Privatizing public pension systems: Lessons from Latin America

The major goal of this analysis is to examine the pros and cons of privatizing public pension schemes based on the Latin American experience. The study draws on evidence from four countries that have fully privatized their public pension schemes (Chile, Mexico, Bolivia, and El Salvador) and four that have partially privatized (Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Peru). Some evidence suggests that privatization is having positive economic effects, contributing to the development of financial institutions and the availability of investment capital. It may also be increasing national savings rates and the rates of economic growth, but on these issues there is less agreement. The benefits of privatization go primarily to high-wage male workers with few benefits for low-wage and female workers. As a result, privatization contributes to both income and gender inequality. Efforts to draw lessons for the US must take into consideration numerous political and economic differences.     

Inequality and happiness: Insights from Latin America

Inequality is a contentious topic in economics, and its effect on individual welfare remains an open question. We address this question from the perspective of a novel approach in economics – the study of happiness. In this discussion, we draw from our research on the topic, which is based on new empirical evidence from Latin America. We find several differences from studies conducted in the United States and Europe, especially regarding the role of perceptions of mobility and status. We find that inequality has negative effects on happiness in Latin America, where it seems to be a signal of persistent unfairness. Our research also examines the effects of several variables, including wealth, status, and reference group size, on the link between inequality and happiness, with the presumption that these variables can help us identify the channels through which inequality operates as a signaling mechanism. This article is based on a longer research paper [14], which is under review for publication.     

Socialist Feminism in Latin America

The women's movement around the world takes many stances, including women's rights, feminism, women's research, women's auxilaries of political and religious organizations and socialist feminism. Because of its unique political and economic history, socialist feminism is the dominant emergent stance of the women's movement in Latin America. Brazil, Peru, and the Dominican Republic are examined. Socialist feminism is related to both the international women's movement, political trends within each county and constraints of the current political situation. Women's movements in other Latin American countries are also briefly discussed.     

Rethinking development theory: Insights from East Asia and Latin America

Development theory dealing with the highly industrialized countries of East Asia and Latin America has foundered in terms of its ability to generalize. The theories and concepts often are biased because they are derived from a selective and uneven reading of evidence from the two regions. This paper outlines the perceptions and misconceptions of a variety of theoretical perspectives on development, and then presents cross-regional evidence from East Asia and Latin America that suggests the need for a reformulation and synthesis of some of these earlier approaches. This theoretical synthesis focuses on three related themes: (1) the declining significance of industrialization; (2) the position of core and peripheral capital in commodity chains and export/marketing networks, which are becoming key units of analysis in the contemporary global manufacturing system; and (3) a new framework for differentiating the roles of the newly industrializing countries in the world economy.     

The Elasticity of Demand for Microcredit: Evidence from Latin America

Microcredit demand is frequently assumed to be inelastic, yet understanding the price elasticity of demand for microcredit is highly relevant in designing appropriate microfinance institution (MFI) financial products and policy. This article extracts loan demand schedules and elasticities of MFI borrowers in the Dominican Republic using a unique survey instrument. We analyse the intensive margin of microcredit demand and find that client demand elasticities are not homogeneous and are correlated with certain borrower characteristics. Overall results suggest that these micro‐entrepreneurs, who have already entered the MFI market, have close to unit elastic demand for microcredit. The mean demand elasticity for our sample is ‐1.0.     

Social security reform in Latin America: policy challenges

Over the last decade Latin American countries have served as the world's laboratory for pension systems based on individual retirement savings accounts. Some countries have adopted defined-contribution individual accounts as a replacement for state-run pension systems; other countries have embraced mixed systems of have made individual accounts optional and supplementary. This article outlines some of the most significant elements of recent Latin American pension reforms and examines some of the most serious policy challenges faced by governments implementing the new systems of individual accounts, including the need to reduce administrative costs, limit evasion, incorporate new categories of workers into the system, and improve competition in the pension fund industry. The authors conclude that there is no single Latin America model, and that reform itself has been and will continue to be an incremental process.     

Southerly winds: Family therapy and Latin America

This article serves as a conversational and conceptual introduction to this special issue. It is written not in Latin America – as the other articles are – but in Australia and it is written by a Chilean who left Chile due to the ravages that the 16 year long dictatorship had on those lands. Using reflections on my experience – as a citizen and later as a student in psychology and in family therapy – both in that country and since, I touch on post-colonial issues and on epistemic violence to interrogate ‘invisibilities’ held in mainstream forms of knowledge in the field, invisibilities that come to us from the Western North. Using references to the work of Edward Said and Gabriel García Márquez, the article invites us to review core assumptions and postures in the conceptual frame of systemic work and proposes a methodology that supports alternative forms of knowledge – knowledges of the South – to forge a voice, a resistance to globalising tendencies that threaten to undermine the work we strive to do.     

Non-governmental organisations and philanthropy in Latin America: An overview

This article provides an overview of the emerging non-profit or voluntary sector in Latin America. Specifically, the article addresses the differences and communalities these non-profit organisations have across the region. It concludes by emphasising the huge variety of roles and functions performed by non-profit organisations within and across countries, and their often ambigious position between the private and public realms.     

Quality of employment in Latin America: Theory and evidence

Historically, the development literature concerned with Latin American labour markets has focused on job numbers and productivity. But given the persistence of large shares of informal and now otherwise precarious employment, the authors argue that meaningful analysis also requires consideration of the implications of occupational status for the quality of employment. Based on empirical evidence from recent decades, they conclude that most dimensions of this concept – including social protection – depend on the conclusion of a written contract of employment. This finding leads them to outline policy options for stabilizing formal employment and securing adequate funding for social protection.     

Young workers in Latin America: protection or self-determination?

The author offers a wide-ranging comprehensive picture of the kinds and nature of child labor in Latin America, against a historical background of social and economic conditions.     

NGOs and philanthropy in Latin America: The Brazilian case

It is only in the last twenty years that there has appeared a field of civil organisations with a significant degree of autonomy from both state and church. But there are trends pointing to changes in the centralising, authoritarian tradition in government policies towards the non-profit sector in Brazil. This is occurring in parallel with the creation of conditions for change in this sector's negative image in public opinion. While, on the one hand, private social welfare organisations currently appear to public opinion in the worst possible light, being seen to be at the centre of the political crisis triggered by revelations of corruption, on the other hand there is a strong climate of moralisation and institutional democratisation which may favour them in the immediate future. More transparent policies for government collaboration and public control in this area appear to be a major outcome of this process. Questions of the democratisation (or deprivatisation) of the state, the need for institutional reform, and the constitution of a public sphere have been raised at the centre of debates around the role of these civil organisations in Brazil, now and for the future. This article was written prior to the inauguration of Fernando Henrique Cardoso's government in 1995. This has engaged in even more dialogue with civil society organisations than the previous government.