scholarly journals Human macroecology, energy use scaling, and the sustainability of cities: A look at Latin America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Weinberger ◽  
Joseph Robert Burger
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Renewable Resources ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Scaling Analysis ◽  
Modern Cities ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Latin American Countries

We take a human macroecological approach using energy as a fundamental currency to quantify the emergence and future sustainability of urban societies globally with a special look at Latin America. Energetic scaling analysis showed most modern humans in cities in Latin America and elsewhere live at densities of ~10,000 ind/km2, ~4 orders of magnitude greater than our hunter-gatherer ancestors (<1 ind/km2). Meanwhile, modern cities consume ~10,000 watts mostly in the form of extra-metabolic (e.g., fossil fuels), ~2 orders of magnitude greater than hunter-gatherer biological metabolism (~120 watts). Further analysis of World Bank data across and within nations over time showed per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), energy use, and CO2 emissions are lowest in predominantly rural countries, increase in urbanizing countries and are greatest in the most urban countries. For the same level of urbanization, Latin American countries show lower per capita GDP, energy use, and CO2 emissions than global averages. These trends coincide with changes in employment with rural countries employed largely in resource-extraction sectors and highly urbanized nations in service economies. Latin American countries have higher employment in resource sectors compared to most urban countries. Increasing energy use, especially fossil fuel use, underlies urbanization and changes in economic lifestyle. However, these trends cannot continue indefinitely. Latin America, because of its rich renewable and non-renewable resources, may be spared from future uncertainties inherent to complex human-nature systems including from climate change, energy scarcity, pandemics, migration, and trade agreements if it chooses to: 1) rapidly transition to renewable powered economies, and 2) reduce population and economy size within local and regional renewable biocapacities. A rapid cultural evolution is of the essence.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Mortality Rate and Its Incidence in Latin America: Dependence on Demographic and Economic Variables

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (13) ◽  
pp. 6900
Author(s):  
Javier Cifuentes-Faura
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Population Density ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Death Rates ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Latin American Countries ◽  
Quality Infrastructure

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has left millions infected and dead around the world, with Latin America being one of the most affected areas. In this work, we have sought to determine, by means of a multiple regression analysis and a study of correlations, the influence of population density, life expectancy, and proportion of the population in vulnerable employment, together with GDP per capita, on the mortality rate due to COVID-19 in Latin American countries. The results indicated that countries with higher population density had lower numbers of deaths. Population in vulnerable employment and GDP showed a positive influence, while life expectancy did not appear to significantly affect the number of COVID-19 deaths. In addition, the influence of these variables on the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 was analyzed. It can be concluded that the lack of resources can be a major burden for the vulnerable population in combating COVID-19 and that population density can ensure better designed institutions and quality infrastructure to achieve social distancing and, together with effective measures, lower death rates.

scholarly journals Distributive Implications of Fertility Changes in Latin America

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolás Badaracco ◽  
Leonardo Gasparini ◽  
Mariana Marchionni
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Main Channel ◽  
Income Poverty ◽  
Household Surveys ◽  
Fertility Rates ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
Lower Fertility ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Latin American Countries

Fertility rates significantly fell over the last decades in Latin America. In order to assess the extent to which these changes contributed to the observed reduction in income poverty and inequality, we apply microeconometric decomposition to microdata from national household surveys from seven Latin American countries. We find that changes in fertility rates were associated with a nonnegligible reduction in inequality and poverty in the region. The main channel was straightforward: lower fertility implied smaller families and hence larger per capita incomes. Lower fertility also fostered labor force participation, especially among women, which contributed to the reduction of poverty and inequality in most countries, although the size of this effect was smaller.

scholarly journals Reduction of CO2 Emissions Due to Energy Use in Crete-Greece

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Vourdoubas
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Heating Oil ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Reduction Of Co2 ◽  
Negative Growth

Use of fossil fuels in modern societies results in CO2 emissions which, together with other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, increase environmental degradation and climate changes. Carbon dioxide emissions in a society are strongly related with energy consumption and economic growth, being influenced also from energy intensity, population growth, crude oil and CO2 prices as well as the composition of energy mix and the percentage of renewable energies in it.The last years in Greece, the severe economic crisis has affected all sectors of the economy, has reduced the available income of the citizens and has changed the consumers’ behavior including the consumption of energy in all the activities. Analysis of the available data in the region of Crete over the period 2007-2013 has shown a significant decrease of energy consumption and CO2 emissions due to energy use by 25.90% compared with the reduction of national G.D.P. per capita over the same period by 25.45% indicating the coupling of those emissions with the negative growth of the economy. Carbon dioxide emissions per capita in Crete in 2013 are estimated at 4.96 tons. Main contributors of those emissions in the same year were electricity generation from fuel and heating oil by 64.85%, heating sector by 3.23% and transportation by 31.92%.

scholarly journals Capital Formation in Machinery in Latin America, 1890-1930

2009 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 928-950 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Tafunell
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Capital Formation ◽  
Annual Series ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Latin American Countries

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.

scholarly journals Sorry it took me so long: Latin America and rapid governments’ response to COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-130
Author(s):  
Ian Rebouças Batista ◽  
Amanda Domingos ◽  
Rodrigo Lins
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Gdp Per Capita ◽  
Institutional Variables ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Latin American Countries

When facing the COVID-19 pandemic, what was key to governments’ response velocity throughout Latin America? The region had more information on what to do to prevent the disease from spreading itself and social isolation was the most recommended measure to avoid contamination. Still, Latin American countries varied greatly on how fast they adopted strict social isolation measures. We deploy an explanatory work on which institutional designs collaborates with higher delay in governments’ adoption of these measures. Among the institutional variables considered, we find that our variable of interest (delay) correlates strongly and positively with democracy, negatively with concentration of power, and positively with GDP per capita. These might suggest that autocrats faced less institutional and moral constraints to act, while democratic leaders dealing with pluralism and accountability faced higher costs to implement such measures. Due to the small sample, we next investigate  ’ experience looking for examples for the found correlations.Keywords: Government’s delay; COVID-19; Political Institutions

Club convergence in Latin America

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Martin ◽  
Guillermo Vazquez
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Capita Income ◽  
Per Capita Income ◽  
Club Convergence ◽  
Convergence Test ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Transition Modeling ◽  
Latin American Countries

AbstractThis paper assesses the convergence in per capita income of a group of 18 Latin American countries over the period 1950–2008. We employ a novel regression based convergence test proposed by (Phillips, P. C. B., and D. Sul. 2007. “Transition Modeling and Econometric Convergence Tests.”

National attributes associated with multilateral and US bilateral aid to Latin America: 1960–1971

1978 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 463-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Thomas Rowe
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The Political ◽  
Bilateral Aid ◽  
Multilateral Aid ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Latin American Countries

Proponents of multilateral aid have generally assumed that such aid is less responsive than bilateral aid to the political characteristics of recipient countries. Many critics of foreign aid have challenged this assumption, arguing that US influence ensures that multilateral programs serve the same interventionist purposes as bilateral. This study of per capita aid allocations to Latin American countries confirms that there are strong similarities in the distribution of aid. However, when the relationships between aid data and data on national attributes are examined, the results do not support the notion that political characteristics account for the similarities. For some multilateral agencies, there is little or no association between aid and recipient political attributes. For others, there are associations with political features, but the associations are not identical with those of US bilateral aid. In short, whatever the determinants behind decisions on the allocation of bilateral and multilateral aid, the same considerations with regard to the politics of potential recipients do not appear to be operating. All of this does not mean that US interests are not being served by multilateral programs. They may be served in a variety of ways, and still be consistent with the results reported here. That important issue is beyond the scope of this very limited study.

scholarly journals Lost Decades? Economic Performance in Post-Independence Latin America

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
LEANDRO PRADOS DE LA ESCOSURA
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Economy ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The World ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Latin American Countries

AbstractIn this paper the economic performance of post-independence Latin America is assessed in comparative perspective. The release from the colonial fiscal burden was partly offset by higher costs of self-government, while the opening of independent Latin American countries to the international economy represented a handmaiden of growth. Regional disparities increased after independence, so generalisations about the region's long-run behaviour are not straightforward. However, on average, per capita income grew in Latin America, and although the region fell behind compared with the United States and Western Europe, it improved or maintained its position relative to the rest of the world. Thus the term ‘lost decades’ appears an unwarranted depiction of the period between 1820 and 1870.

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