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271. Rating Banks in Emerging Markets: What Credit Rating Agencies Should Learn From Financial Indicators

Author:
Liliana Rojas-Suarez
Publication Date:
05-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
The rating agencies' and bank supervisors' records of prompt identification of banking problems in emerging markets has not been satisfactory. This paper suggests that such deficiencies could be explained by the use of financial indicators that, while appropriate for industrial countries, do not work in emerging markets. Among the conclusions, this paper shows that the most commonly used indicator of banking problems in industrial countries, the capital-to-asset ratio, has performed poorly as an indicator of banking problems in Latin America and East Asia. This is because of (a) severe deficiencies in the accounting and regulatory framework and (b) lack of liquid markets for bank shares, subordinated debt and other bank liabilities and assets needed to validate the “real” worth of a bank as opposed to its accounting value.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
East Asia and Latin America

272. Urban Violence in São Paulo

Author:
Nancy Cardia
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
Today homicide is the highest cause of death of young people in Brazil. Nancy Cardia, senior researcher at the University of São Paulo's Center for the Study of Violence, examines urban violence in São Paulo arguing that violence has become a major public health problem.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Development, Economics, Human Welfare, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
South America and Latin America

273. Governance, Urban Environment, and the Growing Role of Civil Society

Author:
María Elena Ducci
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
In urban areas in developing countries, the current experience indicates that well organized and well-informed citizens have become the best motors for positive change within cities and it is the state that has fallen out of touch, in spite of constant declarations about the importance of citizens' participation. María Elena Ducci explains how in Latin America, the urban social movements that focused on the fight for land and housing from the sixties to the eighties today have become citizens' groups seeking to maintain and improve quality of life. Once again, territory has become the focus for city inhabitants who are discovering new ways of being social and becoming the political protagonists of their own lives in the city. According to Ducci, the dynamic of urban politics is changing as these new players—the citizens' groups that are defending their urban environment—come to the fore with enormous strength and energy. They oppose and block public and private urban projects of enormous scope, which raises costs and lengthens time frames for the companies involved. This paper focuses on how these groups, which demand a better quality of life and more equality, are working in an increasingly globalized and polarized city.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, Environment, Government, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
South America and Latin America

274. Moving Beyond Privatization in Latin America: The Government/Business Relationship

Author:
Robert Grosse
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
The outcomes of regulatory policies and regimes in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico since 1990 in the telecommunications, electric power, and banking sectors are explored in this paper. How should governments regulate these oligopolistic industries, once ownership of the sectors has been passed to private hands? How can governments manage these relationships successfully and see that the greatest benefits accrue to the country? What institutional structures can best handle the problems that arise in these situations? The paper addresses these questions and concludes that, while privatizations in these sectors have been predominantly positive in the 1990s, there is still considerable room for more competition.
Topic:
Economics, Government, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
Latin America, Central America, and Mexico

275. Reducing Urban and Industrial Pollution in Chile

Author:
Joseph M. Lieberson, Mark G. Hodges, and Gene M. Owens
Publication Date:
12-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United States Agency for International Development
Abstract:
In Chile's capital of Santiago, the summer sun rises over a hazy, smog-filled sky. The sky darkens as the day progresses and often turns a light brown. In winter, air quality is even worse, and visibility drops sharply. A ring of mountains and thermal inversions trap pollution in a choking cloud over the city. But the mountains and air currents are not the whole problem. Twenty years ago the air was relatively clean. That was before economic growth accelerated sharply. A rapid increase in industrial production and a major increase in truck, bus, and automobile traffic are all pumping pollutants into the air. The result is a high level of respiratory problems, sickness, and premature death.
Topic:
Economics, Environment, Human Welfare, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
South America, Latin America, and Chile

276. Colombia Alert: U.S. Counternarcotics Policy Toward Colombia

Author:
Myles Frechette
Publication Date:
02-2000
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:
More than 80 percent of the cocaine in the United States comes from Colombia. Substantial amounts of the heroin seized in the United States are also from Colombia. For the United States the impact of illegal drugs is devastating, not only in terms of human misery and lives lost, but also the billions it costs to combat this illegal trade; house the prison population of drug offenders; to provide health care to drug users; and sustain the loss of productivity in the economy. One estimate puts the dollar cost at $100 billion a year. This is a staggering amount, even in an $8 trillion economy. The cost to Colombia, however, is disproportionately higher. Consider the corruption and economic distortion $5 billion of illicit profits causes in Colombia, whose GDP is about $90 billion.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Civil Society, and Economics
Political Geography:
United States, Colombia, South America, and Latin America

277. A Dollarization Blueprint for Argentina

Author:
Steve H. Hanke and Kurt Schuler
Publication Date:
03-1999
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
President Carlos Menem of Argentina has advocated replacing the Argentine peso with the dollar. Dollarization would benefit Argentina because it would eliminate the peso-dollar exchange-rate risk, lower interest rates, and stimulate economic growth.
Topic:
Economics and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Argentina, South America, and Latin America

278. Transcript: World Economic Update III

Author:
Daniel K. Tarullo, John Lipsky, Arturo Porzecanski, and Bruce Steinberg
Publication Date:
05-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
Mr. Daniel K. Tarullo (Linda J. Wachner Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Economic Policy, Council on Foreign Relations): ...(Joined in progress) In the past World Economic Update sessions, we have not paid quite as much attention to Latin America, and in light of recent developments, it seems in need of some attention. We are pleased to have with us this morning three distinguished panelists: to your far right, John Lipsky, the chief economist at Chase Manhattan; sitting next to me, Arturo Porzecanski, the managing director at ING Barings and the Americas chief economist; and then to your far left, Bruce Steinberg, chief economist at Merrill Lynch.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
United States, Asia, South America, Latin America, Central America, and North America

279. Challenging Traditional Participation in Brazil: The Goals of Participatory Budgeting

Author:
Pedro Jacobi
Publication Date:
06-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
Using the mechanism of “participatory budgeting” implemented in the city of Porto Alegre, Pedro Jacobi analyses a new practice of resource allocation in several Brazilian urban areas. He comes to the conclusion that participatory budgeting is an effective tool in the democratization of the city's management— helping to break old patterns of clientelist relations. According to Jacobi, the new mechanism promotes decentralization of municipal decision-making and increases public control over the city's investment policies.
Topic:
Economics, Human Welfare, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
South America and Latin America

280. Growth, Poverty and Inequality in Latin America

Author:
William Smith and Roberto Korzeniewicz
Publication Date:
05-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Latin American and Iberian Studies at Columbia University
Abstract:
The crystallization of the so-called “Washington Consensus” in the late 1980s sparked intense debates regarding the likely social impact of macroeconomic stabilization and structural adjustment. Academic critics and political opponents argued that Washingtonian reforms, and neoclassical economics more broadly, lacked a coherent theory of growth, and were bound to result in long-term negative trends in popular welfare and social inequality. Advocates of neoliberal restructuring, in contrast, while recognizing that market-oriented reforms could lead initially to a decline in output and standards of living, were confident that these reforms eventually would lead to sustainable growth and, as a consequence, greater equality and enhanced social welfare. A decade later we revisit this debate to evaluate recent trends in economic growth, poverty and inequality, and to assess accompanying shifts in the theoretical, policy, and political terrains.
Topic:
Development and Economics
Political Geography:
Washington, South America, Latin America, Central America, and Caribbean