En este artículo se analiza la mutación estructural de la industria
latinoamericana, que se aceleró durante los años noventa a
medida que se fueron consolidando en la región los programas
de apertura externa de las economías, la desregulación de múltiples
mercados y la privatización de grandes sectores de actividad
industrial, previamente dominados por empresas estatales.
Las ramas manufactureras que han logrado un mejor desempeño
relativo a lo largo de los últimos veinte años son las
procesadoras de recursos naturales que producen commodities
industriales de uso difundido, las industrias maqu…
The purpose of this article is to investigate the determinants of the distribution of income in Latin America, focusing in particular on two questions: one is the relationship between the distribution and income, while the other is the impact of the package of structural economic reforms that have been adopted in Latin America in recent years. Two main conclusions are drawn from the econometric evidence. There appears to be a robust and significant relationship between the distribution and income. It has the inverted U-shape that Kuznets predicted, but this relationship has been shifting in a …
Despite tremendous macroeconomic instability, Brazil's urban income distributions in 1976 and 1996 appear, at first glance, deceptively similar. Mean household income per capita was stagnant, with a minute accumulated growth of 4.3% over the two decades. The Gini coefficient hovered just above 0.59 in both years, and the incidence of poverty (with respect to a poverty line of R$60/month at 1996 prices); was effectively unchanged at 22%. Yet, behind this apparent stability, a powerful combination of labour market, demographic and educational dynamics were at work, one effect of which was t…
This article analyses the structural changes in Latin American industry, which speeded up in the 1990s with the consolidation in the region of the external openness programmes, the deregulation of many markets, and the privatization of major sectors of industrial activity which had previously been dominated by State enterprises. The branches of manufacturing which have turned in the best relative performances over the last twenty years are natural resource-based industries producing staple industrial commodities, industries assembling computers, video equipment, television sets or clothing, an…
The subject-matter of this article lies at the crossroads between the literature on technological change and that on industrial dynamics. The analysis centers on the links between the form of accumulation of technical know-how in an industry and the likelihood that the innovation in question can become a vehicle for the entry of new enterprises into the sector. The studies on the developed countries tackle this matter through two approaches: that of technological regimes and that based on the life-cycle of industry. Both these concepts are of an evolutionary nature and are set forth in section…
In the new international setting, which is characterized by new technologies that make intensive use of information, globalization of markets, and the increased competitive pressures and uncertainty facing the agents, competitiveness is a systemic phenomenon. The endogenous capabilities of the agents, the degree of development of the environment they operate in and their integration in a production network have become key elements for developing capabilities and creating competitive advantages. It is being asserted more and more frequently that the competitive advantages of countries, regions …
The external trade of a country is closely linked with its geographical location, with the transport services that cover the distance to markets, and the ports through which that trade passes. Recent advances in maritime transport, the growing international economic integration, and the privatization of ports in the countries on the Pacific coast of South America have given rise to expectations that ports could be developed that concentrate both domestic cargo and that of neighbouring countries for its subsequent redistribution: what are known as hub ports . The main conclusion of t…
The government of Cuba established a tax regime for micro-enterprises as soon as it legalized the sector in 1993. It was designed to function in a difficult context in which a tax-paying culture did not exist, in which widespread noncompliance was feared, and in which some micro-entrepreneurs' incomes were high. The tax regime included advance monthly lump-sum payments, a 10% maximum amount of total revenues which could be deducted as costs in calculating taxable income, and an escalating tax schedule. This tax regime has a number of weaknesses which make it inequitable, inefficient and i…
Abstract This study analyses the period 1990 to 1996 of the current situation of the small and medium-sized industrial enterprises (SMIs) in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and St. Lucia. It describes the evolution of SMIs, the country experiences regarding linkages amongst firms and the policy instruments aimed at promoting SMIs and their impact. The small enterprises have well established support programmes and they are considered to be dependent on direct government support through subsidized financing and other mechanisms and are essentially inward looking in terms of development. The medium…
Resumen
El presente trabajo estudia la competitividad de la industria petrolera venezolana desde la perspectiva de análisis del cluster, con el objeto de identificar fortalezas y debilidades para la posible orientación de estrategias y acciones que lo transformen, de manera de promover un mayor impacto en el sector productivo nacional. El objetivo es hacer un análisis del entorno socioeconómico y productivo del sector petrolero venezolano que permita un funcionamiento sistémico del complejo explotación-industrias- comercialización, su evolución y sus perspectivas futuras. Especialmente se anal…
Resumen
La industria maquiladora de exportación en México es percibida e maneras radicalmente opuestas. Mientras unos la ven como un problema social, otros la ven como oportunidad de desarrollo. Si bien todo proceso industrial conlleva aspectos positivos y negativos, la cuestión a resaltar es de política: ¿Qué puede hacerse para potenciar los aspectos positivos y mitigar los negativos? De importancia fundamental en esta materia es comprender la trayectoria tecnológica y de aprendizaje de las empresas. Este estudio compara en este sentido la experiencia de empresas norteamericanas y japonesas.
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Abstract There is a need to shed light on the growing role played by the small firm in local, national and global dynamic competition in order to challenge this deeply rooted lack of interest. The fact that firms have been organized successfully in ways that differ from the fordist paradigm has put the certainties, on which generations of economists have constructed their own analytical and interpretative grids and influenced industrial policy, in crisis. Thus, in the face of empirical evidence, it must be admitted that the case of the small firm can no longer be considered as a transitory phe…
Resumen Este documento contiene el material docente empleado por el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) y el Instituto Latinoamericano de Planificación Económica y Social (ILPES) en el marco del programa de Capacitación para los países C y D (1). El propósito de este programa es contribuir al desarrollo de una capacidad nacional permanente de entrenamiento a funcionarios de las instituciones responsables de la gestión de programas y proyectos. Ello, mediante la capacitación de una masa crítica de funcionarios públicos, así como de instructores en los 19 países prestatarios de los dos grup…
Resumen
La presente guía proporciona los elementos necesarios para orientar procesos de gestión para el desarrollo sustentable y equitativo del ser humano, en ámbitos geosocioeconómicos claramente definidos. El documento ha sido escrito sobre la base de numerosas experiencias de desarrollo en regiones, microrregiones y cuencas de América Latina y el Caribe.
La guía se basa en una secuencia lógica de pasos, originalmente diseñada por Axel Dourojeanni en el año 1976. El proceso principal se sustenta en una adaptación del método de optimización para la toma de decisiones conocido como 'Goal …
Abstract This report contains a recap of the presentations given by the speakers at the 'first Europe-Latin America Dialogue on Promotion of Energy Efficiency', held in Brussels from 28 to 30 October 1998. The event was organized within the framework of the 'promotion of Energy Efficiency in Latin America' Project, which is cofinanced by ECLAC, through its Natural Resources and Infrastructure Division, and the SYNERGY Programme of the European Commission's XVII Directorate-General of Energy. The project is under the direction of Fernando Sánchez Albavera, ECLAC Regiona…
En las sociedades actuales hay dos hechos que llaman la atención en torno al tema del envejecimiento: las personas viven en promedio más años que antes y hay un importante crecimiento en el número de personas en edades avanzadas. Estos dos aspectos constituyen conceptos diferentes aunque relacionados. El primero es la prolongación de la vida de los individuos; el segundo corresponde al envejecimiento de las poblaciones, que generalmente se expresa en un aumento en la proporción de personas mayores. Este último es la consecuencia del proceso de transición demográfica que se caracteriza por los …
Resumen La expansión de la producción, que constituye el soporte material del desarrollo, se asienta tanto en la creciente acumulación de capital físico como en el continuo aumento del contingente de recursos humanos funcionales a las necesidades del sistema económico, lo que facilita la sistemática elevación de la productividad, su mayor difusión y generalización. Para que el desarrollo se convierta en un proceso sustentable y sostenido en el tiempo, es necesario que dicha expansión se produzca en un contexto de equidad social. Tal condición implica la incorporación efectiva y progresiva del …
This Summary of the Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean, 1999-2000 is the first
chapter of the Survey, and is being published simultaneously in Spanish and English. It provides an
assessment of the region’s economy during 1999 and the first half of 2000. The summary also presents
a brief overview of the regional chapters of the Survey: the external sector, macroeconomic policy,
activity levels, inflation, employment, saving and investment. It is accompanied by a statistical
appendix containing 13 tables taken from the regional chapters, with data series through 1999.
Wide distri…
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