Overcoming Inequality In Latin America

Latin America is faced with the challenge of achieving the Millennium Developmental Goal to halve poverty in the region by 2015. Historically, this region has experienced persistently high levels of inequality and poverty, the causes and consequences of which are analytically examined here. Adopting a multidimensional approach, this informative book focuses on the mechanisms that lead to higher inequality and emphasizes the role of macroeconomics, trade rules, capital flows and the political electoral process. It analyzes how inequality has hindered development, how it interacts with a nation’s economic, social and political processes, and how inequality constrains these processes in ways that weakens the prospect of establishing and sustaining a dynamic, wealthy and creative society. An international team of specialist contributors investigate and explain these crucial issues. Examining the key economic policies and reforms which have exacerbated the region’s extremely high inequality levels, throughout this book they prescribe an alternative range of policy suggestions to help alleviate inequality and provide the foundations for more equitable development.

Unlike other regions around the world, several Latin American countries have managed to reduce income inequality over the last decade. Higher growth rates and growing employment, but also innovative wage policies and social programs, have contributed to reducing poverty and narrow income disparities. Yet, despite this progress, nation-states in the region demonstrate little capacity to substantially change their patterns of deeply rooted inequalities. Focusing on the limits and challenges of redistributive policies in Latin America, this volume synthesizes and updates the discussion of inequality in the region, introducing the perspective of global and transnational interdependencies. The book explores the extent to which redistributive policies have been interlinked with the provision and quality of public goods as well as with structural changes of the productive sector. Inspired by structuralist and neostructuralist thinking of Latin American economists, such as Raúl Prebisch and Celso Furtado, authors question the redistributive impact of the interplay of recent macroeconomic, fiscal and social policies, particularly under left and center-left administrations committed to greater equality. Bringing together experts in social, fiscal and macroeconomic policies to investigate the interdependent and global character of inequalities, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology, economics, development and politics with interests in Latin America, inequality and public policy.

Unlike other regions around the world, several Latin American countries have managed to reduce income inequality over the last decade. Higher growth rates and growing employment, but also innovative wage policies and social programs, have contributed to reducing poverty and narrow income disparities. Yet, despite this progress, nation-states in the region demonstrate little capacity to substantially change their patterns of deeply rooted inequalities. Focusing on the limits and challenges of redistributive policies in Latin America, this volume synthesizes and updates the discussion of inequality in the region, introducing the perspective of global and transnational interdependencies. The book explores the extent to which redistributive policies have been interlinked with the provision and quality of public goods as well as with structural changes of the productive sector. Inspired by structuralist and neostructuralist thinking of Latin American economists, such as Raúl Prebisch and Celso Furtado, authors question the redistributive impact of the interplay of recent macroeconomic, fiscal and social policies, particularly under left and center-left administrations committed to greater equality. Bringing together experts in social, fiscal and macroeconomic policies to investigate the interdependent and global character of inequalities, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology, economics, development and politics with interests in Latin America, inequality and public policy.

Latin America is faced with the challenge of achieving the Millennium Developmental Goal to halve poverty in the region by 2015. Historically, this region has experienced persistently high levels of inequality and poverty, the causes and consequences of which are analytically examined here. Adopting a multidimensional approach, this informative book focuses on the mechanisms that lead to higher inequality and emphasizes the role of macroeconomics, trade rules, capital flows and the political electoral process. It analyzes how inequality has hindered development, how it interacts with a nation’s economic, social and political processes, and how inequality constrains these processes in ways that weakens the prospect of establishing and sustaining a dynamic, wealthy and creative society. An international team of specialist contributors investigate and explain these crucial issues. Examining the key economic policies and reforms which have exacerbated the region’s extremely high inequality levels, throughout this book they prescribe an alternative range of policy suggestions to help alleviate inequality and provide the foundations for more equitable development.

Concern about the pervasiveness of poverty and income inequality in Latin America goes beyond the issue of social justice. The persistence of mass poverty and inequality pits different social groups against one another and leads to a polarization that makes consistent economic policy formation difficult. National productivity may also suffer in economies with poorly educated workforces lacking adequate health care. Statistics on poverty and inequality in Latin America are rudimentary and often conflicting. Yet it is known that poverty became more widespread in the region during the last decade as it experienced economic decline. About 180 million people, or two out of every five in the area, are now living in poverty—some 50 million more than in 1980. It is also known that income and wealth are far more unequally distributed in Latin America than in most other developing regions. This book provides a much-needed assessment of how poverty, inequality, and social indicators have fared in several Latin American countries over the past decade. Experts from Latin America and the U.S. focus attention on the extent of poverty and inequality and how they have been affected by the debt crisis and adjustment of the 1980s. They explain that issues of poverty and inequality were neglected as governments in Latin America struggled to restore stability and growth to their economies. Social sector spending declined sharply, affecting both the quality and quantity of services provided. The contributors examine how poverty and inequality are—or are not—being addressed in each country. They also explore the viability of alternative approaches to combating poverty and reducing inequality. They explain that virtually no one denies that governments must take a leading role in the provision of health, education, and other social services. Yet there are sharp debates--over the compatibility of social spending with economic adjustment and stabilization; the priority of social expenditures in relation to other governmental spending; the allocation of funds among different social programs; who should, and should not, benefit; and who should pay the costs. They show that the poor and middle sectors had to pay dearly because their governments, the international community, and the families themselves were not prepared to deal with austerity. The book contains eleven chapters by contributors from universities and research institutions in the U.S. and Latin America, as well as from international financial organizations. It is the result of a project cosponsored by Inter-American Dialogue.

This book adopts a multidimensional approach to analyze both the historical and emerging factors that contribute to make Latin America and the Caribbean the most unequal region in the world. Social inequality is a historical characteristic of the region, but at the beginning of the 21st century, a handful of progressive governments seemed to be adopting policies that could reduce this historical trend. Many of these efforts, however, were blocked or reversed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which both exposed the persistence of historical trends and contributed to the emergency of new forms of inequality in the region. The different chapters in this contributed volume adopt a multidimensional, intersectional, perspective to analyze both the persistence and the emergency of social devices of production and reproduction of inequalities in the diverse Latin American and Caribbean temporal spatialities. The issues analyzed in the different chapters revolve around four main axes: a) persistence of generational and intergenerational inequalities; b) structural gender inequality; c) intertwined social inequalities: race, class and social structure and; c) historical and economic dimension of inequality. Persistence and Emergencies of Inequalities in Latin America: A Multidimensional Approach will be of interest to researchers interested in the study of social inequality and social justice in different fields of the human and social sciences, such as sociology, political science, history, economics, anthropology and education. It will also be a valuable tool for policy makers and social activists engaged in the discussion, advocacy and implementation of public policies aimed at reducing social inequalities.

Latin America is together with Sub-Saharan Africa the most unequal region of the world. This paper documents recent inequality trends in the Latin American region, going beyond traditional measures of income inequality. The paper also reviews some of the explanations that have been put forward to understand the current situation, and discusses why reducing income inequality should be an important policy priority. In particular, the authors discuss channels through which inequality can affect growth and output volatility. On the whole, the analysis suggests a two-pronged approach to reduce inequality in the region that combines policies aimed at improving the distribution of assets (especially education) with elements aimed at improving the capacity of the state to redistribute income through taxes and transfers.

Latin America and the Caribbean has been one of the regions of the world with the greatest inequality. This book explores why the region suffers from such persistent inequality, identifies how it hampers development, and suggests ways to achieve greater equity in the distribution of wealth, incomes and opportunities. The study draws on data from 20 countries based on household surveys covering 3.6 million people, and reviews extensive economic, sociological and political science studies on inequality in Latin America. Four broad areas for action by governments and civil society groups to break the destructive pattern are outlined: (1) build more open political and social institutions, that allow the poor and historically subordinate groups to gain a greater share of agency, voice and power in society; (2) ensure that economic institutions and policies seek greater equity, through sound macroeconomic management and equitable, efficient crisis resolution institutions, that avoid the large regressive redistributions that occur during crises, and that allow for saving in good times to enhance access by the poor to social safety nets in bad times; (3) increase access by the poor to high-quality public services, especially education, health, water and electricity, as well as access to farmland and the rural services, and protect and enforce the property rights of the urban poor; (4) reform income transfer programmes so that they reach the poorest families.