Major macroeconomic disturbances, expectations and policy responses

The episodes of great financial volatility and wide fluctuations in the level of activity of a number of economies have heightened the debate on how major macroeconomic fluctuations are generated and spread. Although it is acknowledged that much can be learned from the study of specific cases, in the literature decisions are often presented as though the agents adopting them were fully aware of all the relevant probability distributions. It is desirable, however, that in analysing these phenomena it should be recognized that both the economic agents and policy-makers are acting in variable con…

Automatic fiscal stabilizers

In this article, indicators of fiscal discretionality are estimated using a simple methodology, and in this way the cyclical component of the public accounts balance (i.e., the amounts of income and expenditure associated with transitory movements of the level of activity); is identified for a number of Latin American countries in the 1990s. The difference gives a measure of the discretional balance, which represents a medium-term indicator of the state of the public accounts. Budgetary rules which take account of these mechanisms not only ensure sustainability over time but also reduce the cy…

Prevention or repression? The false dilemma of citizen security

There is a marked contrast between the growing sense of insecurity among the population and the absence of consolidated statistics that would allow the phenomenon to be measured more objectively. This article seeks to make a contribution to the knowledge of the situation of citizen insecurity affecting the region, taking a comparative view based on the limited and not always reliable information available and looking at the problem from various standpoints, both social and economic. The authors begin by examining some manifestations of criminal violence in the 1990s, especially in urban areas,…

How domestic violence came to be viewed as a public issue and policy object

This article analyses the process whereby domestic violence in Chile became a subject of open discussion and a public issue included in the institutional agenda of the Executive and the Legislature, giving rise to preventive programmes against such violence and public services for aiding its victims, together with the adoption of a law against intra-family violence in 1994. The analysis highlights the dynamic and complex nature of the process, whose course and results were not and could not be determined a priori. Public issues do not exist in their own right, as purely objective phenomena, bu…

Options for rural poverty reduction in Latin America and the Caribbean

Although most of the total population and the majority of the people living in poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean are in urban centres, poverty is, in relative terms, still a rural phenomenon in the region. The incidence of poverty and of extreme poverty is much larger in rural areas than in urban settings. As recently as 1997, more than half of all rural households were living in poverty, and close to a third of them were in extreme poverty conditions. Moreover, the fragile economic situation of most countries in the region during the past two years may well have worsened those figure…

Equity in education in El Salvador

In terms of equity of educational opportunities, the region displays great problems, and El Salvador is no exception to this. The analysis given here of the shortcomings in respect of equity of education in that country begins with a general description of the fundamental lines of action proposed in the educational reform process. A study is then made of the differences in access to education, the intergenerational transmission of educational opportunities, and disparities in the quality of education. It is noted that education has an instrumental function -economic reproduction- but it also h…

Analysis of railway privatization in Latin America and the Caribbean

Latin American railway privatization has achieved significant results, since the situation today is better than if the railways had remained under management and operation by the State. Traffic volumes have generally increased, although with wide variations between individual cases; government subsidies have been cut, and productivity has improved. On the other hand, the privatization of railways in Latin America has not been an unqualified success, because of certain features of the privatization models used and the environment of the transport sector in which the railways have to compete.…

La privatización ferroviaria en América Latina y el Caribe en análisis

La privatización ferroviaria latinoamericana ha logrado alcances importantes, puesto que la situación resultante es mejor a la que se habría producido bajo la gestión y operación por parte de las administraciones estatales. En general, los volúmenes de tráfico han aumentado, aunque con mucha variación entre casos, las subvenciones gubernamentales han disminuido y los índices de productividad se han elevado. Sin embargo, la privatización ferroviaria en América Latina no ha constituido un éxito total, debido a determinadas características de los modelos de privatización adoptados y al entorn…

Desarrollo metodológico de proyecto a nivel de perfil: construcción del Liceo Integrado de Codegua: estudio de caso

Juventud, población y desarrollo en América Latina y el Caribe

Presentación 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 embar…

Un análisis de la competitividad de las exportaciones de prendas de vestir de Centroamérica utilizando los programas y la metodología CAN y MAGIC

Desarrollo metodológico de proyecto a nivel de perfil sobre disposición final de residuos sólidos urbanos en la provincia de San Antonio: estudio de caso

Study of gender mainstreaming in the Caribbean

Background The mandate for gender mainstreaming underpins the comprehensive provisions of the Beijing Platform for Action which itself finds continuity with the concern for the development of institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women contained in the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies. Governments in the Caribbean have attempted in various ways to advance gender equity not only through substantive policy but also through administrative reform. In these attempts, governments have both made progress and confronted conceptual and operational difficulties. The United Nations mid-term r…

Los efectos socioeconómicos de las inundaciones y deslizamientos en Venezuela en 1999

Antecedentes La magnitud de los daños ocasionados por las lluvias que desde el mes de noviembre de 1999 azotaron a Venezuela en las zonas costeras e importantes centros urbanos de Venezuela, en particular los estados Vargas, Miranda y Falcón aún no han sido totalmente comprendidos en su impacto global y en sus implicaciones de corto, mediano y largo plazo. El 16 de diciembre de 1999 la Asamblea Constituyente de Venezuela declaró el Estado de Emergencia para el Distrito Federal de Caracas y otros ocho de los estados del país. El Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores inició campañas de reco…

L'équité, le développement et la citoyenneté: synthèse

Equity, development and citizenship

Youth, population and development in Latin America and the Caribbean: summary and conclusions

Twenty-eighth session. Mexico City, 3-7 April 2000 This document examines the characteristics and perspectives of the young people of Latin America and the Caribbean, focusing on how their situation relates to population issues and development. The central question around which the paper is organized is the extent to which the current characteristics and situation of the region's youth allow the deployment of their potential contribution to the production and reproduction of a society oriented towards balanced economic, social and political development, that is, development that promotes …

Pavimentando el otro sendero: tierras rurales, el mercado y el Estado en América Latina

Resumen En la mayoría de los países de América Latina, los temas relacionados con la tenencia de tierras ocupan un lugar destacado en el programa político. En la búsqueda de soluciones para este problema, ha llamado considerablemente la atención en los últimos años el mecanismo de mercado como un sistema potencialmente capaz de producir una distribución más eficiente y equitativa no sólo de recursos, sino también de oportunidades económicas. Estos cambios se evidencian, por ejemplo, en recientes reformas legales importantes en Bolivia, México o Perú. Este artículo sostiene, sin embargo, que no…

Un perfil del déficit de vivienda en Chile, 1994

Resumen El diseño de una política de vivienda depende, entre otros factores, de estimaciones confiables de la magnitud de la discrepancia entre cantidad de viviendas existentes y la totalidad de la población de un país (déficit cuantitativo) y de la medida en que las viviendas existentes cumplen con ciertos estándares mínimos que permitan ofrecer una calidad de vida adecuada a sus habitantes (déficit cualitativo). Este documento utiliza información de las encuestas de hogares y es el cuarto de una serie de estudios relacionados con el tema en cinco países de la región: Bolivia, Brasil, Colombi…

Estudio comparativo de los costos fiscales en la transición de ocho reformas de pensiones en América Latina

Resumen Este trabajo constituye el primer estudio sistemático comparativo de los costos fiscales en la transición de las reformas previsionales que han ocurrido en ocho países de América Latina, y se divide en tres partes. La primera parte provee un marco general comparativo para evaluar las responsabilidades fiscales de la reforma previsional. A ese efecto comienza con una explicación resumida de los tres modelos generales de reforma de pensiones que han tenido lugar en la región: substitutivo (Chile, Bolivia, El Salvador y México);, paralelo (Perú y Colombia); y mixto (Argentina y Uruguay);;…