Losing Ground in the Employment Challenge: The Case of Paraguay

by Albert Berry

Overview

Most developing countries face significant and sometimes dramatic challenges in generating stable jobs that provide reasonable incomes and decent working conditions. For developing countries that have undergone lengthy periods of economic stagnation, these challenges are especially acute, and popular dissatisfaction correspondingly marked.

Paraguay is a case in point. It is unlikely that any "employment policy" could lead to a major improvement in the quality of labor market outcomes unless designed and implemented in a sophisticated and coherent way. Such an approach has been infrequent in developing countries in general, and especially so in those that, like Paraguay, also suffer severe institutional weaknesses of governance. Paraguay's past failure in employment creation is mainly the result of a number of structural weaknesses described in this volume. Its current crisis is also the accumulated legacy of over a quarter century of economic stagnation and political failure flowing from those weaknesses. The new reformist administration of President Fernando Lugo has raised hopes that the future might be better than the past.

This study aims to contribute to improved policy making by analyzing the source of the problems and providing policy recommendations. The chapters describe the potential contribution of various policy areas in the face of a dauntingly negative track record and identify a number of steps that have to be taken if success is to be achieved. They put into perspective the reforms that have been undertaken to date by the country's previous administration.

Paraguay's experience offers insight into the problems faced by other developing countries in today's global economy. The central message is that policy improvements must be made in a number of areas and implemented in a coordinated fashion for there to be any reasonable hope of success.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412810869
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	03/15/2010
Pages:	354
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Albert Berry is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Toronto. In additional to numerous scholarly journals he is the author or editor of Labor Market Policies in Canada and Latin America: Challenges of the New Millennium; Critical Issues in International Financial Reform; Poverty, Economic Reforms, and Income Distribution in Latin America; and Essays on Industrialization in Colombia.

Table of Contents

Illustrations vii

List of Contributors ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction Albert Berry 1

1 Elements of an Employment Strategy for Paraguay Albert Berry 11

2 Labor Market Functioning in Paraguay Guillermo García-Huidobro 41

3 The Role of Agriculture Albert Berry 61

4 Farm Size-Productivity Relationships in Paraguay's Agricultural Sector Ricardo Toledo 85

5 Potential and Future of Paraguayan Family Farming Luis A. Galeano 101

6 Industry and MSMEs in Paraguay: Their Potential for the Creation of Remunerative Employment Albert Berry 123

7 Patterns of Productivity Enhancement in Small and Medium Enterprises: "Higher-Order" Upgrading Nichola Lowe 143

8 Growth and Technological Modernization Jorge Katz Melissa Birch Nimia Torres 163

9 The Challenge to the Educational and Training System in Paraguay Ernesto Schiefelbein 181

10 Macroeconomic Policy Albert Berry Dionisio Borda 197

11 The Role of International Trade in Growth and Employment Generation in Paraguay Fernando Masi Francisco Ruiz Díaz 215

12 Paraguay's Financial System and Employment-Creation Albert Berry Jorge Schreiner 241

13 Political Economy of Policymaking in Paraguay Andrew Nickson 265

14 Recent Reforms: Results and Challenges Dionisio Borda 295

15 Recommendations Albert Berry 323

Index 333