This publication contains the presentations, comments, conclusions and final panel review of the Symposium on International Migration in the Americas, held in September 2000 in San José, Costa Rica. The event attracted enthusiastic participation and contributions from government representatives, specialists in the study of international migration, delegates from civil society organizations and experts from international agencies. The book is structured to match the five broad topics into which the sessions were divided: (i) Migratory trends and patterns in the Americas; (ii) Relations between …
La transición demográfica, cuyos efectos impulsan el proceso de envejecimiento, hace patente la necesidad de establecer políticas públicas dirigidas a las personas de 60 y más años, con acción en los planos económico, social, político y cultural, y en procura de promover un clima favorable a la incorporación de los adultos mayores al desarrollo de los países de la región. La base del accionar está en los acuerdos internacionales sobre la tercera edad, las políticas públicas y la institucionalidad. Un lugar destacado ocupa la noción de 'una sociedad para todas las edades' (lema del Añ…
Resumen La población de Guatemala es la más numerosa entre los países del istmo centroamericano, y aunque su ritmo de crecimiento medio anual ha disminuido en los últimos años, todavía se mantiene elevado y es sólo ligeramente menor que el observado en Honduras y Nicaragua durante el período 1995-2000. Ello ha sido el resultado de la persistencia de una elevada fecundidad -la más alta de la región latinoamericana- y de la disminución de la mortalidad, que contribuyó a una mayor sobrevivencia de la población. Como saldo neto de estos cambios, la población guatemalteca se caracteriza por su ex…
Tres enfoques -de la desigualdad, de la dependencia y de la vulnerabilidad- se usan para analizar la vejez en tanto su condición de fenómeno social complejo; todos ellos reconocen el sustrato fisiológico de la ancianidad, pero dan mayor importancia a los factores socioculturales para explicar el papel de las personas de edad en las comunidades y las familias y para investigar sobre sus condiciones y su calidad de vida. Se plantean las potencialidades y debilidades de nociones como calidad y estilos de vida para capturar las diferentes facetas de la vida social de la tercera edad. Se pasa revis…
Resumen
Se procede a analizar algunas de las dimensiones relevantes de la migración calificada; en primer lugar se realiza una breve descripción del contexto y de las tendencias de la migración internacional, con referencia general a la migración de personal calificado en América Latina. Luego se examinan sus percepciones, determinantes y consecuencias y aquí destaca el amplio espectro de enfoques existentes. Se procura mostrar los escenarios y estrategias que se registran en los países desarrollados en comparación a los de los países en desarrollo y se exploran y discuten las oportunidades y …
Resumen La experiencia argentina presenta especial interés debido a que las reformas energéticas puestas en ejecución, especialmente en el sector eléctrico, suelen presentarse como modelo exitoso a seguir por otros países de la región. Sin embargo, casi no existen trabajos que realicen un análisis comprehensivo y específico de las condiciones de contexto en el que se enmarcó ese proceso y sobre su desempeño desde la culminación del proceso de reforma. De acuerdo con ello, los propósitos principales del análisis de este trabajo se vinculan con: i) las características de la reforma del sistema …
Introduction The social agenda is long-term in nature, in the sense that poverty alleviation along with a better distribution of income, wealth and opportunities are long-term goals. A sound macroeconomic policy, on the other hand, has to do largely with the consistent management of short-term policy instruments pursuing a sustainable and predictable pace for aggregate economic variables and major prices (wages, inflation, interest rates and exchange rates). In spite of the different arena and rationale in which they play, there are strong links between the two. First and most obvious,…
This is the fifty-third edition in this series. The first part of the Survey covers the regional economy. It begins with a chapter dealing with the situation in the first half of 2001 and the prospects for the year as a whole. This was previously published separately with the title 2001: Current Conditions and Outlook. The analysis of the various aspects of the regional economy in 2000 consists of three chapters on macroeconomic policies and reforms, the performance of the internal economy and the external sector. The second part contains analysis of the economic performance of the 20 …
This document contains an analysis of and statistics on the economic performance of the region as a whole and of individual Latin American and Caribbean countries in 2001.
Regional output grew at a very slow pace (0.5%) in 2001 and growth prospects for 2002 are not promising. This situation is directly linked to the global economic crisis, which is affecting the region primarily through trade channels in the midst of unstable world financial markets. Given the scope of these adverse external factors, however, the region's economies succeeded in averting serious domestic or external disequ…
En esta publicación se hace un análisis de la evolución de la economía
regional en el año 2001, desde una perspectiva comparativa e individual por países.
En él se consigna que la fuerte desaceleración que ha mostrado la economía
mundial truncó la recuperación iniciada en 2000 en los países de la región
y, con ella, las esperanzas de que se diera paso a una etapa de crecimiento en
América Latina y el Caribe.
El producto regional creció apenas (0.5%); y las perspectivas de crecimiento
para el 2002 no son alentadoras. Esta situación está directamente vinculada
con la crisis económica mundial, qu…
CONTENTS I.Water pollution: European Commission versus Portugal.II. Bolivia, Potosí: NGO Protests against Legalization of Water Export.III.Canada: A primer on water policy and trade issues.IV. Unprecedented action to protect the Danube River and the Black Sea.V. Mexican desert state and US farmers fight for water.VI. War for water: Suez CEO Launches Appeal.VII. Globalization: NGO Warns of Mass Water Sell-Off.VIII.The case of community water law.IX. German federal and regional ministers of environment against new Czech dams.X. The Commission on Environment of the European parliament …
This issue of CEPAL Review includes a special section to commemorate Raúl Prebisch in the centennial of his birthday, containing a selection of articles prepared by renowned social scientists involved with Latin American development thinking.…
Este número de la Revista de la CEPAL incluye un homenaje a Raúl Prebisch en el centenario de su nacimiento, con un conjunto de artículos de distinguidas personalidades de las ciencias sociales vinculadas al pensamiento sobre América Latina.…
The hundredth anniversary of the birth of Raúl Prebisch
is an invaluable opportunity for us to take another look
at the ideas of this great Latin American, one of the
thinkers from the developing world who has had the
strongest influence in world economic debates. His
ideas have been the subject of heavy criticism, but much
of this has been based on distorted versions of his
thinking or of its practical application, rather than his
true intellectual work. Taking his proposals out of their
historical context has also been a frequent practice, even
by some of his own followers. It should be reme…
Prebisch arrived at ECLA for the first time in 1949, to
write a report in which he set out his views on the main
problems then facing the economic development of
Latin America (Prebisch, 1949);. As he had been hired
as an outside consultant, he did not receive the support
of other members of the institution in its preparation,
nor did he have much time at his disposal, so that the
report was a reflection of the ideas he already held prior
to joining ECLA. As the content of that work made a
great impact on academic and political circles in the
region and came to be considered one of the basic p…
Introduction (first paragraph);
When Raúl Prebisch died in 1986 his ideas were out of fashion in Ronald Reagan's Washington and Latin American capitals, dismissed by most Western economists as passé -or even dangerously misguided in the new crusade for globalization. Only United Nations circles and a narrowing band of supporters insisted on his permanent contribution. It was as if his life had merely reflected the turbulence of the short, violent century (as Hobsbawn termed it);; now that it was over, with the Cold War consigned to history, so too (it appeared); was Prebisch&#…
In its most orthodox version, neoclassical economic theory has occupied a leading place in Latin American economic policy discussions in recent years. According to this doctrine, the market mechanisms -if allowed to operate in complete freedom- allocate production resources in the most efficient manner possible. Any interference by State policy with this allocation will lead to loss of efficiency and a reduction in the growth rate of the economy compared with the optimum level that could be obtained through the free play of the market forces. The virtues of the main body of this economic theor…
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…
This article seeks to analyse some mesoeconomic and microeconomic aspects related with productivity and international competitiveness in the context of the new Latin American economic model. These aspects go a long way towards explaining why those variables have not evolved satisfactorily in the different countries and sectors of activity, and why a strictly macroeconomic reading prevents a proper understanding of the changes which are taking place in society at the economic, technological and institutional levels, as well as impeding the identification of a public policy agenda which could he…
The influence of economic growth on numerous aspects of the economy and society is a frequently recurring topic among economists, especially at present, when profound economic and social transformations are under way in most of the countries of the region, while simultaneously there is an awareness that there are great shortcomings in terms of income distribution and that a high percentage of the population is in a state of poverty. A strong desire therefore exists to determine the capacity of economic growth to cope with those problems. This article begins by placing the issue in a conceptual…
