This paper examines the genesis and evolution of debt and debt overhang in the Caribbean with individual case studies, to extract lessons and make broad recommendations with regard to appropriate mechanisms and policy measures that can be implemented to reduce the debt burden of the subregion. The econometric model utilized in the paper has shown that a one percent increase on debt to GDP ratio causes a 0.015decline in real GDP growth for the countries in the Caribbean panel, suggesting that debt has a pernicious effect on growth on Caribbean economies. What is even more worrisome was that Car…
The external and internal imbalances that appeared in the early 1980s, together with the adjustment and stabilization policies applied throughout that decade in Latin America, juxtaposed the need to reduce the fiscal deficit with the need to make up for the loss of income sustained by the most vulnerable groups of the population as a consequence of the external debt crisis. This article examines patterns of social expenditure in a number of countries in the region, in an effort to determine how these policies affected the level and composition of social spending and, hence, influenced social p…
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…
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…
Public military expenditure (PME); has been analysed very little in the region, mainly for political reasons, which also limit access to the relevant information. Because of various events, however, it is beginning to be the subject of economic analysis both by governments and by multilateral bodies, especially with regard to its most appropriate level (how much is enough?);, its opportunity cost (what are its direct and indirect economic impacts?);, and its cost-effectiveness as a system of acquiring arms (what is its effect per monetary unit?);. According to the most conservative estimate, b…
This book is the final report of the ECLAC-IDRC project Observatory for the Information Society in Latin American and the Caribbean OSILAC, which aims at understanding the dynamics of the ICT evolution and revolution and producing evidence on its potential to promote socio-economic development. As such, microdata analysis drawn from National Household Surveys and National Innovation Surveys in Latin America were used in the framework of the project in the attempt to reach those objectives. Both statistical information sources provide attractive potentialities in order to investigate not only d…
Stable, higher income democracies often have both a strong middle class and relatively low levels of inequality. In contrast, lower and middle income countries with highly unequal patterns of income distribution and stratified social structures often have a weak middle class, more social conflict and a tendency to populist and/or authoritarian politics. This paper investigates, for a sample of more than 120 countries, some empirical correlations between the size of the middle class and the following set of variables: the level (mean); of per capita income and wealth, the degree of inequality (…
Las grandes transformaciones que se requieren en los modelos de desarrollo de América Latina y el Caribe para poder lograr sociedades más productivas, inclusivas y sostenibles, necesitan una ampliación del espacio fiscal para dar sostenibilidad a las finanzas públicas, reconocieron autoridades, expertos y académicos reunidos en el XXXVI Seminario Regional de Política Fiscal, que concluyó este miércoles 8 de mayo en la sede de la CEPAL en Santiago, Chile.
El reconocido foro regional -que durante 36 años ha convocado a autoridades, especialistas, sociedad civil y academia para dialogar sobre lo…
La Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) celebrará del 6 al 8 de mayo la XXXVI edición del Seminario Regional de Política Fiscal, reconocido foro regional que durante 36 años ha convocado a autoridades, especialistas, sociedad civil y academia para dialogar sobre los desafíos de política fiscal que enfrentan los países de la región.
En la reunión participarán autoridades de los Ministerios de Hacienda de 13 países de la región y reconocidos expertos de organismos internacionales, academia, organizaciones de sociedad civil y organizaciones no gubernamentales.
El encuentro …
Reseña Este documento fue preparado por Adolfo Rodríguez Herrera, Consultor de la Unidad de Estudios Especiales de CEPAL, bajo el componente de Macroeconomía, equidad y seguridad social, del proyecto CEPAL/GTZ: Policy Strategies for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: Promotion of a Socially Sustainable Economic Policy (GER/01/31) , que contó con el apoyo de la Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zusammenarbeit (GTZ). Preparado como apoyo al documento La protección social de cara al futuro: Acceso, financiamiento y solidaridad presentado en el XXXI Período de …
Reseña Este documento fue preparado por Ricardo Bitrán, Consultor de la Unidad de Estudios Especiales de CEPAL, bajo el componente de Macroeconomía, equidad y seguridad social, del proyecto CEPAL/GTZ: Policy Strategies for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: Promotion of a Socially Sustainable Economic Policy (GER/01/31) , que contó con el apoyo de la Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zusammenarbeit (GTZ). Preparado como apoyo al documento La protección social de cara al futuro: Acceso, financiamiento y solidaridad presentado en el XXXI Período d…
En este documento, elaborado en el marco de las actividades de un proyecto conjunto de la Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos (AFIP) de la Argentina y la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), se abordan los desafíos que plantea la tributación de la economía digital a nivel global y las alternativas para superarlos que se discuten en los foros multilaterales.
Se exponen también experiencias internacionales en materia de tributación nacional a la economía digital. Finalmente, se describen los pasos que ha dado la Argentina en ese sentido y se analizan sus posibilida…
Reseña
Este documento fue preparado por Adolfo Rodríguez Herrera, Consultor de la Unidad de Estudios Especiales de CEPAL, bajo el
componente de Macroeconomía, equidad y seguridad social, del proyecto CEPAL/GTZ: Policy Strategies for Sustainable Development in
Latin America and the Caribbean: Promotion of a Socially Sustainable Economic Policy (GER/01/31); , que contó con el apoyo de la
Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Zusammenarbeit (GTZ);.
Preparado como apoyo al documento La protección social de cara al futuro: Acceso, financiamiento y solidaridad presentado en el XXXI
Per…
Reseña
Este documento fue preparado por Adolfo Rodríguez Herrera, Consultor de la Unidad de Estudios Especiales de CEPAL, bajo el
componente de Macroeconomía, equidad y seguridad social, del proyecto CEPAL/GTZ: Policy Strategies for Sustainable Development in
Latin America and the Caribbean: Promotion of a Socially Sustainable Economic Policy (GER/01/31); , que contó con el apoyo de la
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zusammenarbeit (GTZ);.
Preparado como apoyo al documento La protección social de cara al futuro: Acceso, financiamiento y solidaridad presentado en el XXXI
Per…
Reseña Este documento fue preparado por Adolfo Rodríguez Herrera, Consultor de la Unidad de Estudios Especiales de CEPAL, bajo el componente de Macroeconomía, equidad y seguridad social, del proyecto CEPAL/GTZ: Policy Strategies for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: Promotion of a Socially Sustainable Economic Policy (GER/01/31) , que contó con el apoyo de la Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zusammenarbeit (GTZ). Preparado como apoyo al documento La protección social de cara al futuro: Acceso, financiamiento y solidaridad presentado en el XXXI Perío…
Reseña Este documento fue preparado por Adolfo Rodríguez Herrera, Consultor de la Unidad de Estudios Especiales de CEPAL, bajo el componente de Macroeconomía, equidad y seguridad social, del proyecto CEPAL/GTZ: Policy Strategies for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: Promotion of a Socially Sustainable Economic Policy (GER/01/31) , que contó con el apoyo de la Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Zusammenarbeit (GTZ). Preparado como apoyo al documento La protección social de cara al futuro: Acceso, financiamiento y solidaridad presentado en el XXXI Perío…
Now that the 1990s have ended and a new millennium is dawning, the low rate of economic growth, the region's vulnerability to international financial instability and the limited progress made in terms of equity oblige us to reflect on the social agenda for the future. An important role in that agenda will continue to be played by the efforts to overcome poverty and indigence, conditioned to a large extent by the region's capacity for economic change and its dynamism in creating large numbers of jobs of higher quality in terms of productivity and income. At the same time, in view of t…
En el marco de la Tercera Reunión del Foro de los Países de América Latina y el Caribe sobre el Desarrollo Sostenible, Alemania, Francia, México y Chile, expusieron sus experiencias en la implementación de políticas climáticas y como utilizarlas como una herramienta de justicia social.…
Social protection systems have to cope with large
discrepancies between the financing needed to cover demand
and the resources actually available. For this reason, it is
necessary for any reform proposal to include elements of
cost restraint as well as measures to increase the population
coverage of systems. Efficiency and solidarity must improve
together if progress is to be made towards universality of
benefits. Any reform strategy needs to consider not only the
financial constraints imposed by the macroeconomy, but also
the heavy drain on financial resources and the effects on the
fiscal ac…
This article analyses the effects of the economic reforms applied by Latin American countries during the second half of the 1980s and after.In order to include the reform indices among the elements determining the per capita gross domestic product,in accordance with neoclassical growth models,the authors start by analysing the institutional nature of these reforms.The econometric analysis,carried out for a set of 17 Latin American countries for the 1970- 1995 period,revealed that the five reform areas studied significantly affected GDP.On the basis of empirical analysis,it can be concluded tha…