Academic Linkages in Latin America:

SUMMARY. This paper reports results of a suryey on perception on industry/acadernia cooperatwe linkages, in particular, partner selection and managerial expectations from such partnership, and also potential diffculties involved in developing mtemgamzational alliances. The swey, conducted in Latin America, shows that intemational sbategic alliances are considered as a viable approach for academia to develop progrm leading to joint research, human resources exchange, and academic exchange, while for industry the cooperation represents the opportunity to build competitive advantage especially in domestic markets. However. the results also suggest that a number of obstacles need to be overcome.     

Longitudinal analysis of entrepreneurship and competitiveness dynamics in Latin America

This study analyzes the relationship between entrepreneurial dynamics in Latin-American countries and the level of competitiveness these countries show. Based on the research conducted by Wennekers et al. [Small Business Economics, 24(3):293–309, 2005] that demonstrates a U-shaped relationship between the country’s rate of entrepreneurship and its level of competitiveness and economic development, we hypothesize that Latin-American countries have a descending behaviour under the U-shaped curve approach. The results from three regression models support this hypothesis and suggest that competitiveness and economic growth deter entrepreneurial dynamics on Latin-American countries. We discuss that Latin-American countries need to improve some structural factors to achieve a high level of entrepreneurial dynamics.

Latin America: economic and business context

This article offers a detailed view of key drivers for the wide-ranging economic reforms in the region during the 1990s, chiefly the Washington Consensus and the increased political stability. It highlights the key developments and results of the reforms in the areas of privatization (across industries), foreign investment and trade liberalization. It further provides insight into how the opening up of the regional economies resulted in multinationals penetrating and thereafter increasing their ownership of business across sectors, how, as a result, the public-sector share shrank during the period and how the local businesses adapted to this changed environment. The article also touches upon some key structural changes in the labour market as a result of the developments of the 1990s. This is followed by an exploration of the key themes and challenges facing the regional economies in the years ahead – economic, social and geo-political.     

Discursive (de)legitimation of a contested Finnish greenfield investment project in Latin America

Despite the central role of legitimacy in corporate social responsibility debate, little is known of subtle meaning-making processes through which social actors attempt to establish or de-establish legitimacy for socially contested corporate undertakings, and through which they, at the same time, struggle to define the proper social role and responsibility of corporations. We investigated these processes in the context of the intense sociopolitical conflict around the Finnish forest industry company Metsä-Botnia's world-scale pulp mill in Uruguay. A critical discursive analysis of Finnish media texts highlights three types of struggle that characterized the media coverage: legalistic argumentation, truth fights, and political battles. Interestingly, this case illustrates how the corporate representatives – with the help of the national media – tend to frame the issue in legalistic terms, emphasize their expert knowledge in technical and environmental evaluations, and distance themselves from political disputes. We argue that similar tendencies are likely to characterize corporate social responsibility debates more generally.     

Bayesian analysis of the error correction model

This paper presents a method for estimating the posterior probability density of the cointegrating rank of a multivariate error correction model. A second contribution is the careful elicitation of the prior for the cointegrating vectors derived from a prior on the cointegrating space. This prior obtains naturally from treating the cointegrating space as the parameter of interest in inference and overcomes problems previously encountered in Bayesian cointegration analysis. Using this new prior and Laplace approximation, an estimator for the posterior probability of the rank is given. The approach performs well compared with information criteria in Monte Carlo experiments.     

Quantitative analysis of the implementation of educational plans in Latin America

In this paper an index of plan implementation is defined and applied to the 1960–1970 educational plans of Latin American countries. Statistical analysis is used to specify the determinants of the values of the index. It is shown that a lack of statistical data and of qualified personnel are the main reasons for insufficient plan implementation.     

An integrative analysis of external debt,capital accumulation and production in Latin America,Asia-Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper estimates the nexus of inter-relationships between public and private external debts accumulation, capital accumulation and production with panel data for the period 1970–1988 from highly indebted developing countries clustered into three distinct regions: Latin-America, Asia-Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa. The simultaneous equations' estimation results indicate that the full effects of the public and private external debts on GNP are small and of an opposite sign, whereas an increase in the GNP level raises substantially the public and private external debts. These findings support Bulow-Rogoff's (1990) proposition that the external debts of developing countries are not a primary cause of economic slowdown.     

Declining suburbs in Europe and Latin America

Suburban shrinkage, understood as a degenerative urban process stemming from the demise of the Fordist mode of urbanism, is generally manifested in a decline in population, industry and employment. It is also intimately linked to the global restructuring of industrial organization associated with the rise of the post-Fordist mode of urbanism and, more recently, the thrust of Asian industrialization. Framed in the discourse of industrial urbanism, this article examines the first ring of industrial suburbs that developed around large cities in their most rapid Fordist urbanization phase. These industrial suburbs, although they were formed at different times, are today experiencing specific mutations and undergoing profound restructuring on account of their particular spatial position between the central area and the expanding peripheries of the post-Fordist metropolis. This article describes and compares suburban decline in two European cities (Glasgow and Paris) and two Latin American Cities (S?o Paulo, Brazil and Guadalajara, Mexico), as different instances of places asymmetrically and fragmentarily integrated into the geography of globalization.     

Dollarization in Latin America: seigniorage costs and policy implications

This paper examines the seigniorage costs of official dollarization in 15 Latin American countries. We show that the total costs can be decomposed into two components: seigniorage transferred to the U.S. and seigniorage lost due to greater financial stability in the dollarized country. Results indicate that seigniorage costs and their components are significant, yet differ considerably across countries. A cluster analysis is performed to sort countries into homogenous sub-groups. At a stage with five sub-groups we find groups with increasing seigniorage burdens. At a stage with two sub-groups we can identify candidates for possible seigniorage revenue-sharing agreements with the U.S.     

China's Growing Influence in Latin America

This article examines China's growing influence in Venezuela and other parts of Latin America as it seeks to secure a steady supply of cheap oil and new export markets. In recent years, China has offered loans to cash-strapped nations in the region on better terms than those offered by the United States and other multilateral lending institutions. China's growing influence worries the United States and other global observers who fear the spread of anti-democratic and anti-capitalist views. China maintains that its only interest in the region is economic. The current political turmoil in Venezuela offers China the opportunity to assuage these fears by supporting the presidency of Juan Guiado.     

History Repeats Itself: Child Labor in Latin America

Child labor occurs on almost every continent in the world. Very few countries seem to escape this exploitative phase as they develop into fully industrialized countries. Child labor began during the eighteenth century in Great Britain and it continues in the twenty-first century in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Honduras. This paper offers an explanation for the persistence of child labor through history. The increase in the employment of children during industrialization is caused by an increase in the supply of children from poor and working-class families and an increase in the demand for child labor by the factory owners. Parents trapped in poverty have no other choice but to send their children off to work to contribute to the family income. Children’s wages, moreover, often make the difference between starvation and survival. Employers are happy to oblige the parents because children are more productive than adults in the new industrial regimen. As the principle of the division of labor has been applied to the production process, unskilled children replace skilled adults in factories, mills, and mines. Children are preferred to adults because they are cheap, submissive, uneducated and nimble. These economic forces are so strong that neither child labor laws nor mandatory schooling legislation are an effective deterrent against employers or families. Since history is repeating itself in the developing world by industrializing on the backs of children, alternative policies are recommend to cut this stage short so that the future generations of Latin America will become educated instead of exploited.

Credit rationing and macroeconomic adjustment in Latin America

This research attempts to provide an answer to the important question of whether sovereign borrowers of developing countries are credit rationed in international capital markets. After defining the type of credit rationing to be tested an econometric technique is developed and tested with the results casting doubt on the extent of credit rationing for 12 of 13 Latin American developing countries over the sample period 1965–1988. The test is limited in that it will not detect credible threats of credit rationing followed by macroeconomic adjustments to bring about an equality of domestic investment and national savings. This form of ex ante credit rationing could still be pervasive. Nevertheless it would appear that on the whole, Latin American countries are quickly able to adjust to anticipated shocks by a combination of policies to reduce the investment-savings gap.     

Urban class conflict in Africa and Latin America

Cet article adopte une perspective mondiale sur la base des travaux d'Amin, Frank et Wallerstein pour comparer les aspects de la lutte des classes urbaines en Afrique et en Amérique Latine. Le développement de pays spécifiques (Mexique et Nigéria) est décrit, avec une discussion plus détaillée des villes de Monterrey et de Kano. L'analyse est faite sur une base historique et cherche à établir que la nature de la lutte des classes urbaines s'explique dans une grande mesure par la façon dont une région est incorporée à l'économic mondiale. Les changements de relations entre les états semi-périphériques et une capitale multinationale située dans un état-noyau peuvent s'opérer avec succès de point de vue de ce dernier, mais ils entraǐnent une intensification de la lutte des classes qui gomme les avantages gagnés par les classes locales alliées ainsi à la capitale.     

Circular economy in Latin America: A systematic literature review

The purpose of this study is to identify circular economy concept trends of Latin America with regards to Europe, in which a systematic review of literature (SRL) was made using Scopus data in order to define the search, to select the relevant articles, and to analyze the results. Seventy‐one articles from Scopus were reviewed, and the analysis was complemented by the analysis with 57 documents from other scientific Web browsers such as Mendeley, Scopus, Academic Google, ScienceDirect, and SciELo which sum a total of 128 documents which the majority have come from Europe. Main concepts were identified, barriers and trends. The main conclusion was which the current concept is not very clear; in spite of Europe knows that limitation, Latin America is making the same mistake implementation.