Fair Growth Economic Policies for Latin America's Poor and Middle-Income Majority

by Birdsall, Nancy; Torre, Augusto De La; Menezes, Rachel

• ISBN13: 9781933286167
• ISBN10: 1933286164
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-01-30
• Publisher: Center for Global Development

Summary

Until recently, students of development have put much more energy into understanding the causes and consequences of absolute poverty than of inequality. But globalization --with its new opportunities for winners and losers, and its new insecurities and competitive pressures --is changing that. Nowhere is the issue of inequality more worrying than in Latin America, the setting for many of the world's most unequal societies. This book presents a dozen ideas or "tools" meant to make life in Latin America more equitable and fair for the great majority of its people. It suggests policies and programs for making tax structures more progressive; giving small businesses a chance; protecting labor mobility and workers' rights; tackling corruption head on; and raising the levels of quality, efficiency, and equity of the education systems.Change and reform in the direction of greater fairness will require not only political leadership and technical know-how on the part of government officials and legislators, but support and input from the progressive business community, the increasingly effective and vocal civil society, and students and intellectuals.

Author Biography

Nancy Birdsall is president of the Center for Global Development Augusto De La Torre is chief economist for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank Rachel Menezes is a former economic policy associate at the Inter-American Dialogue

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: Giving Latin America's Majority a Fair Chance	p. 1
A Dozen Equity Tools
Rule-Based Fiscal Discipline	p. 37
Smoothing Booms and Busts	p. 43
Social Safety Nets That Trigger Automatically	p. 50
More Taxes on the Rich and Better Spending on the Rest	p. 58
Giving Small Businesses a Chance	p. 75
Protecting Job Mobility and Workers' Rights	p. 91
Repairing Rural Markets	p. 101
Tackling Corruption Head On	p. 111
Schools for the Poor, Too	p. 123
Dealing Openly with Discrimination	p. 136
Consumer-Driven Public Services	p. 145
How the United States Can Help: Opening Markets and More	p. 161
References	p. 169
Index	p. 207
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