Trade Specialization in Latin America: The Impact of China and India

This paper examines the extent to which the growth of China and India in world markets is affecting the patterns of trade specialization in Latin American (LA) economies. We construct a measure of Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) by 3-digit ISIC sector, country, and year. This RCA accounts for both imports and exports. The empirical analyses explore the correlation between the RCAs of LA and the two Asian economies. Econometric estimates suggest that the specialization pattern of LA—with the exception of Mexico—has been moving in opposite direction to the trade specialization pattern of China and India. Labor-intensive sectors (both unskilled and skilled) probably have been negatively affected by the growing presence of China and India in world markets, while natural resource and scientific knowledge intensive sectors have probably benefited from China and India’s growth since 1990. JEL no.  F10, F14     

Social Movements and the Dynamics of Rural Territorial Development in Latin America

This special section brings together 4 of the 12 studies conducted within a research program analyzing the relationships among social mobilization, governance, and rural development in contemporary Latin America. The introduction gives an overview of the contemporary significance of social movements for rural development dynamics in the region, and of the principal insights of the section papers and the broader research program of which they were a part. This significance varies as an effect of two distinct and uneven geographies: the geography of social movements themselves and the geography of the rural political economy. The effects that movements have on the political economy of rural development also depend significantly on internal characteristics of these movements. The paper identifies several such characteristics. The general pattern is that movements have had far more effect on widening the political inclusiveness of rural development than they have on improving its economic inclusiveness and dynamism.     

拉美的新型社会救助与对中国的启示

1990年代中后期,拉美各国纷纷改革了原有的社会救助制度并相继设置了许多新型的社会救助项目,新建立的社会救助以＂发展＂为价值理念,把救助资格与教育培训、医疗服务和个人就业等人力资本发展政策结合在一起,这类新型社会救助改变了过去社会救助制度在社会保障体系中残补、边缘的地位,显示了拉美社会保障制度关注重心与发展方向的转变。从拉美的新型社会救助中,中国可以获得有益的启示并找到进一步完善社会救助制度的相关思路。     

Modalities of Microfinance Delivery in Asia and Latin America： Lessons for China

I. Introduction Microfinance, the provision of small size loans and other financial services to low income households, is often seen as the key innovation of the last 25 years in terms of means of reaching out to the poor and vulnerable. There is extensive experience in microfinanceprovision in both Asia and Latin America, but as yet relatively little use of the approach in China. In Section, this paper assesses different approaches to microfinance delivery using a simple threefold distincti…     

The Current State of Business History in Latin America

Business history in Latin America has seen significant growth in the past 25 years, most notably since the beginning of this century. Although the sub‐discipline benefitted from seminal studies by British and U.S. scholars, most works of note are currently produced by local scholars. Latin American business history holds great comparative potential for business historians in other parts of the world undertaking studies in the areas of emerging economies, business‐state relationships, the role of entrepreneurship, business groups, entrepreneurial families, and foreign investment and imperialism.     

Privatization and Labor Cost Savings: Evidence from Health Care Services

This study examines whether privatization is associated with low public sector health care wages and with low probability of public sector employment for health care providers. Findings suggest that privatization contributes significantly to low wages of union health care providers in the public sector. Privatization also contributes to a low probability of public sector employment in this industry, especially to unionized workers. These results indicate that competition enhancing policy can promote lower labor costs even in a service sector that employs a highly skilled work force.