This text focuses on group behaviour in developing countries. It includes studies of producer and community organizations, NGOs, and some public sector groups. Despite the fact that most economic decisions are taken by people acting within groups - families, firms, neighbourhood or community associations, and networks of producers - the analysis of group functioning has not received enough attention, particularly among economists. Some groups function well, from the perspectives of equity, efficiency, and well-being, while others do not. This book explores why The text covers groups that perform three types of function: overcoming market failures (for example, producer organizations); improving the position of their members (for example, Trade Unions), and distributing resources to the less well-off (for example, NGOs and the public sector) It contrasts three modes of group behaviour: power and control; co-operation; and the use of material incentives, exploring what determines modes of behaviour of groups, and the consequences for efficiency, equity, and well-being.

The authors explain why the discovery and development of natural resources is commonly associated with unstable and unequal development, and frequently with violence. They demonstrate the need for policies and institutions by reflecting on both successes and failures in case studies on Botswana, Nigeria and Niger as well as Bolivia, Chile and Peru.

Why it is so difficult for liberal economic ideas to become generally accepted (that is socially 'embedded') in industrialising countries despite the universal support for liberal political ideas and a single global market system? Drawing on the results of a sustained and collaborative interdisciplinary research project, international scholars provide a perspective on previous shifts towards (and away from) economic liberalism within Latin America, on the interaction of internal and external drivers in this process, and on the international context of the evolution of economic ideas.

This is the new edition of the highly acclaimed Latin America in the 1930s , a text which has proved invaluable for teachers, researchers and students alike. The second edition has been revised and updated, including a new preface and updated statistical material, to form the second volume in An Economic History of Twentieth-Century Latin America . This book confronts the puzzle of Latin America's rapid recovery from the collapse in world markets and capital flows in the late 1920s. It shows how far the safety valves which made recovery possible in the 1930s were not available fifty years later. It documents the impact of crisis on the changing role of the state and on institutional development. The Central American case studies have been updated with significantly improved data.

This is the new edition of the highly acclaimed "Latin America in the 1930s," a text which has proved invaluable for teachers, researchers and students alike. The second edition has been revised and updated, including a new preface and updated statistical material, to form the second volume in the "Economic History of Twentieth-Century Latin America." This book confronts the puzzle of Latin America's rapid recovery from the collapse in world markets and capital flows in the late 1920s. It shows how far the safety valves which made recovery possible in the 1930s were not available fifty years later. It documents the impact of crisis on the changing role of the state and on institutional development. The Central American case studies have been updated with significantly improved data.

This book presents evidence of the evolution of the gender inequalities in Latin America during the twentieth century, using basic indicators of human development, namely education, health and the labour market. There are very few historical studies that centre on gender as the main analytical category in Latin America, so this book breaks new ground. Using case-studies from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay, the authors show that there is evidence of a correlation between economic growth and the decrease in gender inequality, but this process is also not linear. Although the activity rate of women was high at the beginning of the twentieth century, female participation in the labour market diminished, until the 1970s, when it began to increase dramatically. Since the 1970s, fertility reduction and education improvements and worsening labour market conditions are associated to the steadily increase of women participation in the labour market. By gauging the extent to which gender gaps in the formation of human capital, access to resources, quality of life and opportunities may have operated as a restriction on women's capabilities and on economic growth in the region, this book demonstrates that Latin America has lagged behind in terms of gender equality.

This book presents evidence of the evolution of the gender inequalities in Latin America during the twentieth century, using basic indicators of human development, namely education, health and the labour market. There are very few historical studies that centre on gender as the main analytical category in Latin America, so this book breaks new ground. Using case-studies from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay, the authors show that there is evidence of a correlation between economic growth and the decrease in gender inequality, but this process is also not linear. Although the activity rate of women was high at the beginning of the twentieth century, female participation in the labour market diminished, until the 1970s, when it began to increase dramatically. Since the 1970s, fertility reduction and education improvements and worsening labour market conditions are associated to the steadily increase of women participation in the labour market. By gauging the extent to which gender gaps in the formation of human capital, access to resources, quality of life and opportunities may have operated as a restriction on women's capabilities and on economic growth in the region, this book demonstrates that Latin America has lagged behind in terms of gender equality.

Today Peru is undoubtedly poorer than Colombia. Yet at the turn of the century the opposite was true. This study asks why Peru has made relatively so much less progress, and finds part of the answer in the greater coherence and competence of short term policy management in Colombia. Whether the international economy has provided positive or negative shocks, Colombia has tended to manage them more skilfully than Peru - not be relying on the market but by generally pragmatic and prudent interventionist policies.

A substantial introduction to the study of group behaviour in developing countries. Groups account for the majority of economic decisions, yet this remains a relatively neglected area of study. This book provides both relevant theoretical issues and eleven case studies. The authors explore what determines modes of behaviour of groups, and the consequences for efficiency, equity, and well-being, concluding that the universal presumption in favour of material incentives needs to be abandoned and cooperation supported if markets and groups are to function well and in an equity-friendly direction.

Does decentralization work in practice? Does it strengthen local level democracy and economic development? This book examines these questions by analysing the experience of seven medium sized cities in Colombia and Chile. The authors draw on extensive fieldwork involving numerous interviews with actors at all levels and from all sectors. The result is a unique test, at the local level in Latin America, of the outcome of reforms to the institutional structure of government.