The Caribbean region needs to take full advantage of the data revolution. Big data - a critical element of this revolution - is the term used to describe the enormous amount of digital information that is generated when people go about their daily activities, including shopping, talking, texting, internet surfing, and traveling. It also includes information about natural phenomena generated and/or transmitted by machines, including satellites.
The main characteristics of these data that qualify them as Big data are that they are large in volume, they are generated very frequently and they cove…
This study uses internationally comparable methodologies to analyse the distributional impact of income tax and public transfers in 17 countries of Latin America. The results indicate that fiscal policy plays a limited role in improving the distribution of disposable income; the Gini coefficient decreased by barely three percentage points after direct fiscal action. On average, 61% of this reduction was due to public cash transfers and the rest to direct taxes, reflecting the pressing need for personal income tax to be strengthened. Analysis of household surveys gives an indication of the pote…
En este trabajo se efectúan mediciones, comparables con las metodologías internacionales,
sobre la incidencia distributiva del impuesto a la renta y las transferencias públicas
monetarias en 17 países de América Latina. Los resultados indican que la política fiscal
juega un papel limitado en mejorar la distribución del ingreso disponible; el coeficiente
de Gini baja apenas tres puntos porcentuales luego de la acción fiscal directa. En
promedio, el 61% de esta reducción proviene de las transferencias públicas en efectivo
y el resto de los tributos directos, reflejo del imperativo de fortalecer …
This document, prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Washington Office, presents and analyzes the most recent developments (first half of 2015) concerning capital flows to Latin America and the Caribbean.…
This paper addresses some unintended consequences of global financial regulation and international tax evasion prevention and their impact on small economies. It explores how failure to recognize countries’ differing access to finance and varying costs of funding as well as the high costs of complying with financial regulations may overlook some unintended consequences, especially on smaller island countries
Then, it discusses the global financial architecture and governance of standard setting bodies and the actions taken to improve representation and legitimacy and remediate some of the unin…
“There is no question that the Caribbean is shouldering an unsustainable debt burden which compromises the capacity of the economies for sustained growth and restricts the options available to governments to introduce important social and welfare programmes” the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, said via video conference in opening the 17th meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC) on 26 June, during which Ministers and high-level Government representatives from the…