On Poverty and Inequality in Latin America

1996 ◽  
Vol 38 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 15-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gert Rosenthal

It is by now conventional wisdom to say that, while the countries of Latin America have improved their economic performance over the past few years, the majority of their populations have suffered a reversal in their standards of living compared to, let us say, 1980. After the protracted recession and acute macroeconomic disequilibria which was experienced by almost all the countries during the first half of the 1980s, many are staging a recovery in the 1990s. On the positive side, some of the indicators most frequently cited include the resumption of growth (albeit at moderate rates), greater financial stability, an increasingly diversified export sector, and political democratization. On the negative side, one finds inevitable mention of the following: inequitable distribution of income, a high incidence of absolute poverty, and the social tensions that tend to accompany them.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Marcos Barba ◽  
Hilde van Regenmortel ◽  
Ellen Ehmke

As 2020 draws to a close, the economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic shows no sign of abating. Without urgent action, global poverty and inequality will deepen dramatically. Hundreds of millions of people have already lost their jobs, gone further into debt or skipped meals for months. Research by Oxfam and Development Pathways shows that over 2 billion people have had no support from their governments in their time of need. Our analysis shows that none of the social protection support to those who are unemployed, elderly people, children and families provided in low- and middle-income countries has been adequate to meet basic needs. 41% of that government support was only a one-off payment and almost all government support has now stopped. Decades of social policy focused on tiny levels of means-tested support have left most countries completely unprepared for the COVID-19 economic crisis. Yet, countries such as South Africa and Bolivia have shown that a universal approach to social protection is affordable, and that it has a profound impact on reducing inequality and protecting those who need it most. In addition to the full paper and executive summary, an Excel file with the data analysed by Oxfam and Development Pathways is available to download on this page, along with an annex on the crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean.


1996 ◽  
Vol 38 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 181-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markos J. Mamalakis

AbstractAccording to the present paper, absolute poverty and relative inequality have persisted in Latin America as a result of mutually reinforcing, and unfair, patterns of distribution of final private, broad, and total consumption and income. Furthermore, it is argued that the prevailing pattern, characterized by a vicious circle of distributive injustice in both consumption and income (production), can be broken only by mesoeconomic, sectoral constitutions and, thus, by public policies that uphold the principles of justice, freedom, and equality — on both the consumption and income (production) sides.


Author(s):  
Ntogwa N. Bundala

This paper analysed the effects of taxes and benefits on income inequality and poverty in Latin America. The study used an exploratory research design, with both linear and nonlinear regression models.  The paper found that both direct and indirect taxes have no direct influence on income inequality and poverty in a short-term.  Significantly, the social spending is found to reduce both poverty and inequality. The paper concluded that, taxes –benefits system in Latin America is   effective to eradicate income inequality and poverty, but it is ineffective to reduce the poverty rate and income inequality amongst the countries. The paper recommended that the countries in Latin America should set the policy priority on increasing the social spending in term of direct benefits, in-kind benefits and contributory pensions and subsidies as found to have a linear relationship with   the income inequality and poverty.


2005 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernardo Kliksberg

Public administration faces great challenges in Latin America, a continent with great economic potential, but with 44 percent of the population in poverty. One of the causes is inequality: whereas 10 percent of the richest possess 48 percent of the national income, 10 percent of the poorest possess only 1.6 percent. There is disillusionment with the rigid orthodox policies applied in the 1980s and 1990s, one of whose objectives was the downsizing of the state; such policies worsened poverty and inequality. Today, according to surveys, the citizenry demands that public administration return to fulfilling an important role associated with civil society: implement active, transparent and well-managed public policies with a strong social emphasis. The article analyzes state reforms made in the past decades, their uncertain results, new social demands and the great challenge that is raised in the region: how to build an intelligent and equitable state that serves to recover the social cohesion that has deteriorated.


2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustín Escobar Latapi

Although the migration – development nexus is widely recognized as a complex one, it is generally thought that there is a relationship between poverty and emigration, and that remittances lessen inequality. On the basis of Latin American and Mexican data, this chapter intends to show that for Mexico, the exchange of migrants for remittances is among the lowest in Latin America, that extreme poor Mexicans don't migrate although the moderately poor do, that remittances have a small, non-significant impact on the most widely used inequality index of all households and a very large one on the inequality index of remittance-receiving households, and finally that, to Mexican households, the opportunity cost of international migration is higher than remittance income. In summary, there is a relationship between poverty and migration (and vice versa), but this relationship is far from linear, and in some respects may be a perverse one for Mexico and for Mexican households.


Oikos ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (32) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Ma. Angélica Garza Arroyo ◽  
María Aurelia Bocanegra Noriega

RESUMENEl desarrollo sostenible es manejado como uno de los puntos importantes en las agendas del siglo XXI, es un concepto que las empresas deben contemplar en las actividades que realizan para cumplir con la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial. El presente trabajo pretende abordar los aspectos teóricos sobre las Memorias de Sostenibilidad así como mostrar que pueden ser consideradas como un instrumento de información de la Responsabilidad Social de las Empresas. Se hace un estudio en la base de datos de la Corporate Register del 2006 al 2011 respecto de la presentación de las Memorias de Sostenibilidad en América Latina; el reporte es de corte cualitativo de carácter descriptivo, con un análisis deductivo. Se puede percibir en el estudio que es de carácter exploratorio que las empresas de América Latina han incrementado de manera significativa la presentación de Memorias de Sostenibilidad así como un incremento en el número de empresas que las realizan, además de contemplar a la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial como parte de su misión y visión.Palabras clave: memorias de sostenibilidad, Responsabilidad Social Empresarial, América Latina. Memories of Sustainability in Latin America: instrument of information of the Social Responsibility of the CompaniesABSTRACTThe sustainable development is managed to be one of the important aspects in the planners of 21th century, it is a concept that companies have to contemplate in the activities they realize to achieve corporate social responsibility. this work pretends to raise the teoric aspects about sustainability report, and to show that they can be considered as an information instrument of social responsibility of the companies. a study has to be done in the data base of corporate register from 2006 to 2011 about the presentation of the sustainability report in Latin America; the report is qualitative and descriptive kind, with deductive analysis. in the study it can be perceived that is explorative that companies in Latin America have increased in a significative way the presentation of sustainability report, just as an increase in the number of companies that realize them, besides contemplating corporate social responsibility as part of their mission and vision.Keywords: sustainability report, Corporate Social Responsibility, Latin America.


Author(s):  
Silja Häusermann ◽  
Bruno Palier

Recent research on the development of social investment has demonstrated reform progress not only in different regions of Europe, but also in Latin America and South-East Asia. However, the specific substance of the social investment agendas varies strongly between these regions. Why have social investment ideas and policies been more developed in some regions and countries than in others? Building on the theoretical framework of this volume, our chapter suggests that the content of regional social investment agendas depends on policy legacies in terms of investment vs consumption-oriented policies and their interaction with structural pressures. In a second step, we argue that the chances of social investment agendas to be implemented depend on the availability of political support coalitions between organizational representatives of the educated middle classes and either business or working-class actors. We illustrate our claims with reference to family policy developments in France, Germany, and Switzerland.


Author(s):  
Jane Stevenson

This chapter examines the social aspect of the interwar arts. It demonstrates that the genuinely innovative were almost all dependent on personal patronage to support the early stages of their career. The necessity of clientage relationships influenced what was achieved, since the patrons’ interests could not be discounted. Cultural capital was exchanged for social opportunity and financial support. This also gave particular opportunities to gay people of both genders.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026858092199451
Author(s):  
Adrian Scribano

The social sciences in Latin America have always had a special connection with the study and analysis of the place of emotions in the social structuration processes. The aim of this article is to offer a synthetic exposition of some inquiries about emotions and the politics of sensibilities in Latin America, emphasizing those that are being felt in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve this objective, first we offer a synthesis of the theoretical and methodological points that will guide the interpretation; then we draw on pre-existing inquiries and surveys which allow us to capture the state of sensibilities before and during the pandemic in the region; and finally some conclusions are presented. The work is based on a multi-method approach, where qualitative and quantitative secondary and primary data are articulated in tandem.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026858092096201
Author(s):  
Leandro Rodriguez-Medina ◽  
Hebe Vessuri

Due to the interest in formal relationships at work or to the difficulty to define what personal means, personal bonds in the social sciences have been an understudied topic. Even less has been the interest in connecting such bonds with the internationalization of careers and knowledge. In this article, the authors aim at filling this gap by studying what role personal bonds have played in the internationalization of the social sciences in Latin America. They identify factors that affect personal bonds as well as translations that scholars produce to capitalize on these ties. The most relevant of such translations, academic mobility, has to be interpreted, from a peripheral standpoint, as operating within a logic of leveling, a process that highlights structural asymmetries in the global social sciences. The authors describe both dimensions of this process and, in the concluding section, offer some policy implications and future research directions.


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