Patterns of growth and development in Northern and Southern Latin America: contrast between 1990 and 2000

• Grant number: 13/00070-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Effective date (Start): April 15, 2013
• Effective date (End): May 28, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Economics - Economics of Human Resources
• Principal Investigator: Maria Cristina Cacciamali
• Grantee: Maria Cristina Cacciamali
• Host Investigator: Gerardo Angeles-Castro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade (FEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), Mexico

Abstract

Latin American countries were characterized by the reorientation of their economic model and by structural reforms in the 1990s. These processes caused labor market disorganization and disarticulated the wage society of those countries. During this period, Latin American countries of north and of south participated in different ways in the world economy. Most southern governments followed a primary export model with State intervention in order to boost the domestic market, promote the distribution of household income and reduce poverty rates. While northern countries, led by Mexico, pursued a secondary export model based on low wages encouraged by strong trade ties with both other countries of North America - Canada and U.S. In the 1999, the economic outcomes were better in the northern region vis-à-vis the southern, although wages increased slightly in the north. In the 2000s, the behavior changed. The economic dynamism of the north lost speed especially because of the slowdown in the U.S. economy and the recession after 2008. The main implications were loss of jobs, greater unemployment, more wages decrease, emigration increase and higher rates of poverty and indigence. By other side, southern Latin American countries reversed the economic results of the 1990s, potentiating the benefits from the increase of Chinese exports in the 2000s. The strategy of the south was based on the development of their domestic market and on the implementation of a set of integrated distributive policies. Inclusive socio-economic policies and the high rate of growth of formal employment sustained the reduction of the Gini coefficient which had started in those countries in the mid 1990s.This work plan aims to verify three points through a comparative methodology: i) Extension of the restructuring of the wage society in the southern region, and how it was translated into lower unemployment, higher wages, greater formalization and higher income distribution. What are the prospects for the maintenance of this process? ii) Magnitude of the decrease of jobs in the north, their quality and wages. What are the prospects of reversing this state? iii) What political, economic, social and labor aspects can be pointed out as determinants of the behavior of the two regions? Why? (AU)