Land concentration has been a central feature of the history of nearly all empires, regions, and countries, and has underpinned the creation of the state and of inegalitarian and elitist societies. It is the key feature of the "monopolization model", whereby a small group attains access to the great bulk of available land, labor, and capital to achieve a high level of income and wealth. The degree and means of land concentration, as well as the elite control of labor, have varied across cu...

This book assesses the distributional impact of a number of economic policies on the distribution of income by examining several examples from Colombia. It provides a better base for quantitative comparisons of the effects of different policies.

This volume examines Colombia’s political economy at the outset of the twenty-first century. A group of leading experts explores various issues, such as drug trafficking, organized crime, economic performance, the internal armed conflict, and human rights. The experts highlight the various challenges that Colombia faces today. This volume is a major contribution to the field and provides a current panorama of the Colombia conflict.

Most developing countries face significant and sometimes dramatic challenges in generating stable jobs that provide reasonable incomes and decent working conditions. For developing countries that have undergone lengthy periods of economic stagnation, these challenges are especially acute, and popular dissatisfaction correspondingly marked.Paraguay is a case in point. It is unlikely that any "employment policy" could lead to a major improvement in the quality of labor market outcomes unless...

Fulfilling the Export Potential of Small and Medium Firms addresses the question, `How can economic policy contribute to a strong export performance by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries?' In today's increasingly integrated world economy, such a performance can make a significant difference to the growth, employment creation and income distribution of many developing countries. The study uses information from specifically designed surveys of SME exporters ...

Canada and the countries of Latin America are in the midst of major changes and choices in the area of labor markets and related social policy. These decisions are likely to have profound consequences for the quality of life of workers throughout the hemisphere.Labor Market Policies in Canada and Latin America: Challenges of the New Millennium reviews the evidence of Canada and Latin America on three major labor policy instruments - unemployment insurance, minimum ...

Customers in the US and Canada please order from Stanford University Press at (800) 621-2736 or visit their website at www.sup.org. In this book, ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) draws upon the Latin American and Caribbean region's experience in order to formulate a historical and multidimensional assessment of the globalization process from the perspectives of developing countries. In view of the glaring contrast between increasingly global problems and the inc...

Latin America's recent development performance calls for a multidisciplinary analytical tool kit. This handbook accordingly adopts a political-economy perspective to understand Latin American economies. This perspective is not new to the region; indeed, this volume consciously follows the approach pioneered by political economist Albert O. Hirschman a half century ago. But the nature of the political and economic processes at work in Latin America has changed dramatically since Hirschman's...

In the past two decades many developing countries have embraced the challenge of globalization by rushing to dismantle trade barriers and to promote increasingly liberal market-oriented policies. However, a broader response to globalization is both necessary and possible if countries are to develop as quickly and as fully as possible.Exploring this complex interrelationship between globalization, liberalization, and human and social development, this innovative book undertakes a fu...

Since the discovery of abundant oil resources in the 1920s, Venezuela has had an economically privileged position among the nations of Latin America, which has led to its being treated by economic and political analysts as an exceptional case. In her well-known study of Venezuela’s political economy, The Paradox of Plenty (1997), Stanford political scientist Terry Karl argued that this oil wealth induced extraordinary corruption, rent-seeking, and centralized intervention that res...

Why should people - and economies - save? This book on the savings problem in Latin America and the Caribbean suggests that, while saving to survive the bad times is important, saving to thrive in the good times is what really counts. People must save to invest in health and education, live productive and fulfilling lives, and make the most of their retirement years. Firms must save to grow their enterprises, employ more workers in better jobs, and produce quality goods. Governments must s...

Now beyond its eleventh printing and translated into twelve languages, Michael Porter’s The Competitive Advantage of Nations has changed completely our conception of how prosperity is created and sustained in the modern global economy. Porter’s groundbreaking study of international competitiveness has shaped national policy in countries around the world. It has also transformed thinking and action in states, cities, companies, and even entire regions such as Central Americ...