Revista de la CEPAL no.80

A decade of light and shadow: Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1990s

Foreword The 1990s were unquestionably a time of transition and reorientation in several aspects of Latin America and the Caribbean's economic, social and political development. As in any period with these characteristics, the effects of long-standing processes mingled and interacted with incipient change. When the decade ended, ECLAC wished to contribute to the evaluation of the main events that marked the consolidation of reform in the region, recognizing of course that the speed of progress varied from country to country and from sector to sector. This publication offers an analysis of…

Globalizing talent and human capital: implications for developing countries

Abstract Human capital flows can take several forms and include the international circulation of scientists, information technology experts, intellectuals, artists and entrepreneurs. The evidence shows that traditional brain drain , say a permanent and irreversible outflow of human capital, co-exists also with cycles of emigration and return of national talent ( brain circulation ). Thus, for developing countries, the emigration of domestic talent need not be always a permanent loss. However, although return rates vary from country to country, poor economies suffer particularly…

Eqüidade, desenvolvimento e cidadania

Neste livro são analisadas as oportunidades oferecidas pela incorporação à economia mundial e os riscos implicados, em termos de instabilidade financeira e exclusão. Além disso, propõe-se uma oreorientação dos padrões de desenvolvimento da região em torno do eixo da eqüidade; uma política social universal, solidária e eficiente; um desenvolvimento mais estável, dinâmico, integrador e sustentável, e um conceito integral de cidadania, fundamentado não apenas na participação política, mas também em uma maior participação dos atores sociais nos assuntos públicos, o que é essencial para enfrentar a…

Technological change and opportunities for development as a moving target

This article puts forward an interpretation of development as a process of accumulation of technological and social capabilities dependent upon taking advantage of successive and different windows of opportunity. These windows are determined from the core countries, through the technological revolutions which occur every half-century and the four phases of their deployment. The possibilities of progressing at each opportunity depend on the achievements made in the previous phase, on identifying the nature of the next one, understanding the techno-economic paradigm of the revolution in question…

Corporate competitiveness in Latin America and the Caribbean

This article looks at the evolution of international competitiveness in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1990s, focusing on the microeconomic and sectoral aspects. It evaluates the competitive performance of the region's countries, contrasting it with that of their main competitors in the developing world; it analyses the corporate actors involved, including the subsidiaries of transnational enterprises and large locally owned firms; and it sets forth some political considerations. Although progress has been made with competitiveness in the region, this has been lar…

La competitividad empresarial en América Latina y el Caribe

En este artículo se estudia la evolución de la competitividad internacional de los países de América Latina y el Caribe en el decenio de 1990, prestando atención a las dimensiones microeconómica y sectorial. Se evalúa el desempeño competitivo de los países de la región, contrastándolo con el de sus principales competidores en el mundo en desarrollo; se analizan los actores empresariales involucrados, entre ellos las filiales de empresas transnacionales y las grandes empresas de capital nacional, y se presentan consideraciones de política. Si bien se observan avances en la competitividad de la …

La vulnerabilidad social y sus desafíos: una mirada desde América Latina

(*) Roberto Pizarro es consultor de la División de Estadística y Proyecciones Económicas de la CEPAL. Las opiniones expresadas en este documento, que no ha sido sometido a revisión editorial, son de exclusiva responsabilidad del autor y pueden no coincidir con las de la Organización. Resumen A comienzos del nuevo siglo la vulnerabilidad se ha constituido en el rasgo social dominante de América Latina. El predominio del mercado en la vida económica, la economía abierta al mundo y el repliegue del estado de las funciones que tuvo en el pasado provocaron un cambio de envergadura en las …

Equidad, desarrollo y ciudadanía

Presentación El vigesimoctavo período de sesiones de la CEPAL, realizado en México en abril de 2000, coincide con el inicio de una nueva década y un nuevo siglo. Esta circunstancia llevó a la Secretaría a preparar un documento, Equidad, desarrollo y ciudadanía, que presenta en forma integral el pensamiento de la institución sobre los retos del desarrollo de la región en el mundo de hoy. Con el ánimo de facilitar su difusión, la presente edición del documento se ha realizado en tres tomos, en coedición con Alfaomega Grupo Editor.El tomo I -Visión global- tiene dos capítulos. El primero analiza …

Cambio tecnológico y dinámica industrial en América Latina

Los temas de este artículo se hallan en la intersección de la literatura sobre cambio tecnológico y aquella sobre dinámica industrial. El análisis se centra en la vinculación entre la forma de acumulación de conocimientos técnicos en una industria y la probabilidad de que la innovación pueda constituirse en el vehículo para el ingreso de nuevas empresas al sector. Los estudios de los países desarrollados abordan este tema a través de dos enfoques: el de los regímenes tecnológicos y el del ciclo de vida de la industria, conceptos ambos de raigambre evolucionista; en el artículo se dedica la sec…

CEPAL Review no.71

Revista de la CEPAL no.71

Technological changes and industrial dynamics in Latin America

The subject-matter of this article lies at the crossroads between the literature on technological change and that on industrial dynamics. The analysis centers on the links between the form of accumulation of technical know-how in an industry and the likelihood that the innovation in question can become a vehicle for the entry of new enterprises into the sector. The studies on the developed countries tackle this matter through two approaches: that of technological regimes and that based on the life-cycle of industry. Both these concepts are of an evolutionary nature and are set forth in section…

L'équité, le développement et la citoyenneté: synthèse

Social dimensions of economic development and productivity: inequality and social performance

Abstract Stable, sustainable economic development cannot be achieved unless and until social development also takes place. Consequently, the social dimensions of economic development and productivity are as important as the economic dimensions. In Latin America, inequality is the social dimension of utmost concern. Income and social inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean is the highest in the world, and the performance of the social sector is inadequate. These conditions are severely hampering economic growth and individual prosperity. More attention and investment is needed to reduce i…

Brasil: uma década em transição

A CEPAL - Comissão Econômica para a América Latina e o Caribe coordenou um projeto sobre Crescimento, Emprego e Eqüidade na América Latina nos anos 90, envolvendo a análise das experiências de reformas adotadas em nove países da região nesse período, e buscando sistematizar o conhecimento a esse respeito, identificar os traços comuns entre essas experiências e sugerir medidas de política. Esse projeto cobriu cinco áreas temáticas: reformas macroeconômicas e sociais, processos de investimento e crescimento, estrutura de progresso técnico e sistemas nacionais de inovação, geração de emprego e d…

Equidad, inversión extranjera y competitividad internacional

¿Es el grado de competitividad de los países independiente de su grado de desigualdad? ¿Es la competitividad una cuestión sólo de eficiencia microeconómica y sectorial, del tipo de cambio real, o es también una cuestión social? Hasta ahora los trabajos que se encuentra en la literatura han hecho abstracción del problema de la equidad en la determinación de la competitividad de los países. Pero entonces no han podido explicar plenamente la competitividad observada. En este artículo se incorpora la equidad en la función de producción y también en las decisiones de los inversionistas en un mundo …

Competitividad y regulaciones laborales

En este artículo se analizan las relaciones entre la competitividad de una economía y las respectivas regulaciones laborales. Se argumenta que la teoría económica no es concluyente respecto del impacto de las regulaciones laborales en la competitividad, ya que diversas corrientes sostienen posiciones contradictorias en muchos aspectos. Por otra parte, las investigaciones empíricas han mostrado la escasa relevancia de la información aportada sobre esas presuntas vinculaciones. De lo anterior se desprenden consecuencias de política: los países tienen ante sí diversas estrategias y mayores márgen…

Equity, foreign investment and international competitiveness

Is the degree of competitiveness of countries independent of their degree of inequality? Is competitiveness only a question of microeconomic and sectoral efficiency, of the real exchange rate, or is it also a social question? So far, the specialized literature has ignored the problem of equity in the determination of countries' competitiveness. It has then been unable to provide a full explanation of the competitiveness actually observed, however. In this article, equity is incorporated into the production function and also into investors' decisions in a world of perfect mobility of …

Competitiveness and labour regulations

This article analyses the relations between the competitiveness of an economy and the labour regulations in force in it. It is argued that economic theory is by no means conclusive regarding the impact of labour regulations on competitiveness, since different schools of thought maintain opposing positions in many respects. Moreover, empirical research has shown that the evidence put forward with respect to these assumed linkages is not very relevant. Various policy consequences follow from this: countries have various strategies open to them and greater leeway that is usually suggested, since …