Follow the Leader? Comparative Law Study of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation’s Impact in Latin America

In May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entered into force in the European Union. As is widely recognized, its impact goes beyond the borders of the old continent, permeating through the regulatory processes of countries all over the world. Nowhere is this more evident than in Latin America, where governments have long emulated European data protection standards. Professor Anu Bradford has famously characterized this phenomenon as a prominent example of ‘the Brussels Effect,’ defined as Europe’s unilateral power to regulate global markets. Other scholars see a more complex dynamic at play. This is especially true in the data privacy context in which the EU has benefited from a highly transplantable legal model and normative innovations that have proved successful in a global marketplace of ideas. This Article joins the debate around the EU’s transnational influence on the regulation of personal data by evaluating the de jure impact that the GDPR has had in Latin America to date. To this end, the Article addresses three main questions. First, what is the panorama of data privacy legislation across Latin America since the 2016 adoption of the GDPR? Second, how have those countries in the region that have moved first to reform or enact data privacy legislation in light of the GDPR’s key innovations done so? And finally, what lessons can be learned from the Latin American experience based on the responses to these questions? In responding, the Article looks first at which countries in the region have introduced or proposed changes to their legislation in the wake of the GDPR’s enactment in 2016. It then evaluates the experience of key jurisdictions in greater detail, namely Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Uruguay, to determine what lessons can be drawn from their efforts. By pursuing these inquiries, the authors shed new light on the debate surrounding the nature of the de jure dimension of ‘the Brussels Effect’ in the region

Implementation of Basel Rules in Brazil: what are the implications for development finance?

This paper is set to examine the developmental impact of international Codes and Standards (C&S) as they are applied to the banking system in Brazil. It is driven by the questions: to what extent has compliance with international C&S affected, or may affect in the future, credit to the SMEs and the poor? Through what mechanisms? What changes (institutional, other) have occurred as a result? The paper focuses on the implementation of the Basel rules – Basel I and II. It finds strong indications that, as a result of implementation of Basel I in Brazil, credit as a proportion of the country’s GDP declined gradually between 1994 (when Basel I was adopted) and early this century. The paper also argues that Basel I probably contributed to the decline in the number of banks in Brazil since 1994, and to banking concentration as well. Furthermore, the paper shows that although Basel I has affected credit in Brazil, there is no clear evidence that credit to the SMEs, to rural producers or to the urban poor was negatively affected, at least not in a major way. The paper suggests that a main reason for this outcome is that credit patterns during the period under Basel I have been influenced by directed credit policy, which in a number of cases were intended to protect the less favoured segments. In relation to Basel II, the paper shows that Brazil’s regulators are proposing a gradual approach for the full implementation of these new banking rules. The paper sees this approach as appropriate for a developing country like Brazil where banks need time, resources and capacity building to be able to adopt Basel II in its entirety. But it also argues that the proposed framework lacks any countervailing mechanisms or instruments to address three key potentially negative implications concerning the new Basel rules: possible further banking concentration, concentration of banks’ portfolios away from SMEs and towards big corporations, and accentuated bank credit pro-cyclicality

El efecto de las prácticas de gobierno corporativo sobre la valuación de mercado y políticas de pago de compañías chilenas

(Disponible en idioma inglés únicamente) En este trabajo nos preguntamos si las prácticas de conducción empresarial al nivel de compañía en un país dado inciden o no en la valuación de mercado de esas compañías. Esta cuestión es esencial para poder evaluar los beneficios potenciales que puede reportar a las empresas un cambio de sus prácticas, aún cuando las mismas no afecten las reglas en su país. El caso chileno presenta en particular al menos tres características interesantes que hacen que su estudio sea particularmente pertinente para otras economías emergentes. En primer lugar, la estructura empresarial en Chile presenta una propiedad altamente concentrada, un uso generalizado de estructuras piramidales para separar los derechos de control del flujo de efectivo y poca claridad en la identificación de la tenencia final. En segundo lugar, hace poco se promulgaron modificaciones de las leyes que regulan el mercado de valores y las sociedades mercantiles, con la intención de mejorar la conducción empresarial en Chile. Por último, el mercado de capitales de Chile es relativamente desarrollado y tiene ya más de 20 años con una participación considerable de inversionistas institucionales. Realizamos un análisis de regresión de las mediciones del desempeño empresarial y de la política de pagos sobre los indicadores de la gestión empresarial al nivel de compañía y una serie de variables de control. Verificamos cuidadosamente, mediante una amplia comprobación de validez, que nuestros resultados no se debieran a una influencia de variables omitidas, ni a una especificación y muestras particulares. También controlamos la causalidad inversa empleando dos características de la ley que rige la actividad de las sociedades mercantiles en Chile que brindan un instrumento exógeno de algunas de las prácticas de conducción empresarial de las empresas chilenas. Hallamos que las compañías que presentan una mayor coincidencia entre los derechos sobre el flujo de caja y el control tienden a ser sistemáticamente más valoradas por el mercado. Hemos interpretado este resultado como una señal de que el mercado de capitales de Chile penaliza los posibles conflictos de intereses entre los contralores y los accionistas minoritarios.

Who owns the media?

The authors examine patterns of media ownership in 97 countries around the world. They find that almost universally the largest media firms are controlled by the government or by private families. Government ownership is more pervasive in broadcasting than in the printed media. Government ownership is generally associated with less press freedom, fewer political and economic rights, inferior governance, and, most conspicuously, inferior social outcomes in education and health. The adverse effects of government ownership on political and economic freedom are stronger for newspapers than for television. The adverse effects of government ownership of the media do not appear to be restricted solely to instances of government monopoly. The authors present a range of evidence on the adverse consequences of state ownership of the media. State ownership of the media is often argued to be justified on behalf of the social needs of the disadvantaged. But if their findings are correct, increasing private ownership of the media--through privatization or by encouraging the entry of privately owned media--can advance a variety of political and economic goals, especially those of meeting the social needs of the poor.ICT Policy and Strategies,Broadcast and Media,Economic Theory&Research,Public Health Promotion,Educational Technology and Distance Education,Broadcast and Media,National Governance,ICT Policy and Strategies,Economic Theory&Research,Health Monitoring&Evaluation

Transbasin water transfers

Presented at the 2001 USCID water management conference, Transbasin water transfers on June 27-30, 2001 in Denver, Colorado.Includes bibliographical references.As the headwaters for seven major rivers, water resources in Colorado have been diverted for use for over 150 years. Transbasin diversions have been developed to move water from one river basin to another, including transmountain diversions, which move water over the continental divide. Transmountain diversions have historically been developed to provide water for irrigated agriculture and municipal purposes. This paper briefly discusses the development of each of Colorado's 30 transmountain diversions between the Colorado, South Platte, Arkansas and Rio Grande river basins, and provides a summary of diversions for recent years

Transbasin water transfers

Presented at the 2001 USCID water management conference, Transbasin water transfers on June 27-30, 2001 in Denver, Colorado.Includes bibliographical references.Manusmara River Basin, a sub-basin of the Bagmati River Basin, lies in the Terai of Nepal. It lies in the sub-tropical climatic zone. The topography is almost flat with a very gentle slope towards the south. Up to the mid 1960s, a large portion was covered by dense, Sal forest. At present, only 6% of the area is occupied by forest. Over the last few decades, consumption of water especially for agriculture has increased tremendously. This paper draws out the history of agricultural development in the basin and its interface with the efforts made by the fanners to use the basin water resources. Water accounting has revealed that Manusmara is an "open basin" and it still offers ample scope for transbasin transfers and further harnessing of the available water. Even during the driest year, only 46% of the available water resources is depleted. This leaves more than half of the basin's yield for undeclared uses. The basin is at the initial stage of development. On the basis of the water account and an institutional analysis, the paper offers some suggestions for integrated development of the basin