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- Volume 2003, Issue 79, 2003
CEPAL Review - Volume 2003, Issue 79, 2003
Volume 2003, Issue 79, 2003
Cepal Review is the leading journal for the study of economic and social development issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. Edited by the Economic Commission for Latin America, each issue focuses on economic trends, industrialization, income distribution, technological development and monetary systems, as well as the implementation of reforms and transfer of technology. Written in English and Spanish (Revista De La Cepal), each tri-annual issue brings you approximately 12 studies and essays undertaken by authoritative experts or gathered from conference proceedings.
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The terms of trade for commodities in the twentieth century
Authors: José Antonio Ocampo and María Angela ParraThis paper looks at the evolution of the terms of trade between commodities and manufactures in the twentieth century. A statistical analysis of the relative price series for 24 commodities and eight indices reveals a significant deterioration in their barter terms of trade over the years 1900 to 2000. This decline was not continuous, however, nor was it distributed evenly among individual products. As is shown here, the far-reaching changes that the world economy underwent around 1920 and again around 1980 led to a stepwise deterioration which, over the long term, was reflected in a decline of nearly 1% per year in the aggregate indices of real raw material prices.
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Are Central American export specialization patterns “sticky”?
Authors: Klaus Lindegaard and Leiner VargasIn the national innovation systems of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), countries’ export performance is considered to be the measure of their international competitiveness. The national specificity of economic performance is shown by the “stickiness” of each country’s export pattern and indicates how much room for manoeuvre there is in each case for economic development policy initiatives. The authors introduce an analysis of the export specialization patterns of the Central American countries. They follow the methodology of innovative European research, taking into account econometric evidence of revealed symmetric comparative advantage for those countries’ exports to the OECD, the CAN database of ECLAC being used for this purpose. This global analysis shows that in these countries’ exports, agriculture- and maquila-based products with little value added have “sticky” characteristics.
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Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Latin America
Author: Emilio Zevallos V.This article presents the characteristics and situation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in a number of Latin American countries. First of all, it considers the most common definitions used in each country and establishes the number of enterprises in each category, together with their sectoral and regional distribution. It then analyses the influence that the business environment has on the management of enterprises, their problems and the public response, with consideration given to the degree of institutional development in the region and the impact of this on business behaviour. In the light of supply and demand aspects, lastly, it suggests areas for improvement and mechanisms for public-private coordination. It also identifies some problem areas for businesses and formulates proposals for greater and more effective involvement by those responsible for the design and implementation of development policies in the region.
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Accountability in government programmes to promote small and medium-sized enterprises
Authors: Mario Castillo and Roy C. NelsonA potential threat to the effectiveness of institutions in Latin America promoting small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) development is that these programmes might become clientelistic agencies, advancing interests other than the welfare of the SMEs themselves. As governments in Latin America have adopted more market-oriented policies, however, government institutions in the region that promote SMEs are undergoing a similar transformation. Our hypothesis is that two factors, the extent to which an institution has adopted market-oriented practices and its degree of autonomy (both from government and from societal interest groups), are what determine its level of accountability, as measured by the extent to which the institution conducts systematic, independent evaluations of the impact of its programmes. The four cases examined here (SEBRAE in Brazil, NAFIN in Mexico, CORFO in Chile and SEPYME in Argentina) show that the hypothesis is valid for government institutions, but less so for private institutions with assured budgets.
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ECLAC, transnational corporations and the quest for a Latin American development strategy
Author: Daniel Kernerpaper analyses the role assigned to foreign direct investment and transnational corporations in the ECLAC development project, examining the history of the institution and its most representative publications. With impressive continuity in its vision and policy recommendations, ECLAC has recognized the need for foreign investment as an aid for Latin American development, but has been cautious about its consequences. ECLAC has continually called for close scrutiny and regulation of the activities of transnational corporations. The main idea underlying these recommendations is that Latin American-owned industries have to be the guiding forces of economic development. In addition, ECLAC has consistently stressed the benefits of Latin American integration in helping expand Latin American industries, foster autochthonous research and development and provide Latin American governments with information and bargaining power vis-à-vis transnational corporations.
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Policy response to poverty and inequality in the developing world
Author: Albert BerryThe author argues that the effectiveness of poverty alleviation instruments largely depends on how poverty is defined. The aim of reducing absolute poverty chiefly entails a discussion of growth, historically the main factor in this process. If poverty is defined in relative terms, on the other hand, then it is changes in inequality that are the main factor behind variations in its incidence. In any event, the relationship between the two potential sources of poverty reduction is crucial.
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Expanding the coverage of pension systems in Latin America
Authors: Luis Felipe Jiménez and Jéssica CuadrosDespite the reforms undertaken by several countries in Latin America, the coverage of the region’s pension systems remains inadequate. Underlying that circumstance are both context-sensitive factors and those of a more structural nature, such as the level of relative development, the difficulty of covering certain segments of the labour market, and the way in which the systems and incentives are designed. Given the decisive influence of the structural factors, the expansion of coverage will require the right combination of contributory and non-contributory systems, to which end this article makes some policy recommendations. Forestalling poverty in old age demands a combination of social insurance elements (based on saving and unfunded systems) and social security, involving some solidary and tax-related financing.
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Pension reform in Europe in the 1990s: Lessons for Latin America
Authors: Louise Fox and Edward PalmerReform of European pension systems started from a situation in which income differentials were fairly small, partly owing to the high coverage of the system. In Latin America, informal working and inadequate coverage are still problems, and income inequality is high. Even so, both regions are moving towards individual account systems with strong links between contributions and benefits. Latin America has introduced compulsory financial accounts. Europe is moving towards lifetime pay-as-you-go accounts. Some European countries have set up notional defined contribution systems. In Latin America, the need to provide guarantees for the poor and the specific problem of women’s poverty will be at the forefront as long as coverage remains inadequate. Other important issues are the minimum retirement age and the moral hazard associated with systems that encourage or support early retirement. Where these points and the problems of poverty are concerned, the European experience repays careful study.
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The Argentine crisis and its impact on household welfare
Authors: Ariel Fiszbein, Paula Inés Giovagnoli and Isidro AdúrizThe analysis of integration processes between two economies has traditionally focused on identifying the intensity of trade creation and diversion, estimated through a simulation of the impact of the reduction or elimination of trade barriers. At the same time, the literature on multinational corporations has stressed the growing weight of intra-firm transactions in total foreign trade. This paper attempts to compare these two theoretical approaches by analysing the geographical orientation of the leading Brazilian export firms and, on that basis, inferring the potential impact on estimates of the effects of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The hypothesis is that, by taking into account the significance of subsidiary firms in the country’s foreign trade and the geographical concentration of these firms’ external commercial transactions, the results derived from the creation of FTAA may differ from those obtained through simulations based on the reduction or elimination of trade barriers.
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The determinants of recent foreign bank penetration in Brazil
Author: Luiz Fernando Rodrigues de PaulaThis paper sets out to analyse the determinants of recent foreign bank investments in the Brazilian retail banking market and the strategies of the major European banks in Brazil. Since the recent wave of banking internationalization, financial institutions have continued to pursue their existing relationships while seeking greater integration into local markets. The recent influx of European banks into Latin America and Brazil, meanwhile, has been due to a varied range of factors, including bank restructuring in Europe, the dynamic of internationalization in the Spanish banking system and the process of market deregulation in the region. The paper also stresses some common and specific features of the major European banks in Brazil. One common feature is that they are large universal banks which have chosen to develop abroad as a business expansion strategy.
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