With a favorable market and nearly inexhaustible resource base, Venezuela has a historic opportunity to boost its oil industry. However, the industry faces serious policy hurdles, and the potential of this investment is likely to be wasted.

The relation between the economy and equity has shown marked contrasts in Latin America over the past two decades.

The authors in this special issue discuss how women's voices are excluded, silenced and marginalized in settings and processes such as war, displacement, democratization, labor market, judicial system, state bureaucracy, nonprofit organizations and national debates on citizenship. They also discover how women found their voices, channeled them, modified them, and gained a measure of empowerment.

A relatively new set of financial services called “microfinance” provides what appears to be a sustainable way of supplying access to capital to the poor. This article provides a brief history of microfinance, discusses the ongoing integration of microfinance institutions into the global capital markets, and surveys the challenges that now confront these organizations in becoming sustainable enterprises with social as well as commercial objectives.

To access the full article, download the PDF on the left-hand sidebar.

Abstract

The empirical association between high…