Abstract One year and a half after the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) held in Istanbul, the present document aims to assess the progress made on the implementation of the Regional Plan of Action on Human Settlements for Latin America and the Caribbean. The region faces a disturbing upsurge in urban poverty and widening income inequality, notwithstanding the slower rate of population growth. A worsening of environmental problems such as air and water pollution, waste disposal and vehicle congestion is being experienced in urban centres, and the region still has both…
Public military expenditure (PME); has been analysed very little in the region, mainly for political reasons, which also limit access to the relevant information. Because of various events, however, it is beginning to be the subject of economic analysis both by governments and by multilateral bodies, especially with regard to its most appropriate level (how much is enough?);, its opportunity cost (what are its direct and indirect economic impacts?);, and its cost-effectiveness as a system of acquiring arms (what is its effect per monetary unit?);. According to the most conservative estimate, b…
Summary Reviews the methodologies used to derive production accounts. Looks at the non-financial corporate sector, the financial corporate sector, the government sector, the houshold sector and the external sector. Approaches to examining GDP are examined. Agriculture, mining and quarrying, manufacturing, electricity gas and water, construction, distributive trades, transport storage and communication and finance and real estate are assessed in detail. Includes sugestions for an improvement in the methodologies.…
Abstract
This paper examines the means to incorporate the use of market signals through prices into water resources management with the objective of improving efficiency in the allocation of water. It reviews a vast body of recent literature on tradable resource use rights as well as actual experiences with implementing tradable water rights programmes both in Latin America and in the rest of the world. The issues discussed include the conditions required for a well-functioning water market; the potential strengths and weaknesses claimed for markets as a means of water allocation; the characte…
Abstract Concentration in liner shipping means that relatively larger shipping companies are increasing their market share at the expense of the remaining smaller players. Although this process is not new, it has gained strength and is particularly affecting ports and shipping services in developing regions. Because trade is growing as a proportion of world GDP, governments and international organizations attach an increasing priority to improving ports and shipping services. This leads to deregulation, which, together with technological advances, increases the incentives for shipping companie…
The 1997 edition of the Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean contains a selection, updated to the end of December, of the main statistical series available on economic and social trends in the countries of the region. It represents a systematic effort of the ECLAC Statistics and Projections Division to harmonize the figures and make them internationally comparable. Part one consists of derived social and economic indicators (growth rates, ratios or coefficients) which provide an overview of each area of interest, along with the background material needed to make the inform…