Download or read book Employment in Crisis written by Joana Silva and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2021-10-08 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A region known for its volatility, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has suffered severe economic and social setbacks from crises—including the COVID-19 pandemic. These crises have taken their toll on careers, wage growth, and productivity. Employment in Crisis: The Path to Better Jobs in a Post-COVID-19 Latin America provides new evidence on the effects of crises on the region’s workers and firms and suggests several policy responses that can bolster long-term and inclusive economic growth. This report has three key findings. First, crises lead to persistent employment losses and accelerate structural changes away from the formal sector. This change occurs more through reductions in the creation of formal jobs than through job destruction. Second, some workers recover from crises, while others are permanently scarred by them. Low-skilled workers can suffer up to a decade of lower earnings caused by crises, while high-skilled workers rebound fast, exacerbating the LAC region’s high level of inequality. Formal workers suffer smaller employment and wage losses in localities with higher rates of informality. And the reduced job flows caused by crises decrease welfare, but workers in localities with more job opportunities, whether formal or informal, bounce back better. Third, crises’ cleansing effects can increase efficiency and productivity, but these effects are dampened by the LAC region’s less competitive market structure. Rather than becoming more agile and productive during economic downturns, protected sectors and firms gain market share and crowd out others, trapping valuable resources. This report proposes a three-pronged mix of policies to improve the LAC region’s responses to crises: •Create a more stable macroeconomic environment to smooth the impacts of crises, including automatic stabilizers such as unemployment insurance and short-term compensation programs; •Increase the capacity of social protection and labor programs to respond to crises and coalesce these programs into systems that complement income support with reemployment assistance and reskilling opportunities; and •Tackle structural issues, including the lack of product market competition and the spatial dimension behind poor labor market adjustment—a “good jobs and good firms†? agenda.

Download or read book The New Latin America written by Fernando Calderón and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Latin America has experienced a profound transformation in the first two decades of the 21st century: it has been fully incorporated into the global economy, while excluding regions and populations devalued by the logic of capitalism. Technological modernization has gone hand-in-hand with the reshaping of old identities and the emergence of new ones. The transformation of Latin America has been shaped by social movements and political conflicts. The neoliberal model that dominated the first stage of the transformation induced widespread inequality and poverty, and triggered social explosions that led to its own collapse. A new model, neo-developmentalism, emerged from these crises as national populist movements were elected to government in several countries. The more the state intervened in the economy, the more it became vulnerable to corruption, until the rampant criminal economy came to penetrate state institutions. Upper middle classes defending their privileges and citizens indignant because of corruption of the political elites revolted against the new regimes, undermining the model of neo-developmentalism. In the midst of political disaffection and public despair, new social movements, women, youth, indigenous people, workers, peasants, opened up avenues of hope against the background of darkness invading the continent. This book, written by two leading scholars of Latin America, provides a comprehensive and up-do-date account of the new Latin America that is in the process of taking shape today. It will be an indispensable text for students and scholars in Latin American Studies, sociology, politics and media and communication studies, and anyone interested in Latin America today.

Download or read book Social Panorama of Latin America 2020 written by United Nations Publications and published by UN. This book was released on 2021-07-29 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication examines the social impact of an unprecedented crisis. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have spread to all areas of human life, altering the way we interact, crippling economies and bringing about profound changes in societies. The pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated the major structural gaps in the region, and it is clear that the costs of inequality have become unsustainable and that it is necessary to rebuild with equality and sustainability, aiming for the creation of a true welfare state, long overdue in the region.

Download or read book Crisis written by Sylvia Walby and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-10-30 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are living in a time of crisis which has cascaded through society. Financial crisis has led to an economic crisis of recession and unemployment; an ensuing fiscal crisis over government deficits and austerity has led to a political crisis which threatens to become a democratic crisis. Borne unevenly, the effects of the crisis are exacerbating class and gender inequalities. Rival interpretations – a focus on ‘austerity’ and reduction in welfare spending versus a focus on ‘financial crisis’ and democratic regulation of finance – are used to justify radically diverse policies for the distribution of resources and strategies for economic growth, and contested gender relations lie at the heart of these debates. The future consequences of the crisis depend upon whether there is a deepening of democratic institutions, including in the European Union. Sylvia Walby offers an alternative framework within which to theorize crisis, drawing on complexity science and situating this within the wider field of study of risk, disaster and catastrophe. In doing so, she offers a critique and revision of the social science needed to understand the crisis.

Download or read book Neo extractivism in Latin America written by Maristella Svampa and published by . This book was released on 2019-10-17 with total page 73 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Element analyses the political dynamics of neo-extractivism in Latin America. It discusses the critical concepts of neo-extractivism and the commodity consensus and the various phases of socio-environmental conflict, proposing an eco-territorial approach that uncovers the escalation of extractive violence. It also presents horizontal concepts and debates theories that explore the language of Latin American socio-environmental movements, such as Buen Vivir and Derechos de la Naturaleza. In concluding, it proposes an explanation for the end of the progressive era, analyzing its ambiguities and limitations in the dawn of a new political cycle marked by the strengthening of the political rights.

Download or read book Central Banking in Latin America written by Mr.Luis Ignacio Jácome and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2015-03-17 with total page 57 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper provides a brief historical journey of central banking in Latin America to shed light on the debate about monetary policy in the post-global financial crisis period. The paper distinguishes three periods in Latin America’s central bank history: the early years, when central banks endorsed the gold standard and coped with the collapse of this monetary system; a second period, in which central banks turned into development banks under the aegis of governments at the expense of increasing inflation; and the “golden years,” when central banks succeeded in preserving price stability in an environment of political independence. The paper concludes by cautioning against overburdening central banks in Latin America with multiple mandates as this could end up undermining their hard-won monetary policy credibility.

Download or read book Crises and Migration written by Enrique Coraza de los Santos and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-09-08 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book critically examines the association between the notions of crisis and migration in the context of Latin America, and from three different perspectives: first, it analyzes the discourses based on the concept of crisis employed by the media, academic researchers, civil society organizations and the state to frame human mobility issues; second, it investigates migrants’ agency under conditions of crisis; and third, it discusses whether “migration crisis” is a conjunctural or structural phenomenon in the region. Chapters in this contributed volume investigate the crisis-migration nexus in seven Latin American countries – Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua and Uruguay – by discussing different human mobility phenomena, such as the migrant caravans that departed from Central America bound to Mexico and the United States; the Nicaraguan exodus caused by the political crisis in the country; the perception of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia’s media; the presence of Caribbean migrants in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. Crisis and Migration: Critical Perspectives from Latin America will be of interest to a wide range of social scientists interested in migration studies, as well as to policy makers and civil society organizations. This book offers a fresh look at the way we conceive, represent, and think about the relationship between crisis and human mobility. As the volume’s contributions show, a critical examination of the notion of crisis is a first step towards a more comprehensive understanding of the plight of present-day migrants worldwide.

Download or read book Crisis and Hope in Latin America written by Emilio Antonio Núñez C. and published by William Carey Library. This book was released on 1996 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thorough overview of Latin America's history, culture, social reality, & spiritual dynamics from an evangelical point of view. The challenges of post-conciliar Roman Catholicism, liberation theology, the charismatic movement contextualization, & social responsibility are explored. Taylor examines the implications of this information for missions in Latin America.

Download or read book Latin America Today written by Pablo González Casanova and published by United Nations University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The State of State Reforms in Latin America written by Eduardo Lora and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2006-10-23 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Latin America suffered a profound state crisis in the 1980s, which prompted not only the wave of macroeconomic and deregulation reforms known as the Washington Consensus, but also a wide variety of institutional or 'second generation' reforms. 'The State of State Reform in Latin America' reviews and assesses the outcomes of these less studied institutional reforms. This book examines four major areas of institutional reform: a. political institutions and the state organization; b. fiscal institutions, such as budget, tax and decentralization institutions; c. public institutions in charge of sectoral economic policies (financial, industrial, and infrastructure); and d. social sector institutions (pensions, social protection, and education). In each of these areas, the authors summarize the reform objectives, describe and measure their scope, assess the main outcomes, and identify the obstacles for implementation, especially those of an institutional nature.

Download or read book Crisis In Central America written by Nora Hamilton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-04-11 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early years of the recent Central American crisis, analysts often predicted a rapid, dramatic resolution—whether by revolutionary victory or through military intervention by the United States. The 1980s, however, have witnessed an intensification of conflicts with increasing U.S. involvement. Rather than standing at the brink of a sharp turning point, Central America is at an interim point in an evolving historical process. This text provides an assessment of this process and of its immediate and long-term implications for the region and for U.S.-Latin American relations. It focuses on the complex and contradictory effects of the Reagan administration's efforts to influence the Central American debate within the United States and to reestablish U.S. hegemony in the region itself. The first part of the book examines the development of various aspects of U.S. policy toward Central America. In particular, contributors discuss the interaction between the executive and legislative branches in shaping U.S. strategy, the implications for constitutional democracy of presidential control over foreign policymaking, the treatment of Central American refugees, the counterinsurgency strategy of "low intensity warfare," and the effects of U.S. policy on regional peace initiatives put forward by Mexico and other Latin American countries. In the second part, contributors analyze external pressures on Central American countries and regional dynamics. They begin with a discussion of the economic crisis—aggravated by conflicts in the region—and regional integration. Other topics include the ambiguous position of the Catholic church, Guatemala's "hidden war," "demonstration elections," the changing balance of forces in El Salvador, and the obstacles Nicaragua faces in constructing a new economic development model. Nora Hamilton is associate professor of political science and Linda Fuller is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Southern California. Jeffry A. Frie

Download or read book Crisis Management for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises SMEs written by Susanne Durst and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-03-19 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an in-depth introduction to crisis management and leadership in SMEs, as well as methods, approaches and cases against the background of different crises; external ones in particular. Featuring contributions from research and practice, this book covers a plethora of SMEs from different sectors to match the diverse nature of small business practice. The combination of a sound theoretical framework for small firm crisis management along with practical instruments/methods and cases, help to improve the organizational resilience of SMEs. The authors also guide the reader to resources beyond the book, including an online “Crisis Toolkit” comprised of material such as further publications, crisis management blueprints, guidelines, checklists, and company cases on crisis management-related issues.

Download or read book A New Struggle for Independence in Modern Latin America written by Pablo A. Baisotti and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-09-30 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores several notable themes related to foreign affairs in Latin America and the reconfiguration of the power of the different states in the region. It offers insightful historical perspectives for understanding national, regional and global issues from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day, from analysis of the traditional "hegemony" of the United States over Latin America through its military, and political influence due to the presence of the European Union, Russia, and China. These views cannot be reduced to a simplistic vision of the dominant and subordinate; rather, they attempt to seek lines of continuity by highlighting traditional interpretations of new scenarios such as regional trading and security blocs. The volume refuses to impose a traditional and uncritical linear historical narrative onto the reader but instead proposes an alternative interpretation of the past and its relation to the present. Finally, the growing importance of international mechanisms in enabling the success of certain Latin American regimes is also highlighted, in particular the influence of regional diffusion through international organizations or other networks.

Download or read book Crisis Cultures written by Brian S. Whitener and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2019-03-15 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on a mix of political, economic, literary, and filmic texts, Crisis Cultures challenges current cultural histories of the neoliberal period by arguing that financialization, and not just neoliberalism, has been at the center of the dramatic transformations in Latin American societies in the last thirty years. Starting from political economic figures such as crisis, hyperinflation, credit, and circulation and exemplary cultural texts, Whitener traces the interactions between culture, finance, surplus populations, and racialized state violence after 1982 in Mexico and Brazil. Crisis Cultures makes sense of the emergence of new forms of exploitation and terrifying police and militarized violence by tracking the cultural and discursive forms, including real abstraction and the favela and immaterial cadavers and voided collectivities, that have emerged in the complicated aftermath of the long downturn and global turn to finance.

Download or read book Financial Development Economic Crises and Emerging Market Economies written by Faruk Ulgen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-08-12 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recurrent crises in emerging markets and in advanced economies in the last decades cast doubt about the ability of financial liberalization to meet the aims of sustainable economic growth and development. The increasing importance of financial markets and financial efficiency criterion over economic decisions and policies since the 1980s laid down the conditions of the development process of emerging market economies. Numerous crises experienced thereafter gave rise to flourishing work on the links between financialization and economic development. Several decades of observations and lessons can now be integrated into economic and econometric models to give more sophisticated and multivariable approaches to financial development with respect to growth and development issues. In the markets-based and private-enterprise dominated world economy, two conditions for a successful growth-enhancing financial evolution can at least be brought fore: macroeconomic stability and consistent supervision. But even after the 2007-2008 global crisis, economists do not agree on the meaning of those conditions. For liberal and equilibrium-market economists, good finance and supervision mean market-friendly structures while for institutionalists, post-Keynesian and Marxist economists, good finance and supervision must lie in collectively designed and managed public structures. Drawing heavily on the tumultuous crises of the 1990s-2000s, this book argues that those experiences can shed light on such a crucial issue and lead economic theory and policy to go beyond the blindness of efficient free markets doctrine to economic catastrophes. It also points to new challenges to global stability in the wake of reconfiguration of international financial arena under the weight of major emerging market economies.

Download or read book Refeudalization and the Crisis of Civilization written by Olaf Kaltmeier and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-06-02 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discussing the civilizatory crisis and processes of refeudalization this volume brings into dialogue two of the most creative approaches, in Olaf Kaltmeier and Edgardo Lander, to rethink capitalism in the 21st century. In Part 1, Olaf Kaltmeier, takes issue with the state of social inequality in the region, highlighting the concentration of wealth within the upper 1% of society in Latin America. Comparing the current economic situation with the ancient regime, the discussion centers around the new phenomena like billionaires as president, increased luxury consumption, an emerging culture of distinction, and the intensification of land and spatial segregation. In Part 2, Lander urgently assesses the current state and political legacy of the "Pink Tide" governments in his essay "Crisis of Civilization." Reviewing the past two decades of the new millennium, Lander critiques the failure of these governments to provide alternatives to extractivism and economic dependencies. Finally, Hans-Jürgen Burchardt connects the arguments through interviews where both authors sum their efforts to open the issues to future dialogue. Refeudalization in Latin America provides an accessible and thought-provoking political diagnosis from the Global South which departs from the oft idiosyncratic and cyclical debates of the Global North to offer new vocabulary for social change. It will interest scholars and students of global studies, sociology, and political science.

Download or read book The Quality of Life in Latin American Cities written by Eduardo Lora and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2010-05-04 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A growing number of cities around the world have established systems for monitoring the quality of urban life. Many of those systems combine objective information with subjective opinions and cover a wide variety of topics. This book assesses a method that takes advantage of both types of information and offers criteria to identify and rank the issues of potential importance for urban dwellers. This method which combines the so-called 'hedonic price' and 'life satisfaction' approaches to value public goods was tested in pilot studies in six Latin American cities: Bogot , Buenos Aires, Lima, Medell n, Montevideo, and San Jos of Costa Rica. It provides valuable insights to address key questions such as, Which urban problems have the greatest impact on people s opinions of city management and the most widespread effects on their lives? Do gaps between perception and reality vary from one area of the city to another, especially between high- and low-income neighborhoods? Where can homebuilders most feasibly seek solutions to problems such as inadequate road infrastructure, a lack of recreational areas, or poor safety conditions? Which problems should government authorities address first, in light of their impact on the well-being of various groups of individuals and given private actors abilities to respond? Which homeowners benefit the most from public infrastructure or services? When can or should property taxes be used to finance the provision of certain services or the solution of certain problems? 'The Quality of Life in Latin American Cities: Markets and Perception' proposes a monitoring system that is easy to operate and that entails reasonable costs but also has a solid conceptual basis. Long the ideal of many scholars and practitioners, such a system may soon become a reality and have the potential to make a significant contribution to the decision-making processes in any city concerned with the well-being of its residents.