El auge económico LatinoAmericano

Abstract

This paper argues that the recent Latin American boom is the joint effect of the commodity price boom (primarily of mineral rather than agricultural goods) and exceptional external financial conditions. It has been reflected in a reduction in foreign indebtedness and increased international reserves, but not in fiscal austerity, and has reinforced the traditional specialization of the region in natural resource-based exports. Together with a slower growth of the workforce, it has generated a rapid increase in the employment rate and the diffusion of the benefits of the boom to a broader segment of the population, but it has not reversed the accumulated deterioration in job quality.