scope for regional action” and is made up of three chapters. Chapter 1 reviews the main features of the persistently weak global economy and lacklustre world trade and then turns to global and regional trade trends and prospects. Chapter II considers the main changes in the organization of production and global trade associated with international production networks, which are at the heart of the current mega-regional negotiations. It goes on t…
En esta publicación se examina la forma en que la financiación de la deuda externa ha evolucionado en las últimas tres décadas. Se remonta 30 años y se analiza la trayectoria de la región de América Latina y el Caribe desde la singular perspectiva del acceso a los mercados financieros internacionales. Como el título indica, esta trayectoria ha sido una montaña rusa, con muchos altibajos, y momentos de angustia y pánico.
Los acontecimientos de las últimas tres décadas, tal como se describen en este libro, indican que un acceso más amplio y más barato a los mercados internacionales de capital pu…
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