The Reduction of Inequality in Latin America during 2000–2010: A Path to Development?

Abstract

After implementation of the structural adjustment model in the region since the 1990s, we see that the benefits to economic growth and social equality were mediocre, even if there was a recovery cycle between 2004 and 2008, although Latin America presents a slight flexibility in inequality with positive trends in this period. There is, today, more centralization with regard to the social question, because Latin America does not present a shift of its workforce from less productive to more efficient activities. Therefore, this article is concerned with analyzing the impact of social policies in the last decade, as compared to the change in the economic structure. This article shows that for ECLA vision authors, the transformation of the productive structure is important to development. Although the region showed improvement with regard to inequality, poverty levels and other changes, an economic structure that is more dynamic and closer to the international technological border has not yet been achieved.