Chile: The Unbearable Burden of Inequality

Chile has been cited as a successful case of development. Relatively fast economic growth over almost two decades has been accompanied by a significant reduction in absolute poverty. However, persistent economic growth and a mostly pro-poor structure of public expenditures have not been sufficient to reduce inequality in one of the most unequal countries in the world. We show that the key factors explaining this persistent inequality have been a low level of fiscal expenditures caused by low tax revenues that have not permitted enough public investment in human capital and knowledge generation and diffusion.     

The recent worldwide economic crisis and the welfare of children: The case of Cuba

As a consequence of the deeply interdependent nature of today's world, Cuba has been affected by the world recession and by the critical roles of international trade and finance. However, the Cuban government has maintained a constant commitment to the protection of the poor and the children through increasing allocations of resources to education and health and through the promotion of increased levels of popular participation. This paper describes the improvements in the areas of nutrition, health and education and the persistent problems in the area of housing. It shows that the improvements observed have reached the majority of the population, eliminating great disparities.     

The monetarist experiment in Chile: A critical survey

Chile constitutes the most outstanding case of implementation of an extreme market economy model. During nine years, between 1973 and 1982, a model was implemented that for its ‘pureness’, deepness and extension induced a drastic transformation of the Chilean economy. The main features of the model are examined, focusing on the anti-inflationary policy, the reform of the financial system, and the external opening. Then the global results concerning output, income distribution and saving-investment are studied. The paper shows that the balance of the results was clearly negative during the 1973–1981 period: output stagnated, the concentration of wealth was spectacular, and saving and investment rates fell significantly. The characteristics themselves of the model and the weakening of the productive apparatus that they originated, additionally explain that the international recession was multiplied during 1982 within the domestic economy. The paper concludes with an attempt to interpret the main causes of the failure of this ‘experiment’.     

The world economic crisis and the children: A United States case study

This is a review of the United States experience with issues of child health and services, as they relate to changes in economic trends. No existing data systems are entirely adequate for reporting on the current health status of children, an important consideration for the monitoring of children's health in the United States is the focus on subgroups such as those who are disadvantaged for reasons of poverty, discrimination or geographic isolation. Ample evidence exists that children living in poverty suffer adverse health consequences and that the proportion of children living in poverty in the United States has increased steadily since 1975 and dramatically since 1981. Most measures of health status and health risks for children show steady improvements througout the 1970s. The exercise of public responsibility for financing and providing essential services and supports held constant or improved during this recession period, especially during the recession of 1974–1975. The health status and risks for children since 1981 appear to be adversely affected which must be attributed to a combination of circumstances that include serious recession, increased poverty rates for households with children and diminished health benefits and social support services. These findings suggest that when either local or widespread economic reversals are anticipated, health services and social supports for children need to be expanded rather than contracted.     

Stabilization policies and stagflation: The cases of Brazil and Chile

This paper is a comparative study of the economic stabilization policies in Brazil 1964–1968 and Chile 1973–1978. The periods chosen correspond to the first phase of authoritarian regimes whose avowed aim was to re-establish economic equilibrium and ‘put order’ in society in general, after severe disruptions caused by populist or socialist experiences.The economic policies of these regimes have been characterized as a radical attempt to apply orthodox tools in the context of semi-industrialized economies. Conventional wisdom has it that Brazil was the precursor in the orthodox experiments and one imitated by southern-cone countries in Latin America in the 1970s. Our study reveals deep differences between the cases of Brazil and Chile.The study discusses initial conditions, macroeconomic results, the use of monetarist tools, deviations from orthodoxy, the connection between stabilization policies and the long-term development model, and the effects of the policies on income distribution.     

Effects of the current world recession on the welfare of children: The case of Korea

The remarkable growth of Korea's GNP during 1963–1978 was achieved through export-led industrialization. The accelerating rate of growth in labour-intensive export industries provided job opportunities to the growing labour force. However, during the last years of the 1970s the Korean economy experienced bottlenecks and strong inflationary pressures which eroded its export competitiveness. As a response to these problems, the government implemented stabilization and restructuring programmes which did not affect the expansion of social welfare programmes for the poor and the vulnerable.     

脆弱的经济复苏和不确定的经济前景 --2002年美国经济形势及前景分析

一、乐观预测与对二次衰退的新担忧 扑朔迷离,这个通常用来形容各类故事情节难以捉摸的词,如今用以形容当今美国经济形势、前景及人们的判断是再恰当不过了.7月16、17两日,美联储主席格林斯潘在参众两院作了半年一次的货币政策例行报告,同时美联储发布了货币政策和经济展望报告.报告对美国经济调整的成果和面临的困难做了客观的分析,并对经济前景做出了乐观预测.     

Public and private Investment in Mexico and Chile: An empirical test of the complementarity hypothesis

This paper addresses the important question of whether government investment spending, rather than overall public expenditures, exerts a positive effect on economic growth and productivity. Using time-series data for Chile and Mexico, it estimates a linear growth model that incorporates a number of relevant quantitative and qualitative variables for each country. The empirical results suggest that for both Chile and Mexico, increases in public and private investment spending have a positive and significant effect on the rate of growth in productivity. Moreover, the results for Mexico show that increases in government consumption expenditures have a negative effect on the rate of productivity growth, thus suggesting that the composition of government spending is at least as important as the growth rate of these expenditures in affecting economic growth. From a policy standpoint, these findings call into question the current trend among Latin American countries of indiscriminately reducing public spending because they fall disproportionally on capital expenditures—the type of spending needed to secure the long-term efficiency gains from market-oriented programs.     

论国际私法中的保护弱者原则

国际私法的根本任务就是通过法律适用来避免和消除民商事法律冲突,取得较为公正的结果。由于国际民商事关系中存在着强者和弱者之分,因此国际私法必须体现对弱者的人文关怀,建立起保护弱者的原则和规章制度。     

弱势群体的界定及其犯罪特点分析

弱势群体犯罪是社会转型过程中出现的社会问题,弱势群体的形成是社会分层的结果。弱势群体的特殊地位,决定了此群体的犯罪在犯罪主体、犯错特点、犯罪原因等方面都不同于其他群体。明确界定弱势群体,深层次分析此群体的犯罪特点,对于控制和预防此类犯罪,具有重要的理论和现实意义。     

关于构建社会综合救助帮困体系的思考

近年来,我市不断加大公共财政对社会救助的投入,社会救助工作不断创新发展。但随着城市化进程加快、和谐社会建设加速推进,社会救助工作面临许多新情况、新问题,社会救助体系还需要进一步健全、完善。本文以本市北辰区为例,就建立科学完善、公平公正的社会救助体系进行了探讨。     

建构弱势群体社会支持网络的探索

弱势群体问题是我国社会转型期日益凸显的社会问题。近年来,我国政府和社会在支持弱势群体方面进行了不懈的努力并取得了一定的成效,但还存在许多不足。基于此,文章认为应建立起多元社会支持网络,以对弱势群体给予更有效的支持和保护。     

Transmission channels of crisis situations in the Russian federation and their identification

The article identifies significant transmission channels of crisis situations in the Russian economy (based on the application of a Markov regime-switching model and the likelihood ratio test). A system of comprehensive crisis indicators has been developed that makes it possible to predict the probability of a crisis in the Russian Federation for one month, a quarter-year, and a half-year ahead.     

A simultaneous analysis of the labour force participation of married women and the presence of young children in the family

Summary The labour force participation of married women and the presence of young children in the family show a strongly negative correlation. In this article it is investigated whether this correlation is a reflection of a causal relationship between these two variables. To answer this question, a simultaneous logit analysis, following Mallax, is applied to data of the Dutch census of 1971 that are grouped by COROP region. The results suggest that there exists an asymmetric causal relationship between both variables with the causality running from the labour force participation of married women to the presence of young children in the family.The authors are indebted to Professors C. de Galan and C.K.F. Nieuwenburg and Mr. F.A.A.M. van Winden for valuable comments.