This study presents the initial findings of a household survey dealing with the effects of the Argentine economic crisis on welfare. It also seeks to identify the coping mechanisms and strategies adopted by households in these difficult times. The results obtained confirm the negative image reflected in the macroeconomic indicators, identify the limitations of the different coping mechanisms and reveal serious effects on welfare. The evidence suggests that the effects on the use of health services have been more marked than those on the use of education services.…
This paper sets out to analyse the determinants of recent foreign bank investments in the Brazilian retail banking market and the strategies of the major European banks in Brazil. Since the recent wave of banking internationalization, financial institutions have continued to pursue their existing relationships while seeking greater integration into local markets. The recent influx of European banks into Latin America and Brazil, meanwhile, has been due to a varied range of factors, including bank restructuring in Europe, the dynamic of internationalization in the Spanish banking system and the…
There was a time when tram services were critical to public transport in many of the largest cities of Latin America; however, trams disappeared about fifty years ago, for a number of reasons. They are back now, especially in the cities of the more developed world, in a modern version usually known as light rail transit. Latin America has developed its own concept of urban mass transit, namely, high-capacity buses operating in special lanes as an integral component of the overall mass transit system. As a general rule, this Latin American solution seems to be the best suited to the needs of …
Una vez, el transporte público en casi todas las principales ciudades de América Latina dependía críticamente de servicios de tranvía, los que se extinguieron hace unos cincuenta años, por una serie de razones. Ahora, especialmente en las ciudades del mundo más desarrollado, regresa el tranvía, en una versión moderna, conocida generalmente como light rail transit. Sin embargo, en América Latina se ha desarrollado un concepto autóctono de servicio urbano de transporte masivo de pasajeros, en la forma de buses de alta capacidad que transitan por vías exclusivas, de una manera integrada con el r…
Our Caribbean civilisation has been very much shaped by the sea. The evidence of this in our region abounds from time immemorial: the peopling of our Caribbean; its trading; its economy and commerce, ancient and modern; its daily living and eating; its culture and its thinking. All these facets of life and production have been moulded, even determined, by the sea. Yet, strangely our Caribbean civilisation has yet to reflect in public policy the real value and significance of the sea which joins us all. To be sure, each country in the region has its own ministry of fisheries but each m…
The fourth quarter of 2002 saw an increase in investor optimism, especially in October and November. The combination of declining risk aversion and a technically well-positioned market caused a rally in emerging debt markets. In Latin America, markets traded strongly following the elections in Brazil and Ecuador. Brazil enjoyed a dramatic improvement in investor sentiment after the elections, supported by the new government's commitments to continue fiscal and economic reforms, as well as the global easing of credit conditions . Although sovereign spreads remained wide, Brazilian borrower…
This document analyses exchange rate regimes in the Caribbean subregion. Caribbean
exchange rate regimes are typified into hard and soft pegs. Hard pegs refer to those
arrangements that maintain a constant value of the domestic currency in terms of the
currency of a major trading partner. The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS);
economies established a monetary union in 1983. The Bahamas, Belize and Barbados also
fixed the value of their domestic currency in relation to the United States dollar in the
middle of the 1970s. Soft pegs are monetary arrangements characterized by a force…
The concepts of sustainability and sustainable development are analyzed from a systems perspective. In the most general terms, sustainability of any system can be represented by a non-decreasing valuation function of the outputs of interest of the system considered.
Different perspectives on the system of reference are discussed, from the extreme anthropocentric to the extreme bio- or ecocentric positions, and related to the criteria (based on the assumed substitutability between natural and manufactured capital); of very strong, strong, weak, and very weak sustainability.
A set of underlying …
En este documento se presenta un panorama de los problemas principales que enfrentan las PYME en materia ambiental en Chile. A manera de diagnóstico, se identifican las necesidades de bienes y servicios ambientales de este sector productivo, tanto en lo que respecta a los sectores de mayor incidencia, como a las regiones y los municipios afectados. Igualmente, se analiza el contexto regulatorio e institucional que afecta la operación de las PYME en el país; y cómo este contexto facilita o dificulta el logro de una mejor relación entre las PYME y el medio ambiente. Dos aspectos que condiciona…
En los últimos quince años, como resultado de desafíos provenientes de diversos sectores y varias crisis, Brasil ha sufrido importantes transformaciones estructurales que han tenido repercusiones significativas en el plano institucional. Fueron muchos los factores que llevaron a esas alteraciones. Entre ellos cabe mencionar el proceso de redemocratización, que se aceleró a lo largo del decenio de 1980, y los límites estructurales a que llegó la industrialización protegida llevada adelante por el Estado. La situación se agravó por efecto de las transformaciones tecnológicas y la reorganización …
Resumo
A economia de Blumenau município localizado no Estado de Santa Catarina, na região sul do Brasil se baseou historicamente no desenvolvimento quase exclusivo de setores manufatureiros tradicionais.
Porém, há duas décadas, surgiu na cidade uma nova atividade empresarial intensiva em conhecimentos: a indústria de software. Nos últimos anos este setor, composto por um numeroso grupo de PMEs, se consolidou como um segmento de crescente significado na economia do município, tanto pelo movimento econômico que gera, como pela alta qualificação dos recursos humanos que incorpora.
Como foi possív…
Resumen
En este documento se analiza, para los seis países centroamericanos, los ocho caribeños y los mercados de destino más importantes (la Unión Europea (UE); y los Estados Unidos);,aspectos de la competitividad ex-post, de la especialización comercial, de la dinámica de los mercados importadores, de la identificación de los principales países competidores y de la protección comercial.
Todos estos países están actualmente involucrados en iniciativas de integración regional, en acuerdos de libre comercio y en el proceso de liberalización comercial multilateral. Tanto los países centroamerica…
Resumen
Durante la década de los años noventa se introdujeron
fuertes cambios en el funcionamiento macroeconómico y en el marco regulatorio
económico y comercial del país. El PIB creció hasta el
año 1998 para luego descender, precipitándose aún más
durante la fuerte crisis del período 2001-2002. El desempleo superó
el 20% a comienzos de 2002 y las exportaciones totales alcanzaron un máximo
de 27,000 millones de dólares en el bienio 1997-1998. Este desempeño
global no fue homogéneo ni similar entre las diferentes jurisdicciones
territoriales que conforman el país.
El trabajo s…