Job losses, multinationals and globalization: the anatomy of disempowerment

Abstract This paper examines the anatomy of the pervasive current job cuts and job losses occuring in multinational enterprises. It raises the question of the social and economic costs to countries and workers around the globe, and specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean. It analyzes the growing disempowerment of national authorities in the face of the significant growth and concentration of multinational corporations and their penetration in Latin America and combines current job cut information assembled by the author with the ECLAC Investment and Corporate Strategies Database for…

Regional integration and the issue of choosing an appropriate exchange-rate regime in Latin America

Abstract Behind the discussion on optimal exchange-rate regimes lies the need to achieve external and internal equilibrium, and thus create an appropriate macroeconomic climate for sustained growth and development. The optimality and feasibility of exchange-rate regimes in individual Latin American and Caribbean countries must take into consideration several parameters linked to microeconomics, open macroeconomics, and political economy aspects. More recently, the discussion has incorporated the regional dimension and the possibility of joining monetary unions to the set of feasible national s…

The strategies of multinational companies in 1990s Argentina

In the 1990s,Argentina received large amounts of foreign direct investment and the participation of multinational companies in the country's economy increased significantly. As during the import substitution industrialization period, the basic goal of multinationals is still to exploit the domestic market.Two differences from that period can be observed, however:access to the Brazilian market allows for greater economies of scale and specialization,and increased competition in many tradable sectors is forcing subsidiaries to bring their operations closer to international best practice. Th…

Global economic developments, 2000-2001

Executive Summary The global economy is experiencing a recession, which originated in the United States and is affecting developed and developing economies alike. Between the second and third quarter of 2001, the United States GDP growth rate decreased from 2.6 per cent to 1.2 per cent. For the same period, the European Union's GDP growth rate declined from 2.4 per cent to 1.7 per cent. For Latin America and the Caribbean the growth will fall from 4 per cent in 2000 to 1 per cent in 2001. A central issue regarding the current recession is whether it will be short lived or rather …

Investment and financial volatility in Latin America

Financial liberalization and the lifting of capital market restrictions have brought in foreign investment and made more financing available for investment projects,but at the same time have made it easier for financial crises originating in Latin America or elsewhere to spread.Such crises became more frequent in the 1990s,and as a result a more careful study was made of the impact of capital flow instability on investment.Hypotheses derived from theoretical procedures were checked against econometric exercises showing that capital flows have a positive impact,but that negative consequences ar…

Monetary dilemmas: Argentina in MERCOSUR

Abstract The deep economic crisis of Argentina has been causing an active quest for conclusions of topical or general importance. Indeed, an experience of this kind is likely to generate useful lessons for macroeconomic theory and policy design. Some of them may be simple and straightforward (e.g.: under strong uncertainty, the arguments for precautionary savings should apply particularly to fiscal policies). However, we believe that the questions raised hardly lend themselves to trivial answers. In this paper, we propose to undertake a brief (and certainly, partial and preliminary) di…

Professor Joseph Stiglitz: Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics to Lecture at ECLAC

(22 August 2002) Next Monday 26 August Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2001, will visit the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), to give a Magisterial Lecture entitled: Whither Reforms? Towards a New Agenda for Latin America, on the occasion of the Second Raúl Prebisch Chair Magisterial Lecture. The lecture will take place at 11:00 am in the Raúl Prebisch Room at ECLAC (Av. Dag Hammarskjöld s/n, Vitacura, Santiago) and will be chaired by the Executive Secretary of this Regional …

Profesor Joseph Stiglitz: Premio Nobel de Economía dicta cátedra en la CEPAL

(22 de agosto de 2002) El próximo lunes 26 de agosto visitará la sede de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) el Profesor Joseph Stiglitz, Premio Nobel de Economía 2001, quien dictará la Conferencia Magistral titulada ¿Hacia dónde van las reformas? En busca de una agenda para América Latina, con ocasión de la Segunda Cátedra Raúl Prebisch. La conferencia tendrá lugar a las 11:00 horas en la Sala Raúl Prebisch de la CEPAL (Av. Dag Hammarskjöld s/n, Vitacura, Santiago) y estará presidida por el Secretario Ejecutivo de esta Com…

Anuario Estadístico de América Latina y el Caribe 2001 = Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean 2001

La edición 2001 del Anuario estadístico de América Latina y el Caribe contiene una selección actualizada a comienzos de diciembre de las principales series estadísticas disponibles sobre la evolución económica y social de los países de la región. Representa un sistemático esfuerzo de la División de Estadística y Proyecciones de la CEPAL, orientado a homogeneizar las cifras y a hacerlas internacionalmente comparables. La primera parte comprende indicadores socioeconómicos derivados (tasas de crecimiento, proporciones o coeficientes), que representan una visión resumida de cada área de interés y…

Incorporation of special and differential treatment in international trade agreements and the implications for Caribbean economies

The provision for special and differential treatment favoring developing economies in multilateral trade agreements recognizes that countries compete on an unequal footing. Special and differential treatment can be traced to early development theories and to the reports of the preparatory committee for the formation of the International Trade Organization (ITO). The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT, 1947) addressed developing countries' needs for an asymmetrical treatment in international trade relations. Later on, the incorporation of Annex IV to the GATT (1964) p…

The United States and Central America proposed Free Trade Agreement implications for the Caribbean region

Growth with stability: financing for development in the new international context

Foreword In contrast to its situation during the lost decade , in the 1990s the Latin American and Caribbean region regained its access to international capital markets. Its return to these markets, in combination with a commitment to achieving basic macroeconomic equilibria, was manifested in smaller fiscal deficits and lower inflation, but the region has recovered only part of the ground it had lost in terms of its pace of economic growth. Thus, the region's economies have not been growing fast enough to strengthen their labour markets or to reduce poverty significantly. …

Expenditures, investment and financing for sustainable development in Trinidad and Tobago

Main Statistical Points GEF funding has proceeded in recent years primarily via the World Bank, UNDP and UNEP. It has provided approximately US$5m in funding for projects totaling approximately US$18m in value (therefore over 70% locally cofinanced).   Total public expenditure (capital and recurrent) on environmental projects (as identified herein) has ranged between 0.15% to 0.21% of GDP over the period or approximately between US$2 to US$3 per capital. …

Expenditures, investment and financing for sustainable development in Brazil

The objective of this study is to examine the evolution and characteristics of the financing for the nvironment in Brazil, in order to identify the advances and retreats after the Rio 92 Conference. Brazil has a very decentralized administration, composed of three independent levels of public administration: the federal government, 27 state governments, and more than 5000 municipios, or municipalities; all of them with specific environmental institutions. However, at the time of the completion of this report, there were no indicator…

Implications of the Liberalization of Telecommunications for the Caribbean

The Doha Ministerial and its Implications for Caribbean Economies