In recent years, a number of countries of the region have gained renewed access to international financial markets, thus passing abruptly from a situation of relative scarcity of external resources to one of abundance. This situation has given rise to considerable pressures on certain key variables of their economies, especially the real exchange rate and interest rates. In previous articles in CEPAL Review, the effects of opening-up of the capital account on monetary, exchange rate and stabilization policies have been analysed. The present article considers the dilemma faced by the economic a…
This article presents a critique of the theory of financial repression, in place of which it offers an alternative approach to development financing, based mainly on the Keynesian tradition. The concept of financial repression refers to the situation of a market suffering from institutional obstacles, both in terms of economic policy and administrative aspects, which prevent it from attaining an equilibrium position and thus jeopardize the rationality of the resource allocation process. The policy consequences that follow from a study of this theory mainly involve the liberalization of the fin…
The progress made by the countries of the region in their stabilization processes has led policy-makers and entrepreneurs to pay increasing attention to the competitiveness of production activities and the factors and policies that determine it. The stability attained has clearly revealed the levels of some real variables which were hard to quantify in conditions of extreme price variations. This greater transparency of the market conditions, together with the growing competition resulting from the processes of greater trade openness, has brought out the strengths and weaknesses of the region&…
The debate in the region on industrial policy is currently centered on policies to promote competitiveness in the context of open economies. It gives priority to the use of horizontal policies, is based on the market, and attaches great importance to the maintenance of macroeconomic balance. It continues to suffer from weaknesses in its treatment of sectoral issues, however, continues to be reluctant to assimilate the Asian experience of giving support to pioneering firms and seeking closer coordination between the public and private sectors, and still does not give sufficient importance to me…
Economic integration in Latin America has entered upon a new stage, conditioned by new development strategies undertaken mostly by democratically elected governments, and directed at adjusting to a changed and increasingly demanding world economy, while attempting simultaneously to increase the Latin American countries' competitiveness. In the first section of this paper, the stylized facts of this new stage of economic integration are briefly reviewed, after which an explanation is given, in section II, of the main determinants of the significant growth of reciprocal trade an…
This article seeks to make an orderly summary of the information on urban female labour in Latin America in the 1990s and thus make a contribution to an updated diagnosis of the female labour market to help serve in the formulation of policies for women. It looks at the past evolution of female labour, analyses the effects of the crisis of the early 1980s on this sector of labour, and reviews the changes that have taken place in it, which have undermined the validity of some myths on this subject. It also looks at some critical aspects of female labour, such as income, occupational segmentatio…
The sustainability of development remains an academic concept unless it is linked to clear objectives that must be attained in given territories and to the management processes needed to achieve this. Management of the natural resources located within the area of a river basin is a valuable option for guiding and coordinating processes of management for development in the light of environmental variables. In order to turn environmental policies into concrete actions it is necessary to have suitable management bodies, which are normally very complex. The establishment of such bodies means gener…
This article analyses the behaviour of the region's agricultural exports in the period following the onset of the debt crisis and makes some recommendations regarding public sector action with a view to improving the competitiveness of such exports. Section I describes the main trends which have been shaping international agricultural markets in recent decades and which have also marked their future trends. Section II shows how the region's agricultural supply has reacted to these changes. Finally, in section III -on the basis of a stylized representation of the behaviour of agricult…
The extension of technological progress to small-scale agricultural producers is an unavoidable issue in any strategy aimed at changing production patterns with equity in the rural environment. With a few exceptions, analysis of the achievements of public policies in this area reveals that they have fallen far short of their goals even in periods when the restrictions on public spending were nothing like as severe as those faced by the economies of the region today. One option which has not yet been sufficiently explored is that of involving agroindustry in the task of bringing technological p…
In the author's view, an important result of the economic reforms begun in Mexico in 1983, especially in the period after 1987, is that national private groups have assumed a leading place in the new economic model. These are not only traditional groups which were restructured in the course of those reforms, but also new groups which were formed or developed in that period and which have come to have decisive weight in the national economy. This new leading role of Mexican national private groups is the result of the strategies adopted by the groups themselves in order to adapt to the con…
El presente número de la serie constituye un homenaje a Aldo Solari. Incluye, por un lado, notas biográficas y un análisis de la contribución de Solari a la sociología de la educación en América Latina. Por otro lado, reproduce el documento sobre la desigualdad educativa, problemas y políticas, publicado en 1988.…
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