Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 1993-1996


Book Description

This publication gives insight into the economic trends, the international economy and the role of exchange rate policy in the region. It also explores the economic developments by country. Included also is a statistical annex on diskette.




Globalization and Development


Book Description

Globalization and Development draws upon the experiences of the Latin American and Caribbean region to provide a multidimensional assessment of the globalization process from the perspective of developing countries. Based on a study by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), this book gives a historical overview of economic development in the region and presents both an economic and noneconomic agenda that addresses disparity, respects diversity, and fosters complementarity among regional, national, and international institutions. For orders originating outside of North America, please visit the World Bank website for a list of distributors and geographic discounts at http://publications.worldbank.org/howtoorder or e-mail [email protected].







Human Rights in Development, Volume 4


Book Description

The tenth in a series of yearbooks, this edition contains articles on topical human rights issues as well as surveys of individual countries. A new feature is that more attention is given to `self-monitoring' articles investigating the human rights policies of countries in the North on specific issues and sectors. Another feature is that more effort is given to collaboration between institutions in the North and the South in writing articles and surveys. Both will be strengthened in future editions. The topics covered this year are development aid in support of indigenous peoples in Latin America, Dutch experiences with the linkage of aid to human rights observance in Mozambique, and an evaluation of Norway's human rights policies and aid with regard to the Palestinian areas in the wake of the Oslo Agreement. As a regular feature the Yearbook assesses human rights trends in various countries of the South, covering the full range from civil and political rights to economic, social and cultural rights. This year's edition contains surveys of Cuba, Guatemala, Libya, Senegal, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. Cuba, Libya and Senegal are included for the first time. The Yearbook on Human Rights in Developing Countries is a joint project of the Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen; the Danish Centre for Human Rights, Copenhagen; the Icelandic Human Rights Center, Reykjavik; the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights, Vienna; the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, Utrecht; the Norwegian Institute of Human Rights, Oslo; and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund.




The Rise of Neoliberalism and Institutional Analysis


Book Description

The last quarter century has been marked by the ascension of neoliberalism--market deregulation, state decentralization, and reduced political intervention in national economies. Not coincidentally, this period of dramatic institutional change has also seen the emergence of several schools of institutional analysis. Though these schools cut across disciplines, they have remained isolated from and critical of each other. This volume brings together four--rational choice, organizational, historical, and discursive institutionalism--to examine the rise of neoliberalism. In doing so, it makes tremendous methodological strides while substantively enlarging our knowledge about neoliberalism. The book comprises original empirical studies by top scholars from each school of analysis. They examine neoliberalism's rise on three continents and explore changes in macroeconomic policy, labor markets, taxation, banking, and health care. Neoliberalism appears as much more complex, diverse, and contested than is often appreciated. The authors find that there is no convergence toward a common set of neoliberal institutions; that neoliberalism does not incapacitate states; and that neoliberal reform does not necessarily yield greater efficiency than other institutional arrangements. Beyond these important empirical contributions, this book is a methodological milestone in that it compares different schools of institutionalist analysis by seeing how they tackle a common problem. It reveals a second movement within institutionalism--one toward rapprochement and cross-fertilization among paradigms--and explains how this might be furthered with benefits throughout the social sciences. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Sarah L. Babb, Ellen M. Bradburn, Bruce G. Carruthers, Terence C. Halliday, Colin Hay, Edgar Kiser, Peter Kjaer, Jack Knight, Aaron Matthew Laing, David Strang, and Bruce Western.




Struggles for Social Rights in Latin America


Book Description

This is a collection of original essays focusing on social rights in Latin America, covering four areas in particular: subsistence, labor, gender, and race/ethnicity within the original framework of human rights. Topics covered include the environment, AIDS, workers' rights, tourism, and many more.




Politics and Economics of Latin America


Book Description

Politics & Economics of Latin America, Volume 1




Law and Employment


Book Description

Law and Employment analyzes the effects of regulation and deregulation on Latin American labor markets and presents empirically grounded studies of the costs of regulation. Numerous labor regulations that were introduced or reformed in Latin America in the past thirty years have had important economic consequences. Nobel Prize-winning economist James J. Heckman and Carmen Pagés document the behavior of firms attempting to stay in business and be competitive while facing the high costs of complying with these labor laws. They challenge the prevailing view that labor market regulations affect only the distribution of labor incomes and have little or no impact on efficiency or the performance of labor markets. Using new micro-evidence, this volume shows that labor regulations reduce labor market turnover rates and flexibility, promote inequality, and discriminate against marginal workers. Along with in-depth studies of Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Jamaica, and Trinidad, Law and Employment provides comparative analysis of Latin American economies against a range of European countries and the United States. The book breaks new ground by quantifying not only the cost of regulation in Latin America, the Caribbean, and in the OECD, but also the broader impact of this regulation.




Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America


Book Description

Examine the changing nature of foreign investments in Latin America!Generously enhanced with easy-to-understand charts, tables, and graphs, this book covers the ins and outs of foreign direct investment in the established and emerging markets of Latin America. In addition to an overview of direct investment for the entire Latin American region in the 1990s, this valuable book examines specific countries’ experiences with FDI in that decade. These include Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.Spending on environmental projects is on the rise, and Latin American nations are at the forefront of this financial whirlwind in the developing world. Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America: Its Changing Nature at the Turn of the Century examines the difficulties of assessing environmental investments. It analyzes the role of international capital in Latin-American environmental issues and discusses the major players, such as the World Bank, in international capital and the environment.Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America presents case studies that illustrate: the history of FDI in Argentina and the impact of the privatization of state-owned enterprises in 1991-1993 the similarities and differences between 1990s FDI in Mexico and Chile the ways that modern investment in Brazil differs in purpose from investment there in previous economic eras how Peru addressed its balance-of-payments crisis in a time when its domestic financial markets were thin and there existed few sources of financing besides banks how Paraguay’s historical lack of infrastructure has hampered FDI efforts there Ecuador’s financial and balance-of-payments crisis-its currency is in free-fall and its financial institutions are on the brink of collapse . . . and much more!Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America packs all this valuable information into a single user-friendly source. As we move into the new millennium, no student, educator, or investor interested in this quickly evolving, volatile market should be without it!




Towards Sustainable Development in Central America and the Caribbean


Book Description

Since the economic decline in the early 1980s, most countries in Central America and the Caribbean have returned to positive growth rates. The recovery often coincided with or followed extensive neoliberal reforms. The contributors to this book address the crucial question of whether these growth rates are sustainable. Several aspects of sustainability are assessed, in particular macroeconomic, social, and ecological aspects. The book includes both comparative analyses focusing on one of these aspects of sustainability, and country case studies. The conclusion is that these countries have not yet arrived at a sustainable growth path due to, for example, high levels of foreign and domestic debt, worrisome trade gaps, a lack of social integration and irresponsible exploitation of natural resources. In sum, the analysis points to serious weaknesses in the current neoliberal model, the implications of which go far beyond this particular region.