Falling inequality in Latin America – evidence from the last decade and prospects for the future

This project investigates several issues, such as: (i) distilling the policy lessons (for Latin America itself and other countries) arising from the 'Open Economy Redistribution With Growth' (OERWG) model developed during the last decade, with particular attention to the gains in the field of growth, inequality and poverty reduction; (ii) testing whether the policy shift which followed the transition to democracy and the election of centre-left and other regimes contributed to the growth acceleration and inequality decline of 2002-08; (iii) identify best practice policies in the policy areas illustrated above; (iv) analyse the extent of their distributive and growth effects; (v) assess the future sustainability of OERWG model, given the hurdles Latin American governments still face; (vi) discuss the problems of the OERWG model in the fields of industrial policy and diversification of output-exports towards the technology-intensive manufacturing sector; (vii) examine how Latin America can raise its domestic savings and reduce its costly dependence on volatile foreign savings; (viii) propose an extended version of the OERWG model addressing the structural handicaps still hampering improvements in the field of growth, inequality and poverty reduction in the region.