Dealing with cost-push inflation in Latin America: multi-causality in a context of increased openness and commodity price volatility

Despite recognizing the exogenous, cost-push nature of recent inflationary pressures in Latin America, plus the difficulties faced by monetary authorities in dealing, under such circumstances, with internal and external disequilibria simultaneously, intellectual attention in policy circles remains focused on demand-side issues and policy instruments. This paper develops an eclectic model that has the potential to nest demand-side elements, but focuses on cost-push factors -distributional conflict and propagation mechanisms- as typically addressed by the post-Keynesian-structuralist tradition. In addition to shedding some light on the nature of inflationary pressures as experienced in Latin American countries during the recent commodity boom - in particular South American commodity exporting economies - the paper’s main goal is to portray the policy and instrumental trade-offs faced by policy-makers themselves. By bringing unconventional policy devices into the model (such as direct interventions in commodity markets), we hope to broaden the scope of the conventional macroeconomic policy instruments.Facultad de Ciencias Económica

América del Sur antes y después de la pandemia: restricciones estructurales y política económica

Mesa de cierre de las VIII Jornadas de Historia de la Industria y los Servicios realizada el viernes 6 de agosto de 202

El sistema de ciencia, tecnología e innovación argentino en clave federal

La desigualdad territorial se manifiesta de manera muy notoria en la distribución espacial de la inversión en ciencia, tecnología e innovación (CTI). Para contrarrestar esta tendencia, en las últimas décadas se han desplegado diferentes iniciativas desde el Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación de la Argentina y diversos organismos del área. Se destaca, en ese sentido, la nueva Ley de Financiamiento del Sistema Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación de 2021, que, entre otras cosas, establece que los aumentos presupuestarios de cada año destinados a CTI se distribuyan con criterio federal, esto es, buscando reducir las asimetrías territoriales existentes. La elevada concentración de recursos, inversiones y fondos destinados a la CTI en las provincias del centro del país es una característica relativamente conocida. A partir del análisis de diversas fuentes de información y bases de datos, este documento ofrece evidencia novedosa y detallada sobre la estructura, la ubicación y las relaciones entre los diferentes agentes e instituciones que conforman el sistema de CTI y analiza su grado de correspondencia con los sistemas productivos provinciales.Fil: Abeles, Martín. Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe; Argentina.Fil: Villafañe, Soledad. Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe; Argentina

Dealing with cost-push inflation in Latin America: multi-causality in a context of increased openness and commodity price volatility

Despite recognizing the exogenous, cost-push nature of recent inflationary pressures in Latin America, plus the difficulties faced by monetary authorities in dealing, under such circumstances, with internal and external disequilibria simultaneously, intellectual attention in policy circles remains focused on demand-side issues and policy instruments. This paper develops an eclectic model that has the potential to nest demand-side elements, but focuses on cost-push factors -distributional conflict and propagation mechanisms- as typically addressed by the post-Keynesian-structuralist tradition. In addition to shedding some light on the nature of inflationary pressures as experienced in Latin American countries during the recent commodity boom - in particular South American commodity exporting economies - the paper’s main goal is to portray the policy and instrumental trade-offs faced by policy-makers themselves. By bringing unconventional policy devices into the model (such as direct interventions in commodity markets), we hope to broaden the scope of the conventional macroeconomic policy instruments.Facultad de Ciencias Económica

Estudios sobre financierización en América Latina

En los trabajos reunidos en este libro se analizan los efectos y la lógica de la financierización en las economías en desarrollo, la llamada financierización periférica, en particular en los países de América Latina. En los primeros capítulos del libro se ofrece una mirada histórica y conceptual del fenómeno, para luego concentrarse en algunas de sus manifestaciones más específicas, como su influencia en la dinámica de la inversión productiva, el gasto en investigación y desarrollo, las características de la inversión extranjera directa, la gestión de la política monetaria, y la composición y la dinámica del endeudamiento externo. La variedad de los aportes integrados en este volumen refleja una preocupación histórica de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL): analizar de manera consistente las condiciones que hacen posible una macroeconomía para el desarrollo, una agenda de investigación que como sostiene Alicia Bárcena en el prólogo de este libro "no puede sino comenzar por una discusión más profunda sobre la dinámica y los efectos de la financierización".Fil: Abeles, Martín. Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), Chile.Fil: Pérez Caldentey, Esteban. Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), Chile.Fil: Valdecantos, Sebastián. Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), Chile

Functional Analysis of the Arlequin Mutant Corroborates the Essential Role of the ARLEQUIN/TAGL1 Gene during Reproductive Development of Tomato

Reproductive development of higher plants comprises successive events of organ differentiation and growth which finally lead to the formation of a mature fruit. However, most of the genetic and molecular mechanisms which coordinate such developmental events are yet to be identified and characterized. Arlequin (Alq), a semi-dominant T-DNA tomato mutant showed developmental changes affecting flower and fruit ripening. Sepals were converted into fleshy organs which ripened as normal fruit organs and fruits displayed altered ripening features. Molecular characterization of the tagged gene demonstrated that it corresponded to the previously reported TOMATO AGAMOUS-LIKE 1 (TAGL1) gene, the tomato ortholog of SHATTERPROOF MADS-box genes of Arabidopsis thaliana, and that the Alq mutation promoted a gain-of-function phenotype caused by the ectopic expression of TAGL1. Ectopic overexpression of TAGL1 resulted in homeotic alterations affecting floral organ identity that were similar to but stronger than those observed in Alq mutant plants. Interestingly, TAGL1 RNAi plants yielded tomato fruits which were unable to ripen. They displayed a yellow-orange color and stiffness appearance which are in accordance with reduced lycopene and ethylene levels, respectively. Moreover, pericarp cells of TAGL1 RNAi fruits showed altered cellular and structural properties which correlated to both decreased expression of genes regulating cell division and lignin biosynthesis. Over-expression of TAGL1 is able to rescue the non-ripening phenotype of rin and nor mutants, which is mediated by the transcriptional activation of several ripening genes. Our results demonstrated that TAGL1 participates in the genetic control of flower and fruit development of tomato plants. Furthermore, gene silencing and over-expression experiments demonstrated that the fruit ripening process requires the regulatory activity of TAGL1. Therefore, TAGL1 could act as a linking factor connecting successive stages of reproductive development, from flower development to fruit maturation, allowing this complex process to be carried out successfully

Growth versus development: different patterns of industrial growth in Latin America during the 'boom' years

Includes bibliographyBetween 2003 and 2008 Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) experienced its most remarkable expansionary period since the 1970s. Yet, LAC countries' productivity gaps widened during this period vis-à-vis industrialized countries (here represented by the United States' manufacturing sector) as revealed in CEPAL (2010). The paper splits up this process and examines the different outcomes observed at the national level for the cases of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico during these "boom" years. It examines the composition of productivity divergence in terms of sectoral factor intensity following the Katz-Stumpo taxonomy and examines external productivity gaps, analyzes internal structural heterogeneity and carries out a shift-share analysis of manufacturing labor productivity for the five case studies

Crecimiento, distribución y desarrollo: un enfoque integrado

Incluye bibliografíaLa evolución del ingreso per cápita de los sectores más vulnerables depende no sólo de la evolución del ingreso nacional sino también de los cambios en su distribución. Hemos definido como ingreso medio de la "gran mayoría de la población" al de las personas ubicadas en los siete deciles de menores ingresos de la distribución personal (IGM70), que siguiendo a Shaikh y Ragab (2008) se construye combinando el ingreso per cápita del total de la economía con el coeficiente de Gini. En este trabajo relacionamos dicho indicador con el ritmo de crecimiento promedio del producto per cápita de los países más avanzados (G7), a efectos de establecer una taxonomía que permita distinguir los procesos de "convergencia inclusiva" de los de "divergencia excluyente", incluyendo los casos intermedios de "convergencia excluyente" y "divergencia inclusiva". Se trata de una construcción simple y de fácil visualización que, a diferencia de los indicadores compuestos, admite la realización de comparaciones transversale

Monetary regimes and labour institutions: an alternative interpretation of the downward trend in exchange-rate passthrough in peripheral countries

In recent years, several empirical studies have documented the decline in exchange-rate pass-through in peripheral countries. Conventional wisdom has interpreted this trend —verified in the last two decades— as the result of greater central bank credibility stemming from the implementation of formal inflation-targeting regimes. This paper offers an alternative interpretation, in line with the structuralist tradition, as it examines other instrumental transformations, concurrent with the establishment of inflationtargeting regimes, including ubiquitous labour market flexibilization. Empirical estimates for a set of peripheral countries for the period 1994–2016 show a marked correlation between the intensity of the exchange-rate pass-through and the weakening of labour market institutions