Overcoming Inequality in Latin America

Overcoming Inequality in Latin America PDF Author: Ricardo Gottschalk
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134230133
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Latin America is faced with the challenge of achieving the Millennium Developmental Goal to halve poverty in the region by 2015. Historically, this region has experienced persistently high levels of inequality and poverty, the causes and consequences of which are analytically examined here. Adopting a multidimensional approach, this informative book focuses on the mechanisms that lead to higher inequality and emphasizes the role of macroeconomics, trade rules, capital flows and the political electoral process. It analyzes how inequality has hindered development, how it interacts with a nation’s economic, social and political processes, and how inequality constrains these processes in ways that weakens the prospect of establishing and sustaining a dynamic, wealthy and creative society. An international team of specialist contributors investigate and explain these crucial issues. Examining the key economic policies and reforms which have exacerbated the region’s extremely high inequality levels, throughout this book they prescribe an alternative range of policy suggestions to help alleviate inequality and provide the foundations for more equitable development.

Overcoming Inequality in Latin America

Overcoming Inequality in Latin America PDF Author: Ricardo Gottschalk
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134230133
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Latin America is faced with the challenge of achieving the Millennium Developmental Goal to halve poverty in the region by 2015. Historically, this region has experienced persistently high levels of inequality and poverty, the causes and consequences of which are analytically examined here. Adopting a multidimensional approach, this informative book focuses on the mechanisms that lead to higher inequality and emphasizes the role of macroeconomics, trade rules, capital flows and the political electoral process. It analyzes how inequality has hindered development, how it interacts with a nation’s economic, social and political processes, and how inequality constrains these processes in ways that weakens the prospect of establishing and sustaining a dynamic, wealthy and creative society. An international team of specialist contributors investigate and explain these crucial issues. Examining the key economic policies and reforms which have exacerbated the region’s extremely high inequality levels, throughout this book they prescribe an alternative range of policy suggestions to help alleviate inequality and provide the foundations for more equitable development.

Reducing Inequality in Latin America

Reducing Inequality in Latin America PDF Author: María Fernanda Valdés Valencia
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317069730
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
This book examines the role of tax policy in the incidence of socio-economic inequality. With a focus on Latin American, the author demonstrates that while inequality has decreased remarkably in the last decade – during the very period in which inequality was increasing almost everywhere else in the world – this reduction cannot be attributed to a better use of tax policy. Offering both quantitative and qualitative reviews of tax policies pursued by Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru over the last two decades, Reducing Inequality in Latin America contends that these countries continue to make insufficient use taxation measures in combating startlingly high levels of inequality. Drawing on legal texts, interviews with researchers and experts in the field, and official monetary statistics to obtain a complete picture of how discretionary tax policy has been pursued in the region, this volume engages with a range of recent economic theories to argue for the importance of using the tax system to reduce inequalities, whilst also offering new methods for measuring tax policy in subsequent research. As such, it will appeal both to scholars of social science and policy makers with interests in economics, social inequality, public policy and international political economy.

A Moment of Equality for Latin America?

A Moment of Equality for Latin America? PDF Author: Barbara Fritz
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317187571
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Unlike other regions around the world, several Latin American countries have managed to reduce income inequality over the last decade. Higher growth rates and growing employment, but also innovative wage policies and social programs, have contributed to reducing poverty and narrow income disparities. Yet, despite this progress, nation-states in the region demonstrate little capacity to substantially change their patterns of deeply rooted inequalities. Focusing on the limits and challenges of redistributive policies in Latin America, this volume synthesizes and updates the discussion of inequality in the region, introducing the perspective of global and transnational interdependencies. The book explores the extent to which redistributive policies have been interlinked with the provision and quality of public goods as well as with structural changes of the productive sector. Inspired by structuralist and neostructuralist thinking of Latin American economists, such as Raúl Prebisch and Celso Furtado, authors question the redistributive impact of the interplay of recent macroeconomic, fiscal and social policies, particularly under left and center-left administrations committed to greater equality. Bringing together experts in social, fiscal and macroeconomic policies to investigate the interdependent and global character of inequalities, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology, economics, development and politics with interests in Latin America, inequality and public policy.

Facing Up to Inequality in Latin America

Facing Up to Inequality in Latin America PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Equality
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description


Coping with Austerity

Coping with Austerity PDF Author: Nora Claudia Lustig
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 9780815708025
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description
Concern about the pervasiveness of poverty and income inequality in Latin America goes beyond the issue of social justice. The persistence of mass poverty and inequality pits different social groups against one another and leads to a polarization that makes consistent economic policy formation difficult. National productivity may also suffer in economies with poorly educated workforces lacking adequate health care. Statistics on poverty and inequality in Latin America are rudimentary and often conflicting. Yet it is known that poverty became more widespread in the region during the last decade as it experienced economic decline. About 180 million people, or two out of every five in the area, are now living in poverty—some 50 million more than in 1980. It is also known that income and wealth are far more unequally distributed in Latin America than in most other developing regions. This book provides a much-needed assessment of how poverty, inequality, and social indicators have fared in several Latin American countries over the past decade. Experts from Latin America and the U.S. focus attention on the extent of poverty and inequality and how they have been affected by the debt crisis and adjustment of the 1980s. They explain that issues of poverty and inequality were neglected as governments in Latin America struggled to restore stability and growth to their economies. Social sector spending declined sharply, affecting both the quality and quantity of services provided. The contributors examine how poverty and inequality are—or are not—being addressed in each country. They also explore the viability of alternative approaches to combating poverty and reducing inequality. They explain that virtually no one denies that governments must take a leading role in the provision of health, education, and other social services. Yet there are sharp debates--over the compatibility of social spending with economic adjustment and stabilization; the priority of social expenditures in relation to other governmental spending; the allocation of funds among different social programs; who should, and should not, benefit; and who should pay the costs. They show that the poor and middle sectors had to pay dearly because their governments, the international community, and the families themselves were not prepared to deal with austerity. The book contains eleven chapters by contributors from universities and research institutions in the U.S. and Latin America, as well as from international financial organizations. It is the result of a project cosponsored by Inter-American Dialogue.

Measuring Inequality of Opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean

Measuring Inequality of Opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean PDF Author: Ricardo Paes de Barros
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821377450
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Equality of opportunity is about levelling the playing field so that circumstances such as gender, ethnicity, place of birth, or family background do not influence a person's life chances. This book introduces new methods for measuring inequality of opportunities and makes an assessment of its evolution in Latin America over a decade.

Towards Universal Social Protection

Towards Universal Social Protection PDF Author: Simone Cecchini
Publisher: UN
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 478

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Book Description
This book reflects on the public policies, programmes and regulatory frameworks that are taking a rights-based approach to expanding social protection coverage and benefits in Latin America, with a view to achieving universal coverage. Its discussion of the policy tools and programmes pursued in the region aims to provide the reader with technical and programmatic insights for assembling and coordinating public policies within consistent and sustainable social protection systems. The combination of normative orientations and stock of technical knowledge, together with advances regarding the rights-based approach to social protection within a life cycle framework, afford the reader not only a tool box of specific social protection instruments, but also an in-depth examination of related political economy aspects.

Persistence and Emergencies of Inequalities in Latin America

Persistence and Emergencies of Inequalities in Latin America PDF Author: Pablo Vommaro
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030904954
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
This book adopts a multidimensional approach to analyze both the historical and emerging factors that contribute to make Latin America and the Caribbean the most unequal region in the world. Social inequality is a historical characteristic of the region, but at the beginning of the 21st century, a handful of progressive governments seemed to be adopting policies that could reduce this historical trend. Many of these efforts, however, were blocked or reversed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which both exposed the persistence of historical trends and contributed to the emergency of new forms of inequality in the region. The different chapters in this contributed volume adopt a multidimensional, intersectional, perspective to analyze both the persistence and the emergency of social devices of production and reproduction of inequalities in the diverse Latin American and Caribbean temporal spatialities. The issues analyzed in the different chapters revolve around four main axes: a) persistence of generational and intergenerational inequalities; b) structural gender inequality; c) intertwined social inequalities: race, class and social structure and; c) historical and economic dimension of inequality. Persistence and Emergencies of Inequalities in Latin America: A Multidimensional Approach will be of interest to researchers interested in the study of social inequality and social justice in different fields of the human and social sciences, such as sociology, political science, history, economics, anthropology and education. It will also be a valuable tool for policy makers and social activists engaged in the discussion, advocacy and implementation of public policies aimed at reducing social inequalities.

Inequality in Latin America

Inequality in Latin America PDF Author: David M. De Ferranti
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821356658
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
Latin America and the Caribbean has been one of the regions of the world with the greatest inequality. This book explores why the region suffers from such persistent inequality, identifies how it hampers development, and suggests ways to achieve greater equity in the distribution of wealth, incomes and opportunities. The study draws on data from 20 countries based on household surveys covering 3.6 million people, and reviews extensive economic, sociological and political science studies on inequality in Latin America. Four broad areas for action by governments and civil society groups to break the destructive pattern are outlined: (1) build more open political and social institutions, that allow the poor and historically subordinate groups to gain a greater share of agency, voice and power in society; (2) ensure that economic institutions and policies seek greater equity, through sound macroeconomic management and equitable, efficient crisis resolution institutions, that avoid the large regressive redistributions that occur during crises, and that allow for saving in good times to enhance access by the poor to social safety nets in bad times; (3) increase access by the poor to high-quality public services, especially education, health, water and electricity, as well as access to farmland and the rural services, and protect and enforce the property rights of the urban poor; (4) reform income transfer programmes so that they reach the poorest families.

Has Latin American Inequality Changed Direction?

Has Latin American Inequality Changed Direction? PDF Author: Luis Bértola
Publisher: Saint Philip Street Press
ISBN: 9781013268014
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
This book brings together a range of ideas and theories to arrive at a deeper understanding of inequality in Latin America and its complex realities. To so, it addresses questions such as: What are the origins of inequality in Latin America? How can we create societies that are more equal in terms of income distribution, gender equality and opportunities? How can we remedy the social divide that is making Latin America one of the most unequal regions on earth? What are the roles played by market forces, institutions and ideology in terms of inequality?In this book, a group of global experts gathered by the Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL), part of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), show readers how various types of inequality, such as economical, educational, racial and gender inequality have been practiced in countries like Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico and many others through the centuries.Presenting new ideas, new evidence, and new methods, the book subsequently analyzes how to move forward with second-generation reforms that lay the foundations for more egalitarian societies. As such, it offers a valuable and insightful guide for development economists, historians and Latin American specialists alike, as well as students, educators, policymakers and all citizens with an interest in development, inequality and the Latin American region. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.