Determinants of Equitable Social Policy in Latin America (1990–2013)

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 763-784
Author(s):  
DAVID ALTMAN ◽  
ROSSANA CASTIGLIONI

AbstractThe fact that equitable social policy expanded drastically in Latin America during the left turn and during a time of prosperity does not necessarily mean that the ideological color of governing parties and economic growth are the engines behind changes in social policy, as is usually claimed by part of the literature. Using panel data from Latin American countries for 1990–2013, this paper offers an alternative explanation, derived from previous qualitative research, that the level of political competition, the strength of civil society, and wealth are the key factors behind the expansion of equitable social policy. Once these explanations are included in our models, the ideological leaning of governments and economic growth lose statistical significance. Thus, this paper challenges dominant approaches that consider social policy change in Latin America a consequence of the ideological leaning of the government and economic growth.

2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 613-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARCELA MIOZZO

ABSTRACT East Asian countries have been successful at specialising in machinery and capital goods. Latin American countries, on the other hand, have retreated from these sectors, reinforcing their specialisation in resource-intensive goods. Institutional arrangements in place in both regions explain these divergences. In particular, the differences in the strategy and structure of leading firms, the nature of industrial promotion by the government, the development and support of small and medium-sized firms and the operation of foreign-owned firms may explain the respective success and failure in sectoral specialisation in machinery. Failure to develop these sectors may hinder the process of economic development.


Author(s):  
V. Krasil’shchikov

The paper deals with the problem of dependent development and conservative modernization in Latin America. Whereas external dependency has been the permanent feature of Latin American development since colonial times, conservative modernization can be treated as the essential effect of this development. Almost all significant reforms in Latin American countries began earlier than the own premises for them could mature, because they were the obliged responses to the external challenges and shocks the continent underwent. The social actors of those reforms were often interested in adaptation of the obsolete socioeconomic structures and relationships to the changed external conditions instead of their destruction and genuine social renewal. The cases of authoritarian modernizations in the Southern Cone countries in the 1960s–80s clearly illustrated such attempts of the ruling groups to go forward whilst looking back. The neoliberal reforms of the 1990s demonstrated, at first glance, continuation of this practice being a form of modernisation for the upper classes’ advantages. Meanwhile, as the author argues, these reforms were actually a “swan song” of conservative modernization in Latin America. The “left turn” of the next decade did not abolish external dependency of Latin American countries, but created some important premises for the rise of internally rooted impulses to endogenous development. The new social actors of this development, such as various NGOs and left-wing movements, began to emerge in Latin America. They propose own programmes of transition towards a knowledge-based, innovative economy. This phenomenon allows to suppose that some Latin American countries have real chances for technological breakthroughs in the future, and it will be the genuine deliverance from the model of a dependent, imitative development.


2009 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 928-950 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Tafunell

Investment in machinery is a key component in the analysis of long-term economic growth during the spread of industrialization. This article offers consistent annual series on the magnitude of machinery imports per capita into all Latin American countries for the period 1890-1930. Analysis of these series shows that machinery imports diverged across countries from 1890 through 1913. After 1913 a number of the more backward countries experienced rapid growth in machinery imports. These large differences in machinery investment contributed to unequal development across the Latin American countries.


2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (316) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Eduardo Ramírez Cedillo ◽  
Francisco López Herrera

<p>Se analiza la relación del crecimiento económico con el gasto público de 16 países latinoamericanos de 1990 a 2017. Este trabajo contribuye a la literatura sobre el tema enfocándose en la región. Los resultados de un modelo para paneles cointegrados respaldan la ley de Wagner en el largo plazo y brindan evidencia parcial a favor de las hipótesis de Keynes en el corto plazo.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p align="center">PUBLIC SPENDING AND GROWTH IN LATIN AMERICA:</p><p align="center">WAGNER´S LAW AND KEYNES’S HYPOTHESIS<strong></strong></p><p align="center"><strong>ABSTRACT</strong></p><p>The relationship between economic growth and public spending in 16 Latin American countries from 1990 to 2017 is analyzed. This paper contributes to the literature on the subject focusing on the region. The results from a model of cointegrated panels support Wagner’s Law in the long term and provides partial evidence in favor of the Keynesian hypotheses in the short term.</p>


Author(s):  
Guillermo Cruces ◽  
Gary S. Fields ◽  
David Jaume ◽  
Mariana Viollaz

This book examines the links between economic growth, changing employment conditions, and the reduction of poverty in Latin America in the 2000s. Its contribution is an in-depth study of the multi-pronged growth–employment–poverty nexus based on a large number of labour market indicators (twelve employment and earnings indicators and four poverty and inequality indicators) for a large number of Latin American countries (sixteen of them). It presents an exhaustive analysis of the growth–employment–poverty nexus which directly relates changes in all labour market indicators to economic growth, and changes in all employment and earnings indicators to changes in poverty. It also bases its analysis on a broader set of labour market indicators than those used in other studies.


2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathew YH Wong

Based on data from 16 Asian and 18 Latin American countries from 1996 to 2009, this article argues that corruption does indeed affect the distributive outcomes of government spending, but not necessarily in the expected direction. The incentives for bureaucrats and politicians to abuse their power during the budgetary process suggests that corruption should concentrate public funds in the hands of elites, exacerbating inequality. However, this should only be expected when corruption takes the form of looting (embezzlement). When it takes the form of cheating (vote-buying), it may actually reduce inequality as it involves resource distribution and building of clientelistic linkages. It is the level of political competition rather than regional differences that determines the distributional effects of corruption in Asia and Latin America. This article has profound implications for the study of corruption and policy outcomes, suggesting that the level of political competition is a key factor in determining the outcomes of corruption.


Author(s):  
Oleg Kondratenko

The policy and implementation of geostrategy of the Russian Federation in relation to the countries of the Latin-Caribbean region are considered. Russia is increasingly trying to demonstrate the status of a strategic partner with respect to Latin American Caribbean countries through the conclusion of various partnership agreements. On this basis, since the 2000s, the Russian Federation has sought to regain its influence in those Latin American countries that were the traditional sphere of presence of the USSR during the Cold War. It has been established that Russia is trying to gain favour among Latin American countries by establishing economic relations, mainly of a commercial nature. The Russian Federation has significant contracts for the supply of weapons to Latin American countries and is involved in the implementation of a number of energy projects, including the construction of nuclear power plants. Russia is also trying to demonstrate its presence in the region through the manoeuvres of its long-range strategic aviation and naval forces. At the same time, Russia is resorting to the support of bankrupt Latin American regimes such as the government of N. Maduro in Venezuela. All this has only exacerbated the crisis in Venezuela and its autocratic rule and led to a double rule in the country. However, Russia risks being pushed out of the region by China and the United States, which consider Latin America as a proving ground for a strategy of geo-economic “conquest”. The key countries for implementing the strategy of restoring Russia’s presence in the region are: Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and partly Brazil. The Russian Federation views these countries as strategic partners and a foothold for the further expansion of geopolitical and geo-economic influence in Latin America, as well as restrictions in the region of US influence. Against the backdrop of isolated manoeuvres by the Russian Air Force and the Navy, Moscow makes periodic statements about the rebuilding of former Soviet military bases in Latin American countries. However, such rhetoric of the Russian Federation can be regarded more as geopolitical PR in order to represent the virtual grandeur of Russia.


2004 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Isabel Neira Gómez ◽  
Marta Portela Maseda

In this article, we analyze the basic educational needs of the countries of Latin America, the education policies that are evolving within the region, and the policies that are proposed by the developed countries to meet these needs in the future. Educational aid for development will be the focus of this study. The first section contains an analysis of the basic needs in these countries, complemented by an analysis of the policies proposed by international organizations to resolve those needs. Finally, we discuss the influence that education exerts on economic growth and the role placed by international aid to education in the process of development of Latin American countries.


2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (65) ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Cecilia Bermúdez ◽  
Carlos Dabús

This paper reassesses the evidence presented in Levy-Yeyati and Sturzenegger (LYS) (2003) on the relation between exchange rate regimes and economic growth. We use their de facto classification as well as their database, in order to gain robustness and efficiency in the results. We run System GMM estimations. Additionally, we focus on Latin American countries for the period 1974-2004. Differently to LYS, our evidence indicates that exchange rate regimes are not significant to explain economic growth, both in a worldwide sample of countries and particularly in Latin America. However, in this region flexible regimes appear to have more advantages in terms of the role of the determinants of economic growth in relation to the other exchange regimes.


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