Representatives of the private sector and educational institutions discussed the importance of human resource development, student exchanges, and labor reform for improving the competitiveness of Latin America’s labor forces and economies. Panelists talked about the current technological needs of employers and investors, gaps in education and training, mentorship programs in the workplace, the role of student exchange programs and the private sector, and Brazil’s recent Science Beyond Borders program.

Speakers:

• Peter DeShazo, Executive Director of LASPAU
• Sam Fouad, Americas Emerging Markets Leader, Ernst and Young LLP
• Deanna Laird, Global University Hiring Programs Leader, IBM
• Christopher Sabatini, Senior Director for Policy, Americas Society/Council of the Americas (Moderator)

Who is Latin America’s new middle class? What are the implications of the recent expansion of the middle class for political stability, economic growth, and investment? In the last two decades, Latin America has seen an unprecedented number of its citizens leave poverty. Recent reports have estimated that in Brazil alone, 40 million people have entered the ranks of the middle class.

Americas Quarterly launched the journal’s Fall 2012 issue on Latin America’s real middle class. The issue examines the structure of the middle class in the developing region, compares Latin America's middle class to the middle classes in the BRIC countries, looks at their opinions and values on issues like support for democracy and political tolerance, and evaluates the challenges—political and economic—presented by this fast-growing albeit still-vulnerable demographic. Panelists discussed characteristics of this new middle class, the reasons behind their emergence and growth, the racial and gender limits of this new demographic, and how the middle classes’ consumption habits are affecting investment and markets.

Speakers:

• María-Eugenia Boza, Consultant, Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, United Nations Development Programme
• Cecilia López Montaño, President of Centro Internacional de Pensamiento Social y Económico in Colombia (CISOE)
• Jamele Rigolini, Senior Economist, Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean, The World Bank
• Matthew Singer, Associate Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Connecticut
• Christopher Sabatini, Editor-in-Chief, Americas Quarterly; Senior Director of Policy, AS/COA (moderator)

At an AS/COA event, Augusto Lopez-Claros presented the joint publication and project by the World Bank and IFC, Women, Business and the Law, which presents indicators based on laws and regulations affecting women’s prospects as entrepreneurs and employees. Regulations and institutions can differentiate between women and men in ways that may affect women’s incentives or capacity to work. Women, Business and the Law provides objective and quantitative data measuring these legal differentiations and gender parity in 141 economies.