The equity gap: a second assessment

Second regional conference in follow-up to the World Summit for Social Development. Santiago, Chile, 15-17 May 2000 Summary The courses of action recommended at the World Summit for Social Development coincide with the general thrust of the action taken by the Governments of the region in the economic and social spheres during the 1990s. The objective of this document is to weigh the positive and negative aspects of the situation in Latin America and the Caribbean with regard to poverty reduction, productive job creation and social integration within the wider context of economic changes and s…

Equity in the public budget

This article aims to make a walk-through in the virtual reality of budgetary and fiscal matters in order to identify the possible degrees of freedom to achieve a higher level of convergence between the public discourse on equity and the real content of public policies aimed at that goal. To this end, the author explores possible answers to four questions: what is the current meaning of the concept of equity; how much leeway is there in the field of taxation for expanding resources and improving vertical equity; what means are there for giving priority to the objective of equity in managing pub…

Social security in the english-speaking Caribbean

This document was prepared by Oliver Paddison, Associate Economic Affairs Officer in the Economic Development Unit of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean. Prepared as a support to the document Shaping the Future of Social Protection: Access, Financing and Solidarity presented in the XXXI ECLAC Session Period carried out in Montevideo, Uruguay during March, 20 to 24, 2006. The views expressed in this document, which has been reproduced without formal editing, are those of the author and do not necess…

Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean 1990-2017 = Estadísticas tributarias en América Latina y el Caribe 1990-2017

This report compiles comparable tax revenue statistics over the period 1990-2017 for 25 Latin American and Caribbean economies. Based on the OECD Revenue Statistics database, it applies the OECD methodology to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to enable comparison of tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among the economies of the region and with other economies. This publication is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations, the Economic Commission for Lat…

Fiscal policy and social protection

The inadequacies of social protection in Latin America and the Caribbean reveal a clear need for more active fiscal policies in this area. Although economic growth and decent employment are indispensable preconditions for social progress, the need for financing from public expenditure is ineluctable in the medium term. The present article examines three ways of achieving this objective. The first is to close the tax gap, since the fiscal burden is low in most Latin American and Caribbean countries. The second is to construct budgeting systems capable of removing rigidities and reallocating pub…

Governance, competitiveness and social integration

This article seeks to set forth the grounds for an approach integrating political governance, economic competitiveness and social integration as interdependent variables. To this end, it looks at the possibilities for Latin American society to simultaneously increase its capacity for democratic self-government, improve its economic competitiveness and tackle the main problems of social exclusion and poverty, since if this is not done the region will find it more difficult to take its place in the concert of modern democratic nations. In order to analyse the evolution of those variables from a …

Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean 1990-2020 = Estadísticas tributarias en América Latina y el Caribe 1990-2020

Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean 2022 is a joint publication by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC), the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), with the support of the European Union Regional Facility for Development in Transition for Latin America and the Caribbean. It presents detailed, internationally comparable data on tax rev…

Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean 1990-2019 / Estadísticas tributarias en América Latina y el Caribe 1990-2019

Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean 2021 is a joint publication by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC), the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), with the support of the European Union Regional Facility for Development in Transition for Latin America and the Caribbean. It presents detailed, internationally comparable data on t…

ECLAC Reiterates the Importance of Reducing the High Level of Tax Evasion and Illicit Financial Flows to Increase the Region’s Fiscal Space

Increasing public revenue is key to strengthening fiscal policy’s capacity for action and bolstering the mobilization of resources to finance the 2030 Agenda. This according to the Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean 2019, an annual publication by ECLAC released today on the institution’s website. The report – which analyzes current fiscal trends, the evolution of fiscal policies and their future challenges – adds that tackling the high level of tax incompliance and illicit financial flows in the region is more necessary than ever. According to the latest estimate of the Economi…

ECLAC Supports Fiscal Reform in Costa Rica to Maintain the Progress Made

Costa Rica has been able to transform its productive structure, and its achievements in forging a welfare state with greater equality and human development have been an example for all of Latin America. Now they must be defended with a comprehensive and timely fiscal reform, Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), said during a two-day working visit to the Central American country. At the start of her visit on Thursday, ECLAC’s most senior representative met with the country’s Vice President and Finance Minister, Helio Fallas,…

CEPAL apoya reforma fiscal en Costa Rica para sostener los logros alcanzados

Costa Rica ha sido capaz de transformar su estructura productiva y sus logros en la construcción de un Estado de Bienestar con mayor igualdad y desarrollo humano han sido ejemplo para América Latina. Ahora deben ser defendidos con una reforma fiscal integral y oportuna, sostuvo la Secretaria Ejecutiva de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), Alicia Bárcena, durante un viaje de trabajo de dos días al país centroamericano. Al iniciar su visita este jueves, la máxima representante de la CEPAL se reunió con el Vicepresidente del país y Ministro de Hacienda, Helio Fallas, p…

The United States-Central American Free Trade Agreement: fiscal implications for the Central American countries

In this paper we estimate the fiscal implications of the free trade agreement signed between the United States of America and the five Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Of the five possible effects on fiscal revenue (direct, indirect, elasticity, substitution and induced), in this paper we estimate the first three. The fourth effect is most likely negligible, whereas the estimation of the fifth one would be plagued by uncertainty, so we do not attempt it here. We use comparative statics to estimate the impact. We find the adverse …

Issues, effects and implications of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Agreement for CARICOM economies

The objective of this document is to analyse some of the main issues, effects and implications of the FTAA for Caribbean Community (CARICOM) economies. It also considers when relevant and for comparison purposes the cases of non-independent States. The document is divided into seven sections. Following the introduction, the second section describes, albeit briefly, the main issues that are found in the Free Trade Areas literature. The third section introduces the FTAA participants highlighting their economic and social disparities. The fourth section centers on the FTAA underlying principles …

Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2025: boosting investment for growth and sustainable development

The Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean 2025 analyses the developments and main trends in public revenues and expenditures, fiscal deficits, public debt and subnational fiscal accounts for the countries of the region in 2024. It confirms that with limited fiscal space, these countries continued to struggle to build up available resources and therefore faced persistent deficits and high debt levels. This report also examines tax incentive policies in dynamic sectors related to environmental sustainability and proposes strategies to increase effectiveness and strengthen governance…

Bases metodológicas y operativas para la administración de la inversión pública = Methodological and operational bases for public investment management

Presenta un análisis de la estructura de la inversión pública, empleando, dada la complejidad del tema, un enfoque de sistemas.…

Coordination of public expenditure in transport infrastructure: analysis and policy perspectives for Latin America

Multinational transport infrastructure (MTI) projects are fraught with coordination issues. This paper contributes by identifying the key issues necessary for effective MTI coordination, analyzing them using economic theory and putting them into perspective within the framework of major ongoing coordination efforts for MTI in Europe and Latin America. Specifically, this paper carries out the following. First, after mentioning the importance of transport infrastructure for growth and integration, we describe the characteristics of transport networks that make coordination essential. Second, we …

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. …

CEPAL y la Cooperación Alemana en el Quinto Foro de los Países de América Latina y el Caribe sobre el Desarrollo Sostenible

La Cooperación Alemana apoya la realización de cuatro eventos paralelos en el marco del Quinto Foro de los Países de América Latina y el Caribe sobre el Desarrollo Sostenible, que se efectuará entre el 7 y el 9 de marzo en San José de Costa Rica. 1. Casos ilustrativos del Gran Impulso para la Sostenibilidad (7 de marzo entre las 12:45-14:25 hrs Costa Rica, GMT-6) En el marco de este evento paralelo se presentarán tres casos de políticas industriales alineadas al concepto del Gran Impulso para la Sostenibilidad en América Latina y el Caribe, y el trabajo realizado en el ma…

Methodological bases for the programming and efficient management of public investment

Institutions and public policies for rural development in Guatemala

This article reviews the formal institutional framework forimplementing rural development policies in Guatemala, which originatedin the State modernization process promoted through the Peace Accords.The main thesis is that rural development policies will be more efficientif they are based on the institutional framework that the Peace Accordsprovided, which distinguishes between three levels of government: central,deconcentrated and decentralized. While the two sub-national levelsexecute 43% of total public investment, central government needs to targetthe budget on poor zones, cut subsidies to…