Mariano Lafuente's Books

Serving Citizens

A Decade of Civil Service Reforms in Latin America (2004-13)

By: Juan Carlos Cortázar Velarde,Mariano Lafuente,Mario Sanginés,Christian Schuster,Koldo Echebarría,Francisco Longo,Luciano Strazza,Mercedes Iacoviello

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Serving Citizens

A Decade of Civil Service Reforms in Latin America (2004-13)

By: Juan Carlos Cortázar Velarde,Mariano Lafuente,Mario Sanginés,Christian Schuster,Koldo Echebarría,Francisco Longo,Luciano Strazza,Mercedes Iacoviello

This book focuses on civil service reform within the central administration in Latin America. It analyzes updated versions of the country assessments carried out by the Inter-American Development Bank in 2004 in 16 countries and presents a comparative analysis of the ways in which the countries have evolved during the last decade. The methodology is based on the principles of the Ibero-American Charter for Public Service. In addition, it draws lessons from reform processes, identifying strategies for civil service modernization in the region. Finally, the book proposes a possible future agenda to continue the efforts to further professionalize the civil service in Latin America.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

232

Publisher

Inter-American Development Bank

Published Date

ISBN 10

1597821845

ISBN 13

9781597821841

Social Expenditure in Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic at a Glance

2007-2013

By: Marco Solera,Esteban Durán,Jordi Prat,Víctor Dumas,Mariano Lafuente,Martín Ardanaz,Priscilla Gutiérrez Juárez,Jorge Vargas Cullell,Javier Beverinotti

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Social Expenditure in Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic at a Glance

2007-2013

By: Marco Solera,Esteban Durán,Jordi Prat,Víctor Dumas,Mariano Lafuente,Martín Ardanaz,Priscilla Gutiérrez Juárez,Jorge Vargas Cullell,Javier Beverinotti

Social spending is a powerful tool to reduce poverty, achieve higher equality and better life conditions for the inhabitants of a country. In "Social Expenditure in Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic: 2007-2013", a characterization of the different variables that have taken social expenditure to its current position is performed. During the economic crisis period, many governments of the region confront this situation with an increase in social expenditures. However, part of the increase was centered on inflexible items, particularly wages, which facilitated the increase in fiscal deficits and, consequently, on public debt. Thus, after the financial crisis, the fiscal situation has reduced governments' buffers to respond to economic shocks, which imply that we need to examine the fiscal policy given its rigidity, the scarcity of public resources and the institutional contract. The study of wage bill increases provides more information related to the causes of this dynamic, and allow us to offer recommendations to improve spending management without threatening public finances. A better use of resources could contribute to define a more efficient and equitable agenda for the countries in the region. Finally, something that was not deeply explored, as of today, is the institutional complexity and how this could facilitate, or hinder, the government's ability to express its fiscal policy, including the effectiveness in the use of public resources.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

188

Publisher

Inter-American Development Bank

Published Date

ISBN 10

1597822515

ISBN 13

9781597822510

Jobs for Growth

By: Verónica Alaimo,Mariano Bosch,David S. Kaplan,Carmen Pagés,Laura Ripani

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Jobs for Growth

By: Verónica Alaimo,Mariano Bosch,David S. Kaplan,Carmen Pagés,Laura Ripani

Jobs are essential for the growth of individuals and countries alike. Achieving personal fulfillment is harder without a job, just as an economy as a whole cannot develop without the impetus of the labor market. These two perspectives unquestionably go hand in hand: from the individual perspective, finding a good job is a legitimate aspiration for anyone who wishes to support oneself and one's family; from the societal perspective, creating more and better jobs is essential to the achievement of lasting and equitable growth. Jobs for Growth rests on this dual vision. This book examines the performance of the region's labor market and, based on this analysis, proposes an integrated package of measures for both personal growth (through successful career paths) and economic growth (through more high-quality jobs and higher productivity). Over the past two decades, the bullish economic cycle has yielded undeniable gains for labor markets in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), among them lower unemployment, improved job creation, and a substantial increase in wages. However, the situation on the horizon -stagnation of the region's growth and weaknesses in the global macroeconomic outlook- have increased the urgency to find solutions to today's most pressing labor problems. This volume shows that, despite the still-low unemployment rates, the region may find itself trapped in a vicious cycle of poor-quality jobs -a phenomenon especially visible in the high percentage of informal jobs (which are defined in this publication as those without access to social security benefits) and in the high proportion of very short-lived jobs. As the title Jobs for Growth indicates, breaking this cycle will require comprehensive policies that boost productivity.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

276

Publisher

Inter-American Development Bank

Published Date

ISBN 10

1597822426

ISBN 13

9781597822428

Cosmopolitan Desires

Global Modernity and World Literature in Latin America

By: Mariano Siskind

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Cosmopolitan Desires

Global Modernity and World Literature in Latin America

By: Mariano Siskind

Mariano Siskind’s groundbreaking debut book redefines the scope of world literature, particularly regarding the place of Latin America in its imaginaries and mappings. In Siskind’s formulation, world literature is a modernizing discursive strategy, a way in which cultures negotiate their aspirations to participate in global networks of cultural exchange, and an original tool to reorganize literary history. Working with novels, poems, essays, travel narratives, and historical documents, Siskind reads the way Latin American literary modernity was produced as a global relation, from the rise of planetary novels in the 1870s and the cosmopolitan imaginaries of modernism at the turn of the twentieth century, to the global spread of magical realism. With its unusual breadth of reference and firm but unobtrusive grounding in philosophy, literary theory, and psychoanalysis, Cosmopolitan Desires will have a major impact in the fields of Latin American studies and comparative literature.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

370

Publisher

Northwestern University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0810167786

ISBN 13

9780810167780

The Keys to the Da Vinci Code

The Hidden Lineage of Jesus and Other Mysteries

By: Mariano Fernández Urresti,Lorenzo Fernández Bueno

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Keys to the Da Vinci Code

The Hidden Lineage of Jesus and Other Mysteries

By: Mariano Fernández Urresti,Lorenzo Fernández Bueno

Examines the background material for the secret history of early Christianity as presented in "The Da Vinci Code," including the role of secret societies, the contents of hidden manuscripts, and the history of the Merovingian bloodline.

Average ratings

N/A