The Income Distribution Problem in Latin America and the Caribbean

the long version

Centers on the consequence of the reforms implemented in Latin America and the Caribbean in the last two decades. Trade and financial liberalization and the privatization of production activities have radically altered the rules of the game governing labor and business. The macroeconomic policy changes that accompanied or preceded the reforms sometimes strengthened the latter 's specific objectives, especially the growth of exports, but on other occasions they had the opposite effect. That combination of factors prompted the emergence of new market structures and transformations in microeconomic behavior. This book is part of a project carried out by ECLAC, in conjunction with researchers from nine countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico and Peru), to study the impact of the reforms. Income distribution in the region is the most unequal in the entire world, a situation that has been true for as long as the statistics have been kept. This publication identifies three contributing factors that help explain Latin America 's high level of inequality.