Executive Summary. Results from the 2012 AmericasBarometer Survey indicate that the current protests in Brazil are truly unprecedented in the country's recent history. However, the 2012 data from Brazil also reveal certain trends in socioeconomic development and disenchantment with government performance that have created an environment ripe for the emergence of contentious demonstrations. In a...

This research focuses on the role played by cultural norms in the long run persistence of gender inequalities. Cultural norms about gender roles are considered to be endogenous and can generate gender inequality and low development traps. Indeed, when the gender gap is internalized, it leads to inegalitarian views about gender roles. Due to these inegalitarian beliefs, boys receive more educati...

This article analyzes different factors leading to economic and social disparities: the relationship between economic growth and inequality; the linkage between social disparities and environmental degradation; inequalities caused by globalization; gender discrimination and its impacts on economic growth; corruption damaging sound economic development and leading to more social disparities, etc...

As an important aspect for the level of wealth, social welfare and economic growth, the housing stock, and more specifically, home ownership are significant structural mechanisms in the reduction of poverty and social inequalities. Nevertheless, the difficulties in measuring the prices of real capital such as housing are very well known. These difficulties stem, in part, from the heterogeneity ...

The paper analyses the changes at the level of social capital (SC) in Croatia during the period of 1995 to 2003. Starting from theoretical and empirical arguments which link SC with economic growth, social development and political stability, the author uses data from two research projects carried out on representative national samples (World Values Survey – Croatia 1995 and South East European...

This paper provides a review of the economic literature on social security systems and of practical experiences with building social security institutions. The focus is on the design of the institutions, and on the complicated relation between social security, economic welfare and economic growth at the macro-level. The aim of this review is to provide lessons for building social security schem...

In the midst of political stability and strong economic growth, post-apartheid South Africa is faced with the stubborn reality of widespread poverty and growing inequality. As economic empowerment benefits an expanding, mainly urban black middle class, the majority of people continue to live in poverty and mass unemployment. As the country's remarkable and peaceful transition to democracy unfol...

16. After years of stagnation, economic growth in the Region resumed: as of 2007, nearly onethird of the countries had growth rates in excess of 6%. The per capita gross national income (GNI) in the Region (2004 data) is among the highest in the world. While the average income in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is US$ 7,811, in some of its subregions—notably the Latin Caribbean, the Andea...

This paper develops a uni...ed theory for the dynamic implications of income inequality on the process of development. The proposed theory argues that the replacement of physical capital accumulation by human capital accumulation as a prime engine of economic growth has changed the qualitative impact of inequality on the process of development. In early stages of industrialization as physical c...