Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
The gains and difficulties Latin American countries face from financial market development and liberalisation have received much attention in current economic literature. Nevertheless, significant issues have received little or no attention, even though the success of these efforts depends upon them. The purpose of this article is to explore the benefits from open and developed – two words that are not necessarily synonymous – financial and capital markets in Latin America and possible important obstacles which will be faced in the remainder of the 1990s.
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46 The case where the objective function includes employment targets, wage levels and subsidised pricing of strategic inputs to production is also consistent with this conclusion, depending upon how society values the welfare of the beneficiaries of these policies.
47 See Robert P. McComb and John H. Welch, ‘Public Enterprise and Privatization: The Importance of Differential Costs’, Economia Mexicana: Nueva Epoca, forthcoming.
48 A short formal discussion of this is available from the author upon request.
49 Òne should note how important the output market structure is in determining the performance of public enterprise in Brazil. Ironically, USIMINAS (the first company to be privatised) competed effectively in the world steel market as a public enterprise. Further, because of the competitive nature of this market, the price-book ratio was low compared to some other privatisations.
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