This paper assesses the effects of total public debt (external and domestic) on social expenditure worldwide and in Latin America using an unbalanced panel of around 50 countries for the period 1985-2003. The most robust and important finding is that higher debt ratios do reduce social...

"Traces the main tendencies of the Colombian economy during the 1980s. A solid macroeconomic review and an analysis of the handling of foreign debt explain how Colombia escaped the 'lost decade.' This examination is coupled by an overview of the decade's political swings, marked especially by...

En la última década la orientación de las políticas microeconómicas dio un giro extraordinario en América Latina, pero la legislación laboral prácticamente no cambió. El propósito central de este trabajo es mostrar la magnitud de este atraso y señalar que en la mayoría de países se...