Thesis (Ph. D.)--Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 1990. / Typescript (photocopy). Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 246-267).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 356-365).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Maryland, College Park, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-101).

In recent years, Latin America has taken a backseat in terms of American foreign policy. A region that is stereo typically considered unstable and violent has ceased to be important to the United States, its hemispherical neighbor and global superpower. This project sheds some light on the assumption that Latin America is wholly unstable, and recognizes the causes and effects of social, economic, historical, and political factors that play a role in whether or not a state is politically stable. The study focuses on three players from varying regions of Latin America: Costa Rica, Argentina, and Cuba. Costa Rica is often considered one of the oldest, most stable democracies in the region. Cuba and Argentina have both had dictatorships in the last century, and their economies have risen and fallen, or vice versa. This project identifies some major factors in stability in an area that is grouped together as a Hispanic culture, but has so much variety within it. The thesis sheds light on the role of conflict history, economic development, political structure, and individual leaders in defining each state's political stability. Costa Rica, Argentina, and Cuba possess varying degrees of each of these factors, and the findings provide evidence for their current status on the political spectrum.

Orientador: Wilson Suzigan / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T08:36:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Paiva_SuzanaCristinaFernandesde_D.pdf: 10455470 bytes, checksum: 3beffcd5d809c01d9a3255f0c6fd1e05 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Esta tese estuda a trajetória intelectual de Fernando Fajnzylber com o propósito de recuperar, sistematizar e apresentar uma leitura critica das suas idéias e de seus ideais relacionados a uma estratégia de política industrial e desenvolvimento econômico para a América Latina. Fernando Fajnzylber foi um teórico do desenvolvimento latino-americano e o responsável pela construção do novo enfoque teórico da CEP AL para a década de 1990, que deu origem ao projeto cepalino de "transfonnação produtiva com eqüidade". O elo condutor de sua obra sempre foi a busca pela superação dos entraves ao desenvolvimento econômico e da perene exclusão social na América Latina, isto é, a construção de um modelo de desenvolvimento menos dependente e menos excludente, que conciliasse crescimento com equidade. Sua proposta apresentava-se como alternativa ao projeto neoliberal para a América Latina, contrapondo-se aos teóricos e líderes latino-americanos que aceitaram a inevitabilidade objetiva do neoliberalismo e aderiram intelectualmente ao "pensamento hegemônico". Desta forma, seu legado intelectual nos conduz a refletir não somente sobre crescimento econômico, incorporação de progresso técnico, eficiência nos investimentos, mas sobretudo, distribuição de renda e eqüidade, visto que a justiça social ainda está por ser feita na América Latina / Abstract: This thesis has the purpose of analysing Fernando Fajnzylber's intellectual path, as an attempt of retrieving, systematizing and presenting a critical reading of his ideas and ideals for Latin America's industrial policy and economic development. Fernando Fajnzylber was a Latin American economic development theorist and also the key author of a new approach to ECLAC's (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) theory for the 1990's, which evolved into the "productive transformation with equity" project. The thread of his work has always been the search of ways for surpassing the obstacles to Latin American development as much as its everlasting social exclusion, which means the building of a whole new economic model - a less dependant and less excluding one, combining economic growth and social equity. Ris economic mode! proposal has been presented as an alterna tive to the neoliberal project for Latin America, placing itself over against region's theorists and political leaders who faced neoliberalism as something inevitable, joining its "hegemonic economic thought". For this reason, his intellectuallegacy drives us to reflect not only on economic development, absorption of technical progress, investment efficiency, but above all on income distribution and equity, since socialjustice remains to be done in Latin America / Doutorado / Historia Economica / Doutor em Economia Aplicada

Microfinance relates to the provision, by specialized microfinance institutions (MFIs), of small-scale financial services - such as credit, savings, and insurance - to the poorer sections of the population. These sections have traditionally been excluded by the financial system. Microfinance is viewed as a system put into place in order to overcome market failures that are created by banks and that are omnipresent in the developing world. In development policy, microfinance has received considerable attention during the last twenty years, and the industry has grown substantially. Interestingly, the sector has been more successful in reaching out to people in some countries than in others. The sector has also developed in an unequal way within countries. The reasons why this happened are not directly apparent. This doctoral dissertation addresses the uneven development of the microfinance sector and aims at identifying factors that explain it.<p><p>The dissertation consists of three main parts. The first part, which consists of two papers, combines different datasets on the outreach of MFIs to assess in which countries MFIs have developed most. The papers indicate that the microfinance sector is more present in the richer countries of the developing world. It also reaches more clients in countries that receive more international aid. Population density also plays a stimulating role, which partially explains why the sector is still underdeveloped in rural areas.<p><p>The second part of the dissertation, which exists of one paper, explores in more depth the relationship between traditional financial sector development and microfinance institutions. The paper, co-authored with Bert D’Espallier, shows that MFIs reach more clients and are more profitable in countries where access to the traditional financial system is low. This is in line with the market-failure hypothesis. Along the same line, we find that MFIs serve poorer people in countries with well-developed financial systems. This observation is an important element to take into account in the debate on mission drift of the sector, where it is feared that MFIs drift away from serving the poor. The paper shows that MFIs in countries with well-developed banking sectors have less space to move up market and consequently to drift from the sector’s general mission.<p><p>The third and final part of the dissertation is a quantitative study on the spread and expansion process of MFIs in one Latin American country, Peru. The roles that district characteristics play in the decision to open an MFI branch are scrutinized. The paper finds that MFIs mainly increase financial access in districts with higher levels of development. Districts where banks are already present also have a higher probability that MFIs will open a branch there. This demonstrates that the two kinds of institutions co-exist in several districts, but most probably serve another clientele. Overall, although strategies differ between different types of Peruvian MFIs, the paper finds that they do not seem to be driven by a pure developmental logic that would push them towards the poorest or totally unbanked regions of the country. <p><p>On the whole, the main conclusions of the dissertation can be summarized as follows. First, the dissertation demonstrates that the outreach of the microfinance sector is influenced by a number of macro factors. Consequently, country-specific and macro-economic factors should be taken into account when evaluating MFI performance. Second, the dissertation shows that MFIs substitute the traditional banking sector. MFIs thus fulfill an important part of their mission, i.e. they have helped to increase financial access in the developing world. However, the study also suggests that MFIs still fail to serve a significant number of poor people. This leads to a third important observation, namely that MFIs may in fact not strive to serve the poor as such. Rather, it seems that they are currently focusing on the un-served market in general. The observation indicates that there is a need for a more thorough investigation on the issue of whom the unbanked in the developing countries are and whom MFIs actually strive to serve. Finally, since the outreach and performance of MFIs is dependent on the presence of a stimulating macro-environment, it remains a challenge to serve the financially excluded in the more remote areas of the developing countries and the people in the poorest ones. <p><p><p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished