Policies to Attract R&D-related FDI in Small Emerging Countries: Aligning Incentives With Local Linkages and Absorptive Capacities in Chile

Over the last decade we have witnessed an unprecedented growth in the number of cross-border R&D investments towards large emerging countries such as China and India. However, small middle-income countries have played a marginal role as recipients of R&D-related FDI despite increasing policy efforts. In particular, several Latin American countries have recently launched new policy programs with the aim of attracting this kind of investments, but it remains uncertain whether public incentives can be useful to compensate for other locational disadvantages. The case of Chile provides an interesting empirical setting to explore these issues because during the last decade its government has been actively promoting R&D-related FDI through a new policy mix. This article suggests that for national innovation systems to benefit from the attraction of internationally-mobile R&D it is critical for public policies to ensure that appropriate linkages are established with local actors that hold absorptive capacities. Equally important for a small emerging economy like Chile is to prioritize R&D-related FDI in strategic technology niches where the country can realistically attain critical mass.     

Mapping Right-Wing Women’s Policy Priorities in Latin America

ABSTRACT

Do right-wing women hold unique policy priorities from that of left-wing women and right-wing men? And do right-wing women legislators represent the priorities of right-wing citizens? Right-wing women share unique gendered socialization experiences with left-wing women, but their ideology informs values and attitudes critical to policy preference formation. Political representation theories suggest that women legislators should hold distinct incentives to represent female constituents. However, institutional theories suggest right-wing women legislators may face different incentives that limit the extent to which they represent right-wing female constituents. To evaluate our expectations, we leverage survey data from the Latin American Public Opinion Project and the Parliamentary Elites of Latin America. We demonstrate how right-wing women citizens differ from left-wing women citizens across a range of policy priorities. Then, we evaluate elite priorities for these same policy issues. We find little evidence for policy priority congruency between women citizens and women legislators on the right.     

The challenge of new gatekeepers for public relations. A comparative analysis of the role of social media influencers for European and Latin American professionals

Social media influencers (SMIs) have become a primary stakeholder group for communication professionals. However, this phenomenon still lacks a coherent body of theory and significant gaps exist in knowledge of how organisations perceive and identify them in the context of public relations, specially through empirical and cross-cultural studies. This comparative research includes European (n = 2710) and Latin American (n = 914) professionals working on different hierarchical levels, both in communication departments and agencies. Despite the massive implementation of social media channels, only a minority of Latin American and European professionals use specific strategies to identify and engage with SMIs. Practitioners prefer traditional identification indicators: personal reputation, the relevance of topics covered, and the quality of the content shared online.     

Mortality analysis of persons with disabilities in Argentina by age,sex and duration of benefit, 2015–16

This article describes the differential mortality of Argentina’s disability pension beneficiaries during the 2015–16 period, based on National Social Security Administration (Administración Nacional de la Seguridad Social – ANSES) payment records. It compares data for those with an assessed disability with overall population data, as well as with available international data (from Canada, Chile, Mexico, and the United States of America). In addition to breaking down mortality rates for people with disabilities by age and sex, it also factors in duration of benefit, establishing an inverse correlation between benefit duration and mortality.     

对海洋霸权与大陆均势关系的再探讨

虽然以往研究海洋霸权与大陆均势关系的成果颇丰,但还是存在一些不足。为此,本文对海洋霸权与大陆均势关系的结构类型、运行机制及其影响等进行了深化与细化。在海洋霸权国国力大于或小于或等于大陆均势中的有关国家的不同情况下,大陆均势可以分为不需要海洋霸权仅凭大陆国家就能形成的大陆均势和需要海洋霸权且支持其中一方才能形成的大陆均势。不同的国力对比和均势构成情况,对海洋霸权与大陆国家的政治安全与经济发展所产生的影响是不同的。经过分析和比较,本文得出结论:海陆分界难分优劣,关系互补战略呼应,这就是美英极力推行海洋霸权与大陆均势战略的现实诠释。     

All about ideology? Reading Piketty´s with Latin American lenses

This review essay evaluates Capital and Ideology in light of the Latin American experience. Given its history of exploitation and high levels of inequality, the region constitutes an essential case study. By considering the Latin America case, we can also benefit from the many insights coming from within the region and often overlooked by the Anglo‐Saxon (dominant) literature. The paper makes two different arguments. First, asymmetries in economic and political power are the main drivers of long‐term inequality. Following insights from structuralism, I show how the organization of the global economy has shaped domestic patterns of income distribution in many parts of the world. The dependent character of economic development together with the power of domestic elites explain Latin America's stubborn inequality; ideology has historically been more an instrument than an underlying driver. Second, we cannot understand the evolution of income distribution without considering the role of dictatorships. While Capital and Ideology explains convincingly why liberal democracies are not working, it never properly considers the risk and costs of (conservative) authoritarian regimes. In thinking about policy responses, the essay also highlights the importance of strengthening democracy, fighting dictatorships, and enhancing the influence of social movements.     

Latin American convergence and divergence towards the mortality profiles of developed countries

It is uncertain whether Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) countries are approaching a single mortality regime. Over the last three decades, LAC has experienced major public health interventions and the highest number of homicides in the world. However, these interventions and homicide rates are not evenly shared across countries. This study documents trends in life expectancy and lifespan variability for 20 LAC countries, 2000–14. By extending a previous method, we decompose differences in lifespan variability between LAC and a developed world benchmark into cause-specific effects. For both sexes, dispersion of amenable diseases through the age span makes the largest contribution to the gap between LAC and the benchmark. Additionally, for males, the concentration of homicides, accidents, and suicides in mid-life further impedes mortality convergence. Great disparity exists in the region: while some countries are rapidly approaching the developed regime, others remain far behind and suffer a clear disadvantage in population health.     

学术的流亡与再生：巴龙、吉尔伯特和克里斯特勒的文艺复兴研究刍论

20世纪下半叶，西方学界文艺复兴研究的中心发生了由欧洲至美国的“跨大西洋洲际转移”，汉斯·巴龙、菲利克斯·吉尔伯特和保罗·克里斯特勒三位德裔犹太学者在此过程中扮演了至关重要的角色。三位学者的学术背景和治学路径既有共性又存殊异，他们凭借各自在文艺复兴研究领域的标志性贡献，共同谱写了“意大利文艺复兴、美利坚制造”的浩荡历史篇章。     

美国“三重奏”大学生帮扶项目的实施、效果与启示

自1965年起,美国联邦政府逐渐建立起“三重奏”大学生帮扶项目体系,可视为是对以家庭第一代大学生为代表的低社会经济地位青年文化资本和社会资本储备不足问题的回应。作为该项目体系的三个初始子项目,“攀登极限”“人才发掘”“学生支持服务”主要通过提供学业辅导,帮助准备入学考试,提供各类资助信息并协助学生完成申请程序,提供参与文化活动机会等方式发挥作用。研究表明,“三重奏”体系有效提升了参与学生的录取率、保留率和毕业率。为进一步推进中国高等教育公平,借鉴美国经验,我们应重视对家庭第一代大学生的非经济支持,前置其介入时间并保持连续性,并注意发挥高等学校的主导性作用。     

Analysis of Latin American Fertility in Terms of Probable Social Classes

Theories of demographic change have not paid enough attention to how factors associated with fertility decline play different roles across social classes that are defined multidimensionally. I use a multidimensional definition of social class along with information on the reproductive histories of women born between 1920 and 1965 in six Latin American countries to show the following: the enduring connection between social stratification and fertility differentials, the concomitance of diverse fertility decline trajectories by class, and the role of within- and between-class social distances in promoting/preventing ideational change towards the acceptance of lower fertility. These results enable me to revisit the scope of theories of fertility change and to provide an explanatory narrative centred on empirically constructed social classes (probable social classes) and the macro- and micro-level conditions that influenced their life courses. I use 21 census samples collected between 1970 and 2005 in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Paraguay.