Physical Capital Development and Energy Transition in Latin America and the Caribbean introduces the reader to applied theory and potential solutions to manage the transition from fossil energies to renewables given the resource wealth and infrastructural limitations of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. The work presents consistent empirical approaches and relevant econometric approaches grounded in case studies that offer realistic portrayals of complex multidisciplinary phenomena. It provides policymakers with the knowledge needed for economic decision-making, especially regarding the energy transition and the physical capital development in the LAC (and similar developing regions). The work concludes by road mapping future LAC physical capital investment options to promote 21st-century sustainable energy development. - Analyses the macroeconomics of physical capital and energy transition in LAC countries - Uses case studies to draw pragmatic comparative energy policy implications - Deploys econometric techniques to address empirical approaches on energy and development economics - Discusses the effects of the energy transition on environmental degradation - Links energy economics and public investment management
Over the last two decades, economic, political, and social life in Latin America has been transformed by the region’s accelerated integration into the global economy. Although this transformation has tended to exacerbate various inequities, new forms of popular expression and action challenging the contemporary structures of capital and power have also developed. This volume is a comprehensive, genuinely comparative text on contemporary Latin America. In it, an international group of contributors offer multidimensional analyses of the historical context, contemporary character, and future direction of rural transformation, urbanization, economic restructuring, and the transition to political democracy. In addition, individual essays address the changing role of women, the influence of religion, the growth of new social movements, the struggles of indigenous peoples, and ecological issues. Finally, the book examines the influence of U.S. policy and of regionalization and globalization on the Latin American states. Sandor Halebsky is professor of sociology at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He coedited Cuba in Transition: Crisis and Transformation (Westview, 1992). Richard L. Harris is chair of the faculty at Golden Gate University in Monterey, California. He is one of the coordinating editors of the journal Latin American Perspectives and the author of Marxism, Socialism, and Democracy in Latin America (Westview, 1992).
What caused the decline in wage inequality of the 2000s in Latin America? Looking to the future, will the current economic slowdown be regressive? Wage Inequality in Latin America: Understanding the Past to Prepare for the Future addresses these two questions by reviewing relevant literature and providing new evidence on what we know from the conceptual, empirical, and policy perspectives. The answer to the fi rst question can be broken down into several parts, although the bottom line is that the changes in wage inequality resulted from a combination of three forces: (a) education expansion and its eff ect on falling returns to skill (the supply-side story); (b) shifts in aggregate domestic demand; and (c) exchange rate appreciation from the commodity boom and the associated shift to the nontradable sector that changed interfi rm wage diff erences. Other forces had a non-negligible but secondary role in some countries, while they were not present in others. These include the rapid increase of the minimum wage and a rapid trend toward formalization of employment, which played a supporting role but only during the boom. Understanding the forces behind recent trends also helps to shed light on the second question. The analysis in this volume suggests that the economic slowdown is putting the brakes on the reduction of inequality in Latin America and will likely continue to do so—but it might not actually reverse the region’s movement toward less wage inequality.
This volume documents and explains the reduction of income inequality that has taken place in the majority of Latin American countries over the last decade.
The effects of globalization on poverty and inequality are a key issue in contemporary international politics, yet they have been neglected in international relations and comparative politics literatures. Arie M. Kacowicz explores the complex relationships between globalization and the distribution of wealth as a political problem in international relations, analyzing them through the prism of poverty and inequality. He develops a political framework (an 'intermestic model') which captures the interaction between the international and the domestic domains and explains those effects with a particular emphasis upon the state and its relations with society. He also specifies the different hypotheses about the possible links between globalization and the distribution of wealth and tests them in the context of Latin America during the years 1982–2008, with a particular focus on Argentina and the deep crisis it experienced in 2001–2.
Over the past decades, inequality has risen not just in advanced economies but also in many emerging market and developing economies, becoming one of the key global policy challenges. And throughout the 20th century, Latin America was associated with some of the world’s highest levels of inequality. Yet something interesting happened in the first decade and a half of the 21st century. Latin America was the only region in the World to have experienced significant declines in inequality in that period. Poverty also fell in Latin America, although this was replicated in other regions, and Latin America started from a relatively low base. Starting around 2014, however, and even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, poverty and inequality gains had already slowed in Latin America and, in some cases, gone into reverse. And the COVID-19 shock, which is still playing out, is likely to dramatically worsen short-term poverty and inequality dynamics. Against this background, this departmental paper investigates the link between commodity prices, and poverty and inequality developments in Latin America.
This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book brings together a range of ideas and theories to arrive at a deeper understanding of inequality in Latin America and its complex realities. To so, it addresses questions such as: What are the origins of inequality in Latin America? How can we create societies that are more equal in terms of income distribution, gender equality and opportunities? How can we remedy the social divide that is making Latin America one of the most unequal regions on earth? What are the roles played by market forces, institutions and ideology in terms of inequality? In this book, a group of global experts gathered by the Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL), part of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), show readers how various types of inequality, such as economical, educational, racial and gender inequality have been practiced in countries like Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico and many others through the centuries. Presenting new ideas, new evidence, and new methods, the book subsequently analyzes how to move forward with second-generation reforms that lay the foundations for more egalitarian societies. As such, it offers a valuable and insightful guide for development economists, historians and Latin American specialists alike, as well as students, educators, policymakers and all citizens with an interest in development, inequality and the Latin American region.