Resumen Durante el bienio 1998-2000 las políticas comerciales en el Istmo Centroamericano se caracterizaron por su continuidad y un relativo cambio de enfoque desde el ámbito intrarregional hacia la apertura en la esfera extrarregional. En el plano regional, los países siguieron implementando de manera diferenciada el calendario de desgravación tanto en su velocidad como en sus metas de techo y piso. Mientras que Costa Rica, El Salvador y Guatemala cumplieron las metas pactadas, Honduras mantiene un arancel del 3% para bienes de capital y Nicaragua un 1%. La libertad en el comercio in…
Resumen Durante 1999 se realizaron diversas reuniones ordinarias y extraordinarias de los mandatarios centroamericanos en las que se abordaron temas de la integración formal como la vulnerabilidad de las economías ante los desastres naturales, la necesidad de aprovechar de manera productiva los fondos para la reconstrucción tras el huracán Mitch y los criterios para sentar las bases de un desarrollo futuro sustentable. La integración comercial, en cambio, enfrentó diversas trabas y la persistencia de diferencias en la puesta en marcha de los acuerdos intrarregionales. Asimismo, en las …
Presentación La Sede Subregional en México de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) ha reunido en el presente volumen información básica sobre el sector agropecuario de los países que contemplan sus estudios: Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haití, Honduras, México, Nicaragua, Panamá y la República Dominicana. En la preparación de las series que abarcan el período 1980-1999, los datos oficiales de los países constituyeron la fuente principal. En algunos casos se complementaron con información proveniente de diversos documentos de la propia CEPAL, de la Organización de la…
Los jóvenes latinoamericanos tienen por delante un enorme desafío: ser conductores de un proceso de desarrollo económico y social que permita, a la vez, reducir la pobreza y los abismantes índices de desigualdad socioeconómica, que atentan contra la estabilidad y la convivencia; promover un crecimiento económico basado en fundamentos sustentables a largo plazo y competitivos en el contexto mundial, y mejorar la calidad de vida en los países de la región. Se trata, sin duda, de un objetivo difícil de lograr y que, de hecho, ha sido esquivo para las generaciones anteriores. Sin embargo, los jóve…
Resumen
Al analizar lo ocurrido en los últimos diez años en el sector salud en Chile, se evidencian tanto avances, como problemas persistentes y otros emergentes. Ciertamente al iniciar la década pasada existían importantes deficiencias de infraestructura y equipamiento en la red asistencial pública, así como escasez de recursos humanos calificados, aspectos en los que se han verificado logros debido al esfuerzo de gasto público realizado en el sector. No obstante, a pesar de los avances, en el año 2000 persisten importantes problemas referidos a la equidad en el acceso de la población a la at…
Resumen La seguridad económica de la población y su bienestar dependen en gran parte de la cobertura de los sistemas previsionales de pensiones y de salud, en especial para los hogares y familias de menores recursos. Diversos estudios sobre pobreza han permitido concluir que la baja cobertura de los sistemas de pensiones es una de las principales causas de los escasos ingresos en la edad de retiro de una importante proporción de la población pobre. En este contexto, la ampliación de la cobertura previsional se transforma en una importante herramienta de la política social para disminuir la pob…
Foreword The Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean, 1999-2000 is the fifty-second edition in this series and incorporates a number of changes in methodology and format. In addition, a new methodology that was introduced in the preceding edition is being used for the country studies (Parts Two and Three). This methodology is based on national ac counts statistics expressed in the local currency, rather than United States dollars, and uses the base year employed by the relevant country. The chapters on regional issues (Part One) use statistics expressed in dollars and take 1995 as t…
Editorial La cuarta generación de REDATAM apareció en el segundo semestre de 2001. Como en las generaciones anteriores, la última versión, Redatam+G4, tiene grandes adelantos y fue totalmente reescrita para incorporar nuevos avances en lenguajes de programación y Windows 95 y superior (32 bit). En el sitio Redatam Informa de CEPAL/CELADE está la fecha de aparición, su forma de cargar, etc. La versión actualizada de Redatam Informa Al Día ha reemplazado las versiones impresas de este informativo. Sin embargo, en procura de difundir Redatam+ G4, el CELADE publica esta versión, que también inform…
The objective of this paper is to explore the effects of globalization on the labour market and social stratification. It is generally held that globalization will bring about progress for nations and people. This, however, is far from clear, since the experience of almost two decades has been raising increasing doubts about the potential net gains and, particularly, the distribution of such gains. Clearly, there are winners and losers among both countries and people. We will concentrate on the effects upon people within countries and refer only to one region: Latin America. Our aim is to iden…
The economic reforms applied in the region during the 1980s and 1990s created expectations, for which there was theoretical justification, of strong job creation and greater equity in the labour market. This article analyses developments in the quantity and characteristics of employment during the 1990s. It concludes that today's labour market problems are due to insufficient economic growth and to less intensive use of labour, resulting mainly from changes in tradable goods-producing activities. Modernization of production methods in companies and sectoral restructuring that increased th…
This article analyses the behaviour of the Colombian labour market and the changes it underwent during the 1990s. It begins by outlining the reforms carried out in that country and summarizing macroeconomic developments and changes in the production structure in the 1990s. Then it uses data available from household surveys to analyse the dynamic of the labour market by economic sector, educational level and occupational position. After briefly describing the latest advances in research into income distribution in Colombia, it then shows the results of simulation exercises carried out to determ…
From the early decades of the twentieth century onward, the level of equity achieved in Uruguay, and the sophistication of its social welfare institutions, set the country apart from the rest of Latin America. In the second half of the century, this heritage of democracy and equity survived the severe tests to which it was subjected without fracturing too badly. The strength of the country's sociocultural foundations was convincingly demonstrated after the restoration of democracy in 1985, when Uruguay succeeded in maintaining the position it had traditionally held as the regional leader …
Since 1988 the ejido sector in Mexico has been buffeted by a series of policy changes and exogenous shocks that have brought into question the agricultural viability of the sector as a whole. These changes -trade liberalization, privatization, falling subsidies, the abolition of price controls, macroeconomic shocks, devaluation and momentous changes in the legal framework governing land use in the ejido- have led to a radical reordering of the policy framework and incentive structure under which the farmers of these communal lands operate. The cumulative effect of these reforms has theoretical…
This paper will examine the effects of population ageing on the medium- and long-term evolution of pension systems in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is organized into six sections. After the introductory section, section II provides information on ageing and pension system trends in the Latin American countries, with some references to the international context. Section III gives indicators, data and methods of analysis, and examines the effects of ageing population structures and rising life expectancy on pension system variables: spending on pensions, the financial position, pension lia…
Most educational investment is based on untested or partially tested assumptions about the cost-effectiveness of a given course of action. Indeed, the only estimates that have been available have been for the average profitability of each type of education, even though these differ greatly from marginal profitability. This article sets out a new approach to estimating the cost-effectiveness of educational investment. The authors canvassed the views of ten world-renowned educational researchers on the likely impact on students' learning achievements of a set of forty measures generally reg…
A great deal of effort has been put into education reform in Latin America since the early 1990s. Extending the coverage of educational opportunities and improving the quality of the education delivered in schools are crucial for the countries of the region, where education in State schools has often been of a low standard. It is not enough just to study macro education policies as they are formulated by governments and implemented by centralized ministries of education. What is promised or envisioned on paper is often quite different from what actually happens in school establishments. It is …
The Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean is prepared annually by the Economic Development Division in collaboration with the Statistics and Economic Projections Division, the ECLAC subregional headquarters in Mexico and Port of Spain and ECLAC national offices in Argentina and Brazil.…
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