How does the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) affect Central America?

Most Central American economies experienced slower growth in the 1980s than in the 1960s and 1970s, trailing far behind the Asian Tigers. Contributing to slow growth were severe external shocks, sizable macroeconomic disturbances, and widespread political instability. The challenges Central America faces now may be even greater, conclude the authors, because of Mexican liberalization, continuing instability of the real exchange rate, low savings rates, and, finally, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Improvements in per capita income are closely linked with exports to North America of labor-intensive manufactures. Earnings from the export of tropical agricultural products are important, but the Central American labor force is unlikely to earn higher wagers unless countries diversify more into manufacturing. The Asian Tigers began their economic miracles by shifting into such labor-intensive manufactures as apparel and footwear, which they could export to a vast high-wage market. But the US market for such exports is now more crowded and threatens to become more so, with exports from China and other very low-wage countries. With Asian competition hurting Central America's chances, it could be said that wages in Central America are set in Beijing, not in San Jose. The authors examine the critical drivers of Central America's future competitiveness: economic liberalization, uncertainty about the real exchange rate, distance from key markets, savings rates and NAFTA. Central American economies have low wage rates, and considerable advantage of location over Asia in selling in North American markets, especially Mexico. But real exchange rates in Central America are more unpredictable than those in Asian countries. Central America faces a chicken-and-egg problem. To stabilize its terms of trade, it must expand exports of manufactures. But instability in the terms of trade deters the investments that would lead to expanded exports of manufactures. By greatly increasong Mexico's attractiveness to foreign investors, NAFTA could be the straw that breaks the camel's back, as far as Central America is concerned. For this reason, the governments of Central America need to do all in their power to increase domestic savings and reduce investment risks. Exchange rate stabilization should be carried out obviously with appropriate macroeconomic policies -- but also by encouraging exports of labor-intensive manufactures with appropriate incentives, supporting infrastructure and educational investments. The key conclusion is that the future of Central America rests importantly on exports to Mexico, a market today which is pretty much untapped. Investments in transportation infrastructure that can facilitate this emerging trade are likely to have very large payoffs for the Central American economies.Trade Policy,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Economic Growth,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research

Análisis del vínculo común desde la perspectiva del capital social para su aplicación en la conformación de cajas de ahorro en Ecuador

El vínculo común es uno de los requisitos requeridos por la normativa ecuatoriana para la conformación de las cajas de ahorro. A pesar de la importancia que representa, no tiene un desarrollo jurídico doctrinario adecuado que permita aprovechar su cumplimiento de forma útil para las organizaciones. El presente trabajo pretende realizar una breve introducción al estudio del vínculo común aprovechando la carga teórica que precede al estudio del capital social, enfocado en los trabajos realizados por Pierre Bourdieu, Robert Putnam y James Coleman, a fin de obtener sus principales características y otros aportes teóricos que sean aplicables en la economía popular y solidaria de forma general y, específicamente, en el vínculo común de las cajas de ahorro. En este contexto, se intenta determinar si el vínculo común, tal como está concebido en la normativa jurídica ecuatoriana para las cajas de ahorro, puede ser descrito, analizado y delimitado por los diferentes enfoques teóricos desarrollados para conceptualizar al capital social, por lo que comprende un intento de aproximación teórica entre capital social y la economía popular y solidaria. Como aporte fundamental del presente trabajo, se concluye que tanto el discurso teórico como los diferentes conceptos desarrollados para describir al capital social, son aplicables y pueden ser utilizados para estudiar y describir al vínculo común de forma general. Sin embargo, para considerar su aplicación de forma concreta en la normativa emitida para las cajas de ahorro, se observa que es necesario realizar un análisis previo del contexto social en que se desarrollan la economía y la normativa jurídica

Variables e instrumentos para la evaluación del desempeño individual en el trabajo

The objective of this editorial is to synthesize the conceptual and instrumental debates on individual job performance (IDP). It is expected to offer the audience of Cuadernos Latinoamericanos de Administración a general theoretical and methodological framework for the academic and organizational use of performance evaluations. Although there are recent literature reviews on the subject (eg (Koopmans et al. 2011, Ones et al. 2018), evidence syntheses have focused on discussing the conceptual dimensionality of ECD, resulting in little information for decision making regarding the instruments for its measurement.El objetivo de esta editorial es sintetizar los debates conceptuales e instrumentales sobre el desempeño individual en el trabajo (DIT). Se espera ofrecer a la audiencia de Cuadernos Latinoamericanos de Administración un marco teórico y metodológico general para el uso académico y organizacional de las evaluaciones de desempeño. Si bien existen revisiones de literatura recientes sobre el asunto (e.g. (Koopmans et al. 2011, Ones et al. 2018), las síntesis de la evidencia se han enfocado en discutir la dimensionalidad conceptual del DIT, resultando poco informativas para la toma de decisiones en cuanto a los instrumentos para su medición

Feasibility of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antigen self-testing in school and summer camp attendees

SARS-CoV-2 screening is one of the pillars of non-pharmaceutical preventive strategies to early identify and isolate infected individuals and therefore decrease community incidence. We assessed the feasibility of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 self-testing with antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic tests in attendees of educational settings. A total of 305 students (88.15%) and 41 staff (11.85%) from 9 to 56 years old participated in the self-testing procedure and answered the survey at the end of the study. 91.3% (n = 313) did not need help, 96.1% of participants reported the same outcome as the healthcare workers. 94.5% strongly or slightly agree with the statement "I would repeat the experience". The study demonstrates that self-testing is acceptable and usable in children, adolescents and adults when the epidemiological situation may require a systematic screening of these populations, although supervision by health care or previously trained personnel is recommended for younger age groups

La gamificación en la educación universitaria: aplicación a asignaturas de programación

Informe sobre la experiencia de aplicar técnicas de gamificación en la asignatura “Estructura de Datos y Algoritmos”, obligatoria de 2º curso en los grados impartidos en la Facultad de Informática de la UCM

Formin1 Mediates the Induction of Dendritogenesis and Synaptogenesis by Neurogenin3 in Mouse Hippocampal Neurons

Neurogenin3, a proneural transcription factor controlled by Notch receptor, has been recently shown to regulate dendritogenesis and synaptogenesis in mouse hippocampal neurons. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms involved in these actions of Ngn3. We have used a microarray analysis to identify Ngn3 regulated genes related with cytoskeleton dynamics. One of such genes is Fmn1, whose protein, Formin1, is associated with actin and microtubule cytoskeleton. Overexpression of the Fmn1 isoform-Ib in cultured mouse hippocampal neurons induced an increase in the number of primary dendrites and in the number of glutamatergic synaptic inputs at 4 days in vitro. The same changes were provoked by overexpression of Ngn3. In addition downregulation of Fmn1 by the use of Fmn1-siRNAs impaired such morphological and synaptic changes induced by Ngn3 overexpression in neurons. These results reveal a previously unknown involvement of Formin1 in dendritogenesis and synaptogenesis and indicate that this protein is a key component of the Ngn3 signaling pathway that controls neuronal differentiation

Reorganización de los centros de capacitación de la Asociación Fe y Alegría tomo I Diagnóstico

La Asociación Fé y Alegria cuenta con centros de capacitación y cada uno de ellos tiene como objetivo primordial la reorganización de dichos centros, que consiste en el rediseño de los planes de estudios de los sistemas de control administrativo

Feasibility of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antigen self-testing in school and summer camp attendees

BackgroundSARS-CoV-2 screening is one of the pillars of non-pharmaceutical preventive strategies to early identify and isolate infected individuals and therefore decrease community incidence.MethodsWe assessed the feasibility of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 self-testing with antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic tests in attendees of educational settings.ResultsA total of 305 students (88.15%) and 41 staff (11.85%) from 9 to 56 years old participated in the self-testing procedure and answered the survey at the end of the study. 91.3% (n = 313) did not need help, 96.1% of participants reported the same outcome as the healthcare workers. 94.5% strongly or slightly agree with the statement “I would repeat the experience”.ConclusionThe study demonstrates that self-testing is acceptable and usable in children, adolescents and adults when the epidemiological situation may require a systematic screening of these populations, although supervision by health care or previously trained personnel is recommended for younger age groups