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1. An Uneven Welcome: Latin American and Caribbean Responses to Venezuelan and Nicaraguan Migration

Author:
Andrew Selee and Jessica Bolter
Publication Date:
02-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
The sudden mass movement of people fleeing political and economic crises in Venezuela and political unrest in Nicaragua has transformed the migration landscape in Latin America and the Caribbean. Approximately 4.8 million Venezuelans had emigrated by December 2019, the vast majority remaining in the region, and as many as 100,000 Nicaraguans have moved to neighboring Costa Rica since early 2018. This report examines how 11 countries—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, Mexico, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay—are responding to the mass outflows. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and interviews with government officials and representatives of nongovernmental organizations, migrant-led groups, and international actors, the study analyzes efforts to provide newcomers with legal status and to integrate them into schools, health-care systems, and local labor markets—measures that are important for both migrants and the communities in which they are settling. Overall, receiving countries have shown openness and even creativity, providing legal status to many and access to basic education and emergency health care to most. But as the exodus continues and it becomes clear that large numbers of Venezuelans are likely to remain in their host countries in the mid- to long term, the initially warm welcome has begun to cool in places. Capacity constraints in many education and health-care systems, which existed prior to the arrival of large numbers of newcomers, have also become more acute. Looking ahead, the report sets out a range of recommendations for both receiving countries and the international community. Among them: balancing security and flexibility in entry requirements; strengthening asylum systems and other, more nimble legal pathways; and streamlining credential recognition so migrants’ skills can benefit local communities and economies.
Topic:
Education, Health, Immigration, Employment, Economy, Welfare, and Skills
Political Geography:
Latin America, Nicaragua, Caribbean, and Venezuela

2. The Biological Standard of Living in Urban Bolivia, 1880s – 1920s: Stagnation and Persistent Inequality

Author:
Boris Branisa, José Peres-Cajías, and Nigel Caspa
Publication Date:
06-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
Based on almost 5.000 direct observations on National Identification Cards, this paper offers the first estimation of the evolution of average heights in urban Bolivia for the decades 1880s-1920s. The analysis focuses on men aged 19-50 years registered in the city of La Paz. Despite city’s growing economic importance and modernization, average heights remained stagnant around 163 cm. This level is not so different to that found in the still disperse available evidence for rural Bolivia. Furthermore, there is evidence of inequalities throughout the period under study: those men who were indigenous, illiterate or worked in manual occupations were persistently shorter than non-indigenous, literates and non-manual workers, respectively. In coincidence with recent studies on Latin America, these findings suggest that the boost in exports and the regained dynamism of the economy that took place at the onset of the 20th century were not accompanied by improvements in biological standards of living.
Topic:
Economics, History, Urban, Welfare, Indigenous, and Modernization
Political Geography:
Latin America and Bolivia

3. The Impact of the State on the Quality of an Economic System: A Cross-Country Analysis

Author:
Maciej Bałtowski and Piotr Kozarzewski
Publication Date:
08-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Social and Economic Research - CASE
Abstract:
The paper discusses the role of the state in shaping an economic system which is, in line with the welfare economics approach, capable of performing socially important functions and achieving socially desirable results. We describe this system through a set of indexes: the IHDI, the World Happiness Index, and the Satisfaction of Life index. The characteris-tics of the state are analyzed using a set of variables which describe both the quantitative (government size, various types of governmental expenditures, and regulatory burden) and qualitative (institutional setup and property rights protection) aspects of its functioning. The study examines the “old” and “new” member states of the European Union, the post-communist countries of Eastern Europe and Asia, and the economies of Latin America. The main conclusion of the research is that the institutional quality of the state seems to be the most important for creation of a socially effective economic system, while the level of state interventionism plays, at most, a secondary and often negligible role. Geographical differentiation is also discovered, as well as the lack of a direct correlation between the characteristics of an economic system and the subjective feeling of well-being. These re-sults may corroborate the neo-institutionalist hypothesis that noneconomic factors, such as historical, institutional, cultural, and even genetic factors, may play an important role in making the economic system capable to perform its tasks; this remains an area for future research.
Topic:
Demographics, Economy, Economic Growth, State, Economic Policy, Institutions, Trade, and Welfare
Political Geography:
Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America, and European Union

4. Preferences on Redistribution in Fragmented Labor Markets in Latin America and the Caribbean

Author:
Sarah Berens
Publication Date:
12-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
This study investigates the extent to which labor market duali- zation polarizes preferences on redistribution between formal and in- formal sector workers in Latin America and the Caribbean. Differences in welfare state costs and benefits for these labor market groups are likely to fuel diverging incentives regarding welfare consumption. The article tests whether or not informal workers are driven mainly by eco- nomic self-interest to increase gains from public welfare goods. The study employed a hierarchical model on pooled survey data from the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) 2008 and 2010 to analyze the risk exposure of formal and informal workers and, subse- quently, their preferences on redistribution. The analysis reveals that while economic self-interest is an influential factor for formal workers, it is (unexpectedly) much less so for informal workers. Also, an increased economically insecure environment, reflected by high unemployment rates, does not motivate informal workers to an exceptional degree to turn towards the state for redistribution, despite greater exposure to economic risk. Labor market dualization does not translate into polariza- tion at the individual level regarding redistributive preferences in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Topic:
Inequality, Welfare, Labor Market, and Redistribution
Political Geography:
South America, Latin America, Caribbean, and North America

5. Macroeconomic and Welfare Effects of Public Infrastructure Investment in Five Latin American Countries

Author:
Carlos Gustavo Machicado
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
It has been widely documented that investment in infrastructure is important for economic growth, but little work has been done in relation to the impact of infrastructure investment among other macroeconomic variables. This paper develops a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model of a small open economy to study the effects of public investment in infrastructure on output, consumption, private investment, trade balance and welfare. The model is parameterized and solved for five representative countries from The Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA), which include: Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina. I also analyze the growth effects on GDP by increasing or decreasing the effectiveness index of infrastructure in each of these countries. Naturally output will grow at a larger rate, if infrastructure is handled with greater efficiency.
Topic:
Infrastructure, Economic Growth, Macroeconomics, Welfare, and Public Investment
Political Geography:
Brazil, Argentina, Latin America, Venezuela, Chile, and Bolivia