Unexpected Effects of the Washington Consensus: Trade Liberalization and Migration Flows in Latin America

The traditional theory of international trade assumes that there is a substitution relationship between international trade and migration flows. However, trade liberalization in Latin America has come with an increase in emigration. This article, based on an econometric analysis for the period 1981–2002, shows that there is a complementary relationship between trade and international migration. One explanation is related to the Washington Consensus. In particular, higher labor market flexibility, in the context of trade openness, has resulted in higher levels of unemployment. Therefore, emigration represents a safety valve that reduces the pressure on Latin American labor markets.     

The new Latin American landscape

For decades, Latin America has been accumulating a social liability of considerable proportions. Precariousness in education and health, food insecurity in a large stratum below the poverty line, violence, unemployment, and unlawfulness sharpen the incorrigible skepticism of opinion makers. Nevertheless, Latin America is an immense territory of possibilities to be exploited with independence, pragmatism, and proper vision of the future. The most promising news is that the region as a whole, despite insufficient progress in the smallest and poorest countries, is very close to meeting the targets in the fight against hunger. The greatest regional challenge is to harmonize economic expansion and the social profit that it represents. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Biased Technical Change in Agriculture and Industrial Growth

This paper presents a two‐sector growth model in which industrial accumulation is sensitive to the factor‐saving bias of technical change in agriculture. Agriculture features low factor substitutability and hidden unemployment and, in the baseline scenario, industrial growth is constrained by aggregate demand. Land‐saving innovations are then shown to raise rural employment, enlarge the domestic market for manufactures, and bolster industrial accumulation, in contrast to labor‐saving innovations. The baseline model and its extensions illuminate recent empirical studies which established that higher land yields boost industrial growth in developing countries, as well as accounts of the role of agricultural innovations in the industrialization of Japan, East Asia, and Latin America.     

对外开放与发展中国家的收入不平等:基于亚洲和拉美国家的比较研究

本文基于要素禀赋理论,在将劳动力划分为低、中、高技能三类的基础上,选取亚洲和拉丁美洲部分发展中国家1960-2005年的数据,建立非平衡面板模型,分析两地区的开放对国内收入分配的影响。实证结果表明,亚洲和拉丁美洲发展中国家的对外开放确实对国内收入不平等起到推动作用。目前的开放有利于中等技能劳动力相对丰裕的发展中国家,而不利于低技能劳动力相对丰裕的国家。总体的贸易依存度对拉美不平等的推动作用更大,但外资对亚洲不平等的推动作用更大;制造业出口倾向于扩大拉美国家的收入差距而缩小亚洲国家的收入差距。     

How Do Migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean Fare in the US Labour Market?

This paper discusses the causes of mass migration from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to the United States in recent decades and how these migrants have fared in US labour markets. The evidence shows that LAC migrants have higher unemployment rates and substantially lower wages than other immigrants and natives. Furthermore, the relative wages of LAC migrants have been declining sharply over the last 25 years. The most significant factor explaining the latter is the lower (and declining) educational attainment of LAC migrants relative to other immigrants and natives, compounded by the rising rates of return to education in the US.     

Internationalizing Business Education in Latin America: Issues and Challenges

This article examines the extent of internationalization of business education in Latin America and identifies the key challenges facing the Latin American business schools. Based on a survey of the business schools that are members of CLADEA (Consejo Latinoamericano de Escuelas de Administracion—Latin American Council of Management Schools), and also from available information from various public sources and the literature, this study finds that most Latin American universities recognize the importance of internationalization of curricula and have undertaken measures to provide a business education that creates a global awareness among students and sensitizes them to differences across countries. The study also identifies the areas that need further attention and resources for widening the extent of internationalization of business education in Latin America and recommends ways to address these challenges.     

The Effects of Education on the Natural Rate of Unemployment

This study develops a natural unemployment rate based upon education attainment. Behind this natural rate are labor force participation rates that vary positively with education attainment; observed unemployment rates that are inversely related to education attainment; and deviations of the observed unemployment rate from this hypothesized natural rate that are related to several expectation-based variables. With a lower natural unemployment rate today compared with years past, results point to a number of education-based challenges that employers will face. Matching employer needs with education will become more complicated as both education and needs become more specialized. Global labor markets will play an increasing role both in terms of skills and cost considerations. Next, the retirement of the baby boom generation will pose a unique challenge. Aside from the challenge of finding replacements from a pool of new workers smaller than the pool of retiring workers, retirements will not be easily predictable, thanks to the elimination of the earnings penalty for social security benefits. Finally, as college degrees become more prevalent, postgraduate studies will likely rise in importance as a distinguishing feature among skills.     

Sustainable banking in Latin American developing countries: Leading to (mutual) prosperity

This article examines multinational banks’ (MNBs) approaches to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in developing countries’ subsidiaries, particularly in Latin America. Building on in-depth case studies of two MNBs that are based in Europe and market leaders in Latin America, we analyze their CSR motivations and outcomes in host countries. We examine institutional environments by applying the national business system framework, and we suggest missing categories in its financial and educational dimensions. We theorize how institutional necessity determines MNBs' CSR in developing countries. Finally, we examine the CSR outcomes in Latin America, where banks’ responsible conduct has led to major improvements in educational levels and financial inclusion. These improvements alleviate poverty and enhance both country's social wellbeing and MNBs’ legitimacy, leading to mutual prosperity.     

Does Latin America Comprise Transnational ‘Subregions’?

We live in a world of nations, but also one of multi‐nation systems. These systems, or transnational regions, affect global economics, politics and diplomacy. Latin America is a widely recognised and documented transnational region. It contains subregional nation systems that might have all of the characteristics and significance of regions and might also affect the broader integration of Latin America. The author defines regionality on the basis of economic integration and measures it with two methods for Latin America, North America, three Latin American subregional systems and one arbitrarily defined nation system within Latin America. He finds a high degree of integration in Latin America, the Andean nations and the Southern Cone of South America. He finds only a modest degree of integration in North America and not significantly greater integration in South America than in Latin America. The division of Latin America into subregions is consistent with the incidence of sub‐regional trade initiatives in the past two decades and might be at least partly responsible for the limited progress to date towards Latin America‐wide integration. Latin American subregions might now be providing a foundation on which to build regionalism in the future.     

Ethical Differences Within Latin America

Abstract

As the volume of trade within Latin America increases an understanding of cultural differences between countries will become increasingly important. One key issue that has received little attention to date is the variation in ethical beliefs across Latin American borders. In this study the impact of cultural attributes on four key ethical dilemmas is examined. Vignettes are developed for ecological conservation, bribery, sex discrimination, and child labor dilemmas and are included in a survey which is administered to multinational managers from Ecuador and Chile. Results indicate that certain cultural traits are linked to responses to each of the ethical dilemmas.     

Offshoring and unemployment: The role of search frictions labor mobility

In a two-sector, general-equilibrium model with labor-market search frictions, we find that the wage increases and sectoral unemployment decreases upon offshoring in the presence of perfect intersectoral labor mobility. If, as a result, labor moves to the sector with the lower (or equal) vacancy costs, there is an unambiguous decrease in economywide unemployment. With imperfect intersectoral labor mobility, unemployment in the offshoring sector can rise, with an unambiguous unemployment reduction in the non-offshoring sector. Imperfect labor mobility can result in a mixed equilibrium in which only some firms offshore, with unemployment in the offshoring sector rising.     

Second Generation Electricity Reforms in Latin America and the California Paradigm

In this paper we discuss second-generation electricity reforms being formulated in Latin America and how they are being reshaped by the California crisis, which had stood as a paradigm, at least in theory, for fully competitive markets. We argue that the main lesson policy makers in Latin America should draw from the experience in California and other electricity markets around the world is that the liberalization of wholesale markets will not result in more competitive outcomes where market concentration is significant, final consumers are isolated from actual marginal production costs and capacity is tight. At least in the case of Argentina and Chile, the California crisis has had a “positive externality” by persuading policy makers, at least momentarily, to postpone liberalization reforms and make them realize the complexities in implementing competitive markets.     

Comprehending the outward FDI from Latin America and OCED: A comparative perspective

This study examines the determinants of outward foreign direct investment (FDI) from Latin American countries and compares it with their OECD counterparts. Our analysis is based on a sample of 45 countries, 13 from Latin America and 32 from the OECD, over the period 2001–2012. We find that the outward FDI from Latin America is more likely to be located in geographically proximate countries and in countries with similar culture and language than that from their OECD counterparts. We also show that Latin American outward FDI is less likely to be resource seeking. This presumably reflects the rich natural resource endowments and agricultural potential in major Latin American countries. Further, outward FDI from Latin America is more likely to be concentrated in countries with a similar corruption environment than that from their OECD counterparts. This might indicate a broadly similar nature of corruption across Latin America due to shared cultural, political and economic legacies.     

A SCHUMPETERIAN GROWTH MODEL WITH EQUILIBRIUM UNEMPLOYMENT

We introduce efficiency‐wage unemployment in a model of growth with endogenous technical change. Our research aim is twofold. First, we try to provide an analytically tractable model of growth with efficiency‐wage unemployment that can be viewed as alternative to the standard models of growth and search unemployment. Second, we try to analyze the steady‐state effects of some labor market policies on unemployment and growth. We find that a positive relationship between growth and unemployment exists and that the effectiveness of any labor market policy aimed at improving the performance of the labor market crucially depends on how individuals discount future income.     

试论我国经济发展中的“知识失业”问题

“知识失业”是指受过高等教育的劳动力处于不得其用的一种状态。在我国经济发展的现阶段 ,“知识失业”也开始浮现。本文在对我国知识失业的现状及其发展趋势进行计量预测的基础上 ,对知识失业的社会影响及其成因进行了探讨 ,并结合中国就业环境的约束条件 ,提出减弱知识失业的对策建议。     

基于人力资本投资效应的劳动力市场制度安排

劳动力市场的发展与完善具有促进人力资本投资的功能,由于人力资本投资供求主体的复杂性,导致多方利益谈判的结果即相关劳动力市场制度安排易于混乱。本文通过对教育投资、一般培训与特殊培训的实证分析,探讨影响我国人力资本投资的因素,归纳基于因素的劳动力市场制度安排,从人力资本投资的单一效应出发衡量相关的劳动力市场制度安排,提出相应的改进对策,对在金融危机与知识失业背景下提升人力资本投资效率有一定的意义。     

结构性失业:我国劳动力供给偏差分析

在我国经济发展中结构性失业问题日益凸显,主要原因在于劳动力的流动障碍。由于技能、地理位置以及信息不对称等因素造成的劳动力供给偏差是阻碍劳动力流动的现实原因,劳动力在行业间或区域间的"有效供给"是缓解当前结构性失业的关键,该结论的政策含义是:政府应该大力加强教育和培训措施,提供良好的外在环境,促进劳动力的"有效供给"。     

东北老工业基地总量性失业分析

在东北老工业基地改造的过程中,失业是需要迫切解决的问题.东北老工业基地的失业以总量性失业为主.从总量性失业的供求分析,人口生产的无计划性是决定劳动力供给规模的首要因素,农业剩余劳动力的转移导致了劳动力供给的持续性增加,产业结构不合理阻碍了劳动力需求的扩张,所有制结构调整迟缓限制了劳动力需求的增长.东北老工业基地失业的治理,应控制劳动力供给的增长,扩大劳动力需求,大力发展第三产业,增强科技进步对就业的扩张效应.     

Fostering International Technology Transfer Through Climate Technology Networks Between European and Latin American Universities

Based on experiences gained in the frame of a networking scheme that involves universities from Latin America and Europe, this article addresses international technology transfer (ITT) of climate technology through networks bridging current knowledge and technology gaps between academia, businesses, authorities, and civil society. It is argued that higher education institutions (HEIs) can make a substantial contribution to a sustainable socioeconomic development in Latin America (LA) and at the same time reduce its social vulnerability to climate change impacts. Most research and development in LA is carried out in HEIs, not in industry. Consequently, research agendas are uncoupled from business needs, and university research remains largely uncommercialized. Further, spillover effects, which may benefit businesses in the home country, remain limited. This article raises some opportunities for Latin American HEIs to drive the improvement of local adaptive capacity through ITT and creation of the corresponding capacities, especially in terms of research and development, consultancy, and qualification of human capital in the field of climate technologies. It is argued that climate change poses many challenges to all sectors of society, and the improved international transfer of knowledge and climate technology may result in reducing social and economic vulnerability to future climate impacts in LA. Finally, some recommendations are given that may support current efforts to reduce the overall vulnerability to climate impacts through fostering the social and economic development in Latin America by means of ITT.     

GROWTH,UNEMPLOYMENT AND ENDOGENOUS TECHNICAL PROGRESS: A HICKSIAN RESOLUTION OF HARROD'S KNIFE‐EDGE

This paper presents a neo‐Kaleckian growth model with unemployment, endogenous technical progress, and a steady‐state requirement of balanced labor demand and supply growth. There are two key innovations: first, a Marx–Hicks unemployment rate–profit rate channel affecting labor‐saving technical progress; second, a Keynesian unemployment rate channel affecting saving and investment. Changes in the unemployment rate change the profit rate, rebalancing effective labor supply and employment growth. This provides a Hicksian resolution of Harrod's knife‐edge. The Keynesian unemployment rate channel strengthens the growth benefits of a lower unemployment rate, potentially obviating any growth–unemployment trade‐off.