Moment of Equality for Latin America?

Barbara Fritz is Professor of Economics at the Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany and co-editor of New Issues in Regional Monetary Coordination: Understanding North-South and South-South Arrangements. Lena Lavinas is Professor of Welfare Economics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and has recently authored ’21st Century Welfare’ in New Left Review.

• Foreword, Marianne Braig. Part I Opening the Question: Redistribution and persistent challenges: an introduction, Lena Lavinas and Barbara Fritz; Moments of equality: today's Latin America in a global historical context, Göran Therborn. Part II Challenges for Coordinating Economic and Social Policies: The limits of redistributive policies in Latin America: complementarities between economic and social protection systems, Rubén M. Lo Vuolo; ‘Postneoliberalism’ and social inequalities in the Andes: reflections and hypotheses on the Venezuelan, Bolivian, and Ecuadorian cases, Juan Pablo Péres Sáinz; Social policy and structural heterogeneity in Latin America: the turning point of the 21st century, Lena Lavinas and André Simões; Macroeconomic constraints and limits on social spending: an analysis of the period 2003-2012 in Brazil, Jennifer Hermann and Denise L. Gentil; Structuralist reflections on current Latin American development, Ricardo Bielschowsky; Macroeconomics, the job market, and income distribution in Brazil over the recent past: progress, regression, and challenges, João Saboia. Part III Widening Political, Social and Fiscal Space: Which Outcomes for Redistribution?: Volatility, inequality, and the quality of public finances in Latin America, Juan Pablo Jiménez and Isabel López Azcúnaga; Is tax policy becoming more pro-equity in the region? Five case studies of commodity-dependent economies, Maria Fernanda Valdés; Vulnerability of tax revenues in developing countries, Christian von Haldenwang; Social policy, inequality, and development: notes on Brazil in the first decade of the 21st century, Eduardo Fagnani; Protection without redistribution? Conceptual limitations of policies meant to reduce race and gender inequalities in Brazil, Sérgio Costa. Part IV ‘Final Insights and Future Challenges’: An outline for the future: Latin America vis-à-vis the world, Hans-Jürgen Puhle. Index.

’By exploring the links between macroeconomic policy, social spending and labor markets, this volume offers a unique perspective on the many remaining challenges to sustaining the reduction of inequality in Latin America. A prestigious group of contributors from Europe and Latin America also demonstrate why students, academics and policymakers should care about Keynesian economics, Latin American structuralism and critical political economy.’ Diego Sánchez-Ancochea, University of Oxford, UK ’While still being a region of high inequality, Latin America is experiencing a unique process of inequality reduction at this present time. We all want to know whether Latin America can continue to grow with increasing equity. This book presents a very rich sample of analysis of a wide range of topics which are part of this intricate puzzle. It is difficult to find a more interesting and important subject or a better sample of chapters.’ Luis Bértola, University of the Republic, Uruguay