Exchange rate regimes and macroeconomic performance in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico

This paper deals with the ways in which the exchange rate regimes of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico shaped the macroeconomic performance of those countries over the period 1994-2003. The purpose of the analysis is to draw lessons for Latin American and other countries on whether and how the choice of the exchange rate regime can help sustained growth. As it is impossible to isolate the growth effect of the exchange rate regime in a comparative country study, the paper emphasises those macro variables that have been identified in the theoretical and empirical literature as important channels thro…

Economic growth in Latin America: the role of investment and other growth sources

This research produced evidence about the contribution of investment and other sources to the growth process of Latin America during 1960-2002, and provided answers to the questions listed above unless from an historical perspective. The combined growth accounting and regression analysis, and used data for the six largest Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela. These countries produce nearly 90 per cent of Latin America's GDP. Alternative growth accounting methodologies were used to measure the contributions of the sources of growth to GDP gro…

Agricultural transformation and Gender considerations in Caribbean Economics

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the gender and social disparities existing in the agricultural and rural sector in Caribbean economies. In this context, agricultural transformation as occasioned by the dismantling of preferential trading arrangements is analysed to identify the most relevant gender discriminatory measures in the current agricultural development policy and programmes. The analysis seeks to provide the basis for enhancing understanding among policy makers, planners and rural development practitioners of the gender and social dimension involved in the formulati…

Ex-post evaluation of the employment effects of a preferential trade agreement: methodological issues, illustrated with a reference to Chile

This paper presents a discussion of the major methodological issues relating to some key studies assessing the employment effects of a particular PTA using different methodologies (General and Partial Equilibrium, Gravitational models, Micro simulations, Econometrics using panel data, etc.). In this line, the paper discusses an accounting model for decomposing the ex - post employment performance as related to Latin America Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs), proposing this method to evaluate the Chile - Mexico PTA as an illustration. The paper defines a research agenda using an Employment e…

Income inequality in Central America, Dominican Republic and Mexico: assessing the importance of individual and household characteristics

This study investigates the relationship between individual and household characteristics and income inequality in Central America, the Dominican Republic and Mexico from 1990 to 2002. A Theil decomposition exercise of individual and household income inequality is used to determine factors important for the level of inequality. In addition, the use of a novel semi-parametric simulation methodology from DiNardo, Fortin and Lemieux (1996) provides counterfactual income distributions of individuals and households to assess the importance of changes in their demographic, education and labo…

Foundations of macroeconomic policy coordination: fostering dialogue as a policy tool in Latin America

This paper examines the theoretical foundations for macroeconomic policy coordination and the related empirical findings in Latin America, contributing an original analysis that advocates new dialogue mechanisms to facilitate coordination in this region. The theoretical survey is concerned with non-cooperative coordination games, including dynamic games and those with imperfect information. The practical value of these game-theoretic tools is illustrated using economic examples. One important result is that implementing different forms of dialogue in specific situations can help to reach a coo…

Labour market trends and implications of regional integration

Labour markets represent the backbone of economic functioning, providing the means of survival to populations, with labour income ensuring the livelihood of workers and families alike. Labour is also an essential input into production - in many cases it is the main input, especially in service sectors which are dominant sectors in the Caribbean. As such, labour markets define economic well-being: in competitive economies labour is paid its marginal product. This implies that only productive labour prospers as higher productivity implies higher earnings, which in turn allows for higher consumpt…

Alternative measures of potential economic growth in Latin America

Hubert Escaith is Director of the Division of Statistics and Economic Projections of ECLAC. These methodological notes were prepared for a lecture at the 2005 ECLAC Summer School. They are based on, and up-date, a series of papers in Spanish published in 2003 and 2004, which received in 2005 the award Maestro Jesus Silva Herzog from Economic Research Institute of the Universidad National Autonoma de Mexico. The views expressed in this document, which has been reproduced without formal editing, are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Organization. …

Dani Rodrik, Profesor de la Universidad de Harvard, dictará Quinta Cátedra Raúl Prebisch

(29 de agosto, 2005) Dani Rodrik, Profesor de Política Económica Internacional en John F. Kennedy School of Government de la Universidad de Harvard (Estados Unidos), dictará la conferencia magistral titulada "¿Políticas para la diversificación de la economía?" (Policies for Economic Diversification?), con ocasión de la Quinta Cátedra Raúl Prebisch. La conferencia tendrá lugar el miércoles 31 de agosto de 2005, a las 16:00 horas en la sede de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) en Santiago de Chile (Av. Dag Hammarskjold 3477, Vitacura, Sala Raú…

Economic growth in Latin America in the late 20th century: evidence and interpretation

The 1980s and 1990s have been decades of instability and slow growth for most of the Latin American region. There are exceptions, however. Chile and the Dominican Republic grew rapidly in the last decade or so although in recent years both economies, for different reasons, have entered in cycles of more sluggish growth. The purpose of this paper is to advance our understanding of the growth patterns of the Latin American economy in the final decades of the 20th century. We focus on the analysis of medium-to-long run growth, as opposed to the standard discussion of the determinants of high freq…

MERCOSUR in transition: macroeconomic perspectives

The recovery of the economies of MERCOSUR, and the disturbances that the recent crises generated in the region have motivated reconsideration of the medium term prospects of the integration project. This paper tries to contribute to this activity with a brief analysis of regional macroeconomic interactions, and a discussion in broad terms of incentives and restrictions for macroeconomic cooperation in the specific conditions of the region. The themes that play through the discussion are that (i) the lack of a shared concrete perspective about the role of MERCOSUR for the growth of the nationa…

Macroeconomic coordination in Latin America: does it have a future?

For most developing countries, open regionalism has emerged as quite a sensible response to the undergoing turbulent and asymmetric process of economic globalization. Moreover, the successful experience of the countries which are now part of the European Union, has made regional integration an increasingly attractive option for the developing world. Whenever regional integration is intended to go beyond merely a free trade agreement, macroeconomic coordination becomes a key issue. Theoretically, the underlying idea of the macroeconomic coordination is the interdependency between econo…

Decentralization, territorial transfers and local development

Concerted action by political, social and private actors at the local level can be very useful for promoting economic competitiveness, but in order for it to become a reality it would be essential for the local communities to have greater autonomy and resources, as well as equal opportunities. This article begins by investigating the conditions required in order to ensure that the deeper political decentralization needed for local development will promote efficiency and equity, as well as the ways in which transfer systems can become decisive means for increasing equity and generating greater …

Anuario Estadístico de América Latina y el Caribe 2004 = Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean 2004

La edición 2004 del Anuario estadístico de América Latina y el Caribe contiene una selección de las principales series estadísticas sobre la evolución económica y social de los países de la región. Representa un esfuerzo de la División de Estadística y Proyecciones Económicas 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 que constituyen antecedentes para que la informac…

Public policies for digital development: advances and challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean