Valenzuela Levi, Nicolas Dario

Bajo la influencia del federalismo fiscal y las teorías de la descentralización gubernamental, una parte importante de los sistemas de salud de todo el mundo enfrentaron la pandemia de COVID-19 después de haber sido moldeados o reformados por procesos de transferencia de poderes de los gobiernos centrales a los locales. La adquisición de suministros clave es uno de los componentes que opera de manera descentralizada, lo que obliga a los gobiernos locales a competir entre sí. Este fue el origen de lo que se ha llamado las “guerras de licitaciones” entre gobiernos subnacionales al comienzo de la respuesta a la pandemia. Estas guerras llevaron a políticas de centralización en Estados Unidos, Reino Unido y la Unión Europea. Sin embargo, se sabe menos sobre los casos del sur global. Al analizar la adquisición de Equipos de Protección Personal (EPP) en 320 municipios chilenos encargados de la atención primaria de salud, esta investigación proporciona evidencia de los impactos de la competencia gubernamental horizontal en la capacidad de adquirir suministros clave. En Chile, durante la respuesta a la pandemia de 2020, los municipios más ricos pudieron adquirir más mascarillas por habitante, generándose con ello economías de escala que les permitieron acceder a precios más bajos, a diferencia de aquellos municipios con menores recursos. Los autores apoyan la noción teórica de “concurrencia” como un concepto que añade matices al debate sobre centralización-descentralización. En Chile, por ejemplo, si bien el testeo y la trazabilidad de casos SARS-CoV-2 requerían la descentralización de dichas funciones, las compras de EPP probablemente podrían haberse beneficiado de la centralización de los procesos de adquisición para evitar la reproducción de desigualdades territoriales.

An increasing interest in transport affordability has brought attention to the factors driving household transport expenditure. Existent income inequality is part of what drives this interest. However, the possible causal link between income distribution and household transport expenditure is scarcely studied in the literature. In addition, the few existing studies only focus on post-tax income distribution. This paper provides the first known analysis that includes both pre-tax and post-tax income distribution, and a specific focus on the richest one percent. Random effects regressions and instrumental variables are used to analyse panel data covering 14 OECD countries during the 1992–2016 period. Inequality has an effect on overall household transport expenditure, and more specifically on purchase of vehicles and operation of private transport equipment. The pre-tax share of the rich increases overall expenditure on purchases of new private vehicles, with a decreasing effect when market inequality is high. The post-tax share of the poor has an effect on operation of transport equipment, but the sign of this effect depends on the existent level of post-tax inequality.

If in order to claim a right it is necessary first to imagine its possibility, then the construction of new imaginaries could have political effects. For this to be feasible, however, such an imaginary must develop from existing conditions. Based on this premise, this paper discusses the possibility of understanding connectivity as a right, based on specific cases arisen in Latin America in recent years.

ABSTRACTThere are stark differences between the waste recycling literature from the global North and that from the global South. The literature from the global North tends to focus on empirical analyses of existing municipal recycling services and rarely considers institutional factors. When it does, the theoretical approaches adopted are limited, especially regarding the role of informal institutions. In contrast, recycling literature from the global South does focus on informal institutions, but it does so by concentrating on the struggles of waste pickers rather than on the performance of waste management services provided by local authorities. This divergence in the literature suggests the need for an analytical framework that integrates institutions and recycling performance. This article analyses waste disposal regimes in two Latin American metropolitan areas, Medellín (Colombia) and Santiago (Chile), and explores the link between income inequality and recycling. It focuses on the political settlements that lie at the heart of the waste regimes. As such, waste regimes in these two cities are understood to be a product of the interplay of balances of power, institutions and distribution of benefits. The study also highlights the need to understand informal institutions as relational phenomena that affect both the rich and the poor, and not just as a subsistence strategy by the latter.