Latin American Development

This peer-reviewed book presents a comprehensive overview of the role space is playing in enabling Latin America to fulfill its developmental aspirations. Following on from the highly acclaimed Part 1 and Part 2, it explains how space and its applications can be used to support the development of the full range and diversity of Latin America societies, while being driven by Latin American goals.

This peer-reviewed book presents a comprehensive overview of the role space is playing in enabling Latin America to fulfill its developmental aspirations. Following on from the highly acclaimed Part 1 and Part 2, it explains how space and its applications can be used to support the development of the full range and diversity of Latin America societies, while being driven by Latin American goals.

Since the 1990s, the financial systems in developing and developed countries have gained in soundness, depth, and diversity, prompted in part by a series of financial sector and macroeconomic reforms aimed at fostering a market-driven economy in which finance plays a central role. Latin America has been one of the regions at the forefront of these changes and offers a good laboratory of where the challenges in financial development lie. Despite all the gains in financial development, there is still a nagging contrast between the intensity of financial sector reforms implemented over the past 20 years in many countries and the actual size and depth of their financial systems. In the case of Latin America, in many respects it remains underdeveloped by international comparisons.

Over recent decades the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region has seen a dramatic and virtually uninterrupted rise in female labor force participation (LFP). Women in LAC have increased their participation faster than in any other region of the world, with nearly 70 million women added to the labor force. This evolution occurred in the context of more general progress in women s status. Female enrollment rates from primary to tertiary education have increased to the point of closing or even reversing the gender gap that traditionally favored boys.

Beyond Commodities shows that Latin America and the Caribbean’s growth performance over the last decade cannot be reduced to the commodity boom: growth-promoting reforms that strengthened financial development, increased trade openness and improved infrastructure development also played a significant role and can continue doing so. Based on the econometric analysis of panel data from the 1970-2010 period for 126 countries, the study shows that, while the commodity boom facilitated growth in most of the region, it did not determine it.

What caused the decline in wage inequality of the 2000s in Latin America? Looking to the future, will the current economic slowdown be regressive? Wage Inequality in Latin America: Understanding the Past to Prepare for the Future addresses these two questions by reviewing relevant literature and providing new evidence on what we know from the conceptual, empirical, and policy perspectives.