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Front-of-package food labelling (FOPL) is a mechanism to inform consumers on food nutrients content and risks for health. Each country, within its own institutional framework, defines methods and protocols to formulate rules capable of influencing organizations and the behavior of agents. The paper aims at evaluating the role of some meso-institutions in shaping arenas for policymaking on FOPL based on an exploratory study in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. A documental analysis and literature review were employed, followed by in-depth interviews. The relevant aspects of FOPL assessed were thresholds for sugar, fats, and sodium; marketing restrictions, and timeframe given for compliance with the new rules. The contribution of this article is to illuminate the way in which meso-institutions operate in a specific context, namely the development of food labelling standards. The focus is to find the rules that allowed the participation of stakeholders in the process of defining normative acts intended to regulate food labelling. The discussion of mandatory FOPL can be interpreted as a struggle to define proper rights for the food industry and the consumer. Meso-institutions, as translators of general normative principles in specific contexts, can encourage or restrict stakeholder participation in policymaking. Besides political arena, the participation can be done in other arenas, such as legislature, regulatory agencies, scientific community, media and public opinion. Institutions that encourage stakeholder participation increase the probability of obtaining widely accepted specific rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses multiple cointegration analysis to estimate simultaneously a monetary reaction function and the determinants of expected inflation for Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. In addition, M-GARCH modeling is used to test for the presence of volatility spillovers between the monetary stance and inflation expectations. The analysis shows that there are long-term relationships between the interest rate, expected inflation, and the inflation target, and that greater volatility in the monetary stance increases the volatility of expected inflation in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: this paper aims to describe the first phase of a project whose general goal was to develop a consensus-based set of advanced practice nurse competencies applicable to Latin American countries and, based on these competencies, produce an advanced practice nurse curricular prototype adapted to Latin American countries. The project was framed in a competency-based approach to advanced practice nursing education. The specific aims of the first phase of the project described in this paper were: 1) to identify a set of potential advanced practice nurse competencies that would serve as the template for Core Advanced Practice Nurse Competencies in Latin American countries and 2) to establish consensus for Core Advanced Practice Nurse Competencies in Latin American countries. Method: advanced practice nurse competencies were derived from a comprehensive review of published competencies and informed the development of a survey designed to assess the relevance of advanced practice nurse competencies in Latin American countries. The survey was distributed to nurse leaders and nurse educators. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: consensus for Core Competencies was established. Conclusion: the Core Advanced Practice Nurse Competencies presented can provide a structured framework to build educational programs aligned to the needs of the regional environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Interventions Économiques is the property of Association d'Economie Politique and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between fiscal and monetary policy coordination and fiscal multipliers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. To do so, we first look at the theoretical framework of the New Consensus Macroeconomics (NCM), and then analyze the trends in the four countries for variables including consumption, investment, government spending, and interest rates. Finally, we present an estimate of the spending and monetary multipliers with proxy variables. The contribution of this paper consists of one, showing the inexistence of the crowding out effect, and two, quantifying the multipliers for the aforementioned countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Problemas del Desarrollo. Revista Latinoamericana de Economía is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Worldwide, innovation in education is highly perceived as an effectual approach to promote awareness for sustainability. International organizations interested in education, research and training support projects seeking modernization of Higher Education (HE) and put much emphasis on developing new curricula, teaching methods or materials to respond to current needs. Building ties and promoting cooperation between institutions around the world through Universities and academic arenas are central in innovative educational approaches. This paper reflects on one of such projects; the Center for Natural Resources and Development (CNRD) which aims at supporting achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7. Eleven University faculties in Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Jordan, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal, and Vietnam form part of the CNRD, covering natural, engineering, and social sciences disciplines. To develop solutions for one of the most pressing problems of today; creating sustainable cities, students, teachers and researchers work together in a trans-disciplinary approach. The paper principally deals with the question of how international research and education networks can narrow the distance between countries and promote awareness of sustainability. It discusses approaches in joint education, using modern media and e-learning activities and their contribution to raise awareness of sustainability among young researchers. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure, and 4 notes.)

Priority setting is the process through which a country's health system establishes the drugs, interventions, and treatments it will provide to its population. Our study evaluated the priority-setting legal instruments of Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, and Mexico to determine the extent to which each reflected the following elements: transparency, relevance, review and revision, and oversight and supervision, according to Norman Daniels's accountability for reasonableness framework and Sarah Clark and Albert Wale's social values framework. The elements were analyzed to determine whether priority setting, as established in each country's legal instruments, is fair and justifiable. While all four countries fulfilled these elements to some degree, there was important variability in how they did so. This paper aims to help these countries analyze their priority-setting legal frameworks to determine which elements need to be improved to make priority setting fair and justifiable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the relationship between the financial instability generated by shortterm capital flows in the absence of control mechanisms and the restrictions facing the implementation of counter-cyclical fiscal policies in the inflation-targeting regime, using as a springboard the recent financial crises in, specifically, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, showing how an increase in the issuance of public bonds to, via interventions in the exchange rate market, sterilize the effects of short-term capital flows on the monetary base is a source of endogenous instability, because this mechanism entails risks for the exchange rate and interest rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Our study analyzes the cost-effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru. Methods: Using a previously published SVEIR model, we analyzed the impact of a vaccination campaign (2021) from a national healthcare perspective. The primary outcomes were quality adjusted life years (QALYs) lost and total costs. Other outcomes included COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, deaths, and life years. We applied a discount rate of 3% for health outcomes. We modeled a realistic vaccination campaign in each country (the realistic country-specific campaign). Additionally, we assessed a standard campaign (similar, "typical" for all countries), and an optimized campaign (similar in all countries with higher but plausible population coverage). One-way deterministic sensitivity analyses were performed. Findings: Vaccination was health improving as well as cost-saving in almost all countries and scenarios. Our analysis shows that vaccination in this group of countries prevented 573,141 deaths (508,826 standard; 685,442 optimized) and gained 5.07 million QALYs (4.53 standard; 6.03 optimized). Despite the incremental costs of vaccination campaigns, they had a total net cost saving to the health system of US$16.29 billion (US$16.47 standard; US$18.58 optimized). The realistic (base case) vaccination campaign in Chile was the only scenario, which was not cost saving, but it was still highly cost-effective with an ICER of US$22 per QALY gained. Main findings were robust in the sensitivity analyses. Interpretation: The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in seven Latin American and Caribbean countries -that comprise nearly 80% of the region- was beneficial for population health and was also cost-saving or highly cost-effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to evaluate and discuss the digital competence of academics at universities, to identify challenges and define recommendations for policy. This study was conducted through collaboration between the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission and Metared of the Universia Foundation, surveying 30,407 participants who present the perceptions of their own digital competence levels. These self-reflections took place in universities in seven countries, namely Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Mexico and Portugal, and used the Check-In tool, which consists of 22 questions based on the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators--or 'DigCompEdu' framework. A descriptive statistical analysis was performed, followed by a qualitative evaluation. Almost 70% of the academics have an average intermediate level of competence when the data is aggregated, with results varying in each DigCompEdu area according to the specific question asked. There is no significant difference between young and senior academics, as well as between men and women. The results present a discussion of whether the age and gender of educators and their work environment have an impact on their digital competence level, and at the same time highlights the areas in which educators perceive themselves to be most and least competent. It shows how the amount of institutional support that is offered affects the academics' perceptions of their level of digital competence. On the basis of the results, recommendations are presented for higher-education institutions, with the aim of supporting the professional development of their academics.

Latin American countries have evolved over the years. Still, after years of military reign, socioeconomicinstability, and civil wars, the region has been known for its anti-hegemonic economic growth (educationalpolicies) strategies. Central and South America's educational system has long been under investigation by researchers both theoretically and empirically. The transition of its education system through the introduction of centralized, liberalized, and populist ideology has sparked many researchers' interest. This paper aims to understand and compare 14 Latin American countries' education orientation. The study uses a matrix table to visualize the qualitative finding.

There has been a long and intensive debate within the scientific community about the role of international trade in the development of countries. During the last decades, the focus of attention has moved from the pure economic level to the environmental aspects of international trade. Establishing a simplified system of North–South trade for one reference period (2003), this paper attempts to test empirically the extent of potential asymmetries with regard to extracted material flows, and contrasts the results with the economic benefits from trade (in terms of value-added). The South is thereby represented by a selection of Latin American countries (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico), the North comprises one of their main commercial partners, the United States. At the methodological level, a multi-regional input–output analysis is used as the tool of investigation. Results generally support the hypothesis that the South was feeding the North's societal metabolism. South–North material exports were 1.6 times larger than North–South material exports, resulting in a net deficit for the South of 324 million tons. Moreover, material intensity of exported commodities from the South was twice as high as that from the North. It is worth highlighting, however, that part of the North-South hypothesis fails for the sample of countries since the larger part of the economic surplus has remained in the South, contrarily to what would have been expected. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Emerging-markets firms often carry foreign-currency debt on their balance sheets. Following a depreciation, the expanding "peso" value of "dollar" liabilities could, via a net-worth effect, offset the expansionary competitiveness effect. To assess which effect dominates, we use accounting data (including the currency composition of liabilities) for 450+ nonfinancial firms in five Latin American countries in the 1990s. We find that firms holding more dollar debt do not invest less than their peso indebted counterparts following a depreciation. We also show that these firms match the currency denomination of their liabilities with the exchange rate sensitivity of their profits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We take stock of three decades of a love–hate relationship between Latin American policies and the Washington Consensus, reviewing its implementation, national debate, and outcomes. Using regional data and case studies of Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, we discuss the various degrees of the Washington Consensus implementation and evaluate performance. We find mixed results: macroeconomic stability is much improved, but economic growth has been heterogeneous and generally disappointing, despite improvement relative to the 1980s. We discuss the risk that the region could revert parts of the Washington Consensus reforms, which are necessary building blocks for a new agenda more focused on social integration, a fairer and just society, and environmentally sustainable growth based on better education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to determine the existence of inflection points when companies' credit risk goes from being minimal (Hedge) to being high (Ponzi). We propose an analysis methodology that determines the probability of hedge credits to migrate to speculative and then to Ponzi, through simulations with homogeneous Markov chains and the k-means clustering method to determine thresholds and migration among clusters. To prove this, we used quarterly financial data from a sample of 35 public enterprises over the period between 1 July 2006 and 28 March 2020 (companies listed on the USA, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile stock markets). For simplicity, we make the assumption of no revolving credits for the companies and that they face their next payment only with their operating cash flow. We found that Ponzi companies (1) have a 0.79 probability average of default, while speculative ones had (0) 0.28, and hedge companies (−1) 0.009, which are the inflections point we were looking for. Our work's main limitation lies in not considering the entities' behavior when granting credits in altered states (credit relaxation due to credit supply excess). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the COVID-19 pandemic, patients who are older and residents of long-term care facilities (LTCF) are at greatest risk of worse clinical outcomes. We reviewed discharge criteria for hospitalised COVID-19 patients from 10 countries with the highest incidence of COVID-19 cases as of 26 July 2020. Five countries (Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Chile and Iran) had no discharge criteria; the remaining five (USA, India, Russia, South Africa and the UK) had discharge guidelines with large inter-country variability. India and Russia recommend discharge for a clinically recovered patient with two negative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests 24 h apart; the USA offers either a symptom based strategy—clinical recovery and 10 days after symptom onset, or the same test-based strategy. The UK suggests that patients can be discharged when patients have clinically recovered; South Africa recommends discharge 14 days after symptom onset if clinically stable. We recommend a unified, simpler discharge criteria, based on current studies which suggest that most SARS-CoV-2 loses its infectivity by 10 days post-symptom onset. In asymptomatic cases, this can be taken as 10 days after the first positive PCR result. Additional days of isolation beyond this should be left to the discretion of individual clinician. This represents a practical compromise between unnecessarily prolonged admissions and returning highly infectious patients back to their care facilities, and is of particular importance in older patients discharged to LTCFs, residents of which may be at greatest risk of transmission and worse clinical outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses the BEKK-GARCH model to examine the return-and-volatility spillover between the world-leading markets (USA and China) and four emerging Latin American stock markets over the global financial crisis of 2008 and the crash of the Chinese stock market of 2015. Regarding return spillover, our findings reveal a unidirectional return transmission from Mexico to the US stock market during the global financial crisis. During the crash of the Chinese stock market, the return spillover is found to be unidirectional from the US to the Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Peru stock markets. Moreover, the results indicate a unidirectional return transmission from China to the Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Peru stock markets during the global financial crisis and the crash of the Chinese stock market. Regarding volatility spillover, the results show the bidirectional volatility transmission between the US and the stock markets of Chile and Mexico during the global financial crisis. During the Chinese crash, the bidirectional volatility transmission is observed between the US and Mexican stock markets. Furthermore, the volatility spillover is unidirectional from China to the Brazil stock market during the global financial crisis. During the Chinese crash, the volatility spillover is bidirectional between the China and Brazil stock markets. Lastly, a portfolio analysis application has been conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients with rare diseases across the world struggle to access timely diagnosis and state-of-the-art treatment and management of their conditions. Several recently published reviews highlight the importance of country efforts to address rare diseases and orphan drugs policy comprehensively. However, many of these reviews lack depth and detail at the local level, which we believe is necessary for rare disease advocates to identify and prioritize opportunities for strengthening each country's policy framework.We asked leading patient advocates from civil society organizations their views on rare disease public policy in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru with a focus on whether specific laws and regulations in these six Latin American countries have been promulgated. From December 2018 to March 2019 we supplemented their perspectives with evidence from accessible literature using key search terms. For each country, we prepared a detailed analysis on how laws or other policy initiatives took shape and the steps taken since to implement them. This allowed us to identify five broad policy categories for subsequent analysis: national laws, national regulations, health system incorporation of rare disease treatments, care delivery, and patient engagement.By describing the different approaches, challenges and timelines across six countries, our research demonstrates that strengthening rare disease policy first requires a common understanding and local consensus of each country's recent past and current situation. Subsequent analysis based on a set of common policy dimensions led us to where we believe salient opportunities lie for each of these countries to strengthen their overall policy framework for rare disease patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The academic programs at the graduate level are increasingly interested about the enrollment management challenges in terms of international student mobility. Understanding fundamental enrollment concepts to attract international students provides the essential key to consider the competitive environment concerning university resources, academic program potential, complex cultural dynamics, and workplaces among others. Based on a six-year quantitative and descriptive statistical study, this paper addresses the trends of first-time graduate enrollment and patterns of international student mobility by faculty at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. Results revealed the sustained trend of graduate enrollment of international students mainly from South America, Central America, and the Caribbean among others. Moreover, the presence of international graduate students adds a dimension of diversity to UPRM between teaching and research undertakings that enhance the Colleges of Engineering, Arts and Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, and Business Administration. The international student mobility has a consistent tendency mainly in the Colleges of Engineering, Arts and Sciences, and Agricultural Sciences. This consistency resembles the quality and reputation recognized by educational institutions and organizational world rankings. In-depth, understanding the trends related to international graduate enrollment and mobility should be considered by institutional leaders and administrators at UPRM to make knowledgeable decisions and to effectively set priorities to recruit highly qualified international students.

Copyright of Problemas del Desarrollo. Revista Latinoamericana de Economía is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Desarrollo y Sociedad is the property of Universidad de los Andes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article considers the impact that free trade initiatives have had upon labor unions in North and South America. The author considers the period from 1990 through 2004 using data collected from qualitative interviews and social network data originating from the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, and Chile to consider issues including coalition building, transnational collective action, and political claims regarding how free trade agreements will impact organized labor. The article also discusses labor studies, studies of social movements, and comparative labor ideologies.

This paper studies multidimensional poverty for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Mexico and Uruguay for the period 1992-2006. The approach overcomes the limitations of the two traditional methods of poverty analysis in Latin America (income-based and unmet basic needs) by combining income with five other dimensions: school attendance for children, education of the household head, sanitation, water and shelter. The results allow a fuller understanding of the evolution of poverty in the selected countries. Over the study period, El Salvador, Brazil, Mexico and Chile experienced significant reductions in multidimensional poverty. In contrast, in urban Uruguay there was a small reduction in multidimensional poverty, while in urban Argentina the estimates did not change significantly. El Salvador, Brazil and Mexico, and rural areas of Chile display significantly higher and more simultaneous deprivations than urban areas of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. In all countries, deprivation in access to proper sanitation and education of the household head are the highest contributors to overall multidimensional poverty.

Fitting Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) models to incidence data is problematic when not all infected individuals are reported. Assuming an underlying SIR model with general but known distribution for the time to recovery, this paper derives the implied differential-integral equations for observed incidence data when a fixed fraction of newly infected individuals are not observed. The parameters of the resulting system of differential equations are identifiable. Using these differential equations, we develop a stochastic model for the conditional distribution of current disease incidence given the entire past history of reported cases. We estimate the model parameters using Bayesian Markov Chain Monte-Carlo sampling of the posterior distribution. We use our model to estimate the transmission rate and fraction of asymptomatic individuals for the current Coronavirus 2019 outbreak in eight American Countries: the United States of America, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Panama, from January 2020 to May 2021. Our analysis reveals that the fraction of reported cases varies across all countries. For example, the reported incidence fraction for the United States of America varies from 0.3 to 0.6, while for Brazil it varies from 0.2 to 0.4., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Teacher-endorsed supporting behaviors present themselves as key influencers of student adaptive academic and social functions. The objective of this paper was twofold. First, this study sought to test a model in which student-perceived autonomy support was associated with group cohesion, considering the mediating role of basic psychological needs satisfaction and intrinsic motivation. Second, the current study examined the dimensionality of the model across five Western countries, namely Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. A convenience sample of 3033 college students ( M age = 21.51 ± SD = 3.71) were recruited for the analysis. The results revealed that perceived autonomy support was positively associated with needs satisfaction, being consequently associated with intrinsic motivation and, ultimately, with group cohesion. Additionally, a multigroup analysis revealed that the model was invariant across college students from the different countries. The current results are discussed around the promotion of teacher uses of autonomy-supportive behaviors fostering adaptive outcomes in students regarding positive social relations and that the cultures of Ibero-American countries are equivalent in this process., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.