The question of infrastructure needs is a crucial policy one in Latin America, given evidence of large access shortfalls across all major types of infrastructure, and the increase in demand linked to the rapid growth in households’ income over the past two decades. However, how much and how fast countries should invest in each of the main infrastructure areas are largely speculative, as to date, literature on investment needs has relied exclusively on aggregate data and cross-country regressions, ignoring both potential policy and supply-side differences across settings, and variations in demand along the income distribution. This paper addresses these shortcomings, providing building blocks to better assess infrastructure investment needs across the region. It does so documenting access to services and ownership of infrastructure-related durables in the water, energy, telecom, and transport areas, based on harmonized household survey data covering 1.6 million households in 14 Latin American countries from 1992 to –2012. It provides a systematic disaggregation of access and ownership rates at different levels of income and over time, and econometrically derives the country infrastructure premium, a measure of how much a household benefits from simply being located in a given country. Within countries, the results show extensive inequality of access across the income distribution, but this is also the case for households at similar levels of income across countries. Few country fundamentals appear to be significant in explaining this variability, pointing to differences in policy choices and local constraints as important determinants. The paper derives disaggregated income elasticity measures for the full set of infrastructure indicators and uses these to estimate the time that would be needed to close the remaining gap for households at different levels of the income distribution in each country under a “business as usual” hypothesis. Under that scenario, universal access appears to still be decades away for many countries in the region. The last part discusses the policy challenges, arguing that in a context in which public budgets face strong constraints and significant increases in private investment are unlikely to be forthcoming, a large part of the solution lies in refocused investment strategies, better demand management, and improved public spending efficiency.

We consider the optimal control problem for  degenerate parabolic variation inequality with weight function of potential type that is in differential operator. Using the direct method of calculus of variations we prove the solvability of mentioned above optimal control problem in the class of so-called H-admissible solutions. It is also established that the set of H-admissible pairs is closed in the product of topologies of the state space and the control space.

This study delves into the intricate relationship between globalization and populism, specifically exploring whether globalization acts as a catalyst for the rise of populist movements. Analyzing the waves of globalization and employing a case study of France, we demon_x005fstrate that economic and cultural aspects play pivotal roles in fuelling populism. The rise of far-right leader Marine Le Pen serves as a poignant example of how globalization impacts job opportunities and contributes to societal discontent.

Digital literacy refers to the collection of skills and abilities that individuals in the digital society should possess for learning, working, and daily life. These skills include digital awareness, computational thinking, digital learning and innovation, and digital social responsibility. Enhancing the digital literacy of citizens is a crucial step in improving individuals’ social adaptability and competitiveness, thereby contributing to the sustainable development of our society. However, the emergence of social inequality has given rise to a significant challenge known as the digital gender divide, hindering women’s full and effective participation in the digital domain and their comprehensive development. The digital gender divide, which is no longer an invisible issue in today’s society, encompasses issues such as unequal access to digital resources, distorted gender identity constructions, and the sense of insecurity that women often experience in digital spaces. These issues require focused attentions and solutions. This study uses real-life cases to explore the development of gender-inclusive perspectives in digital literacy education. The findings of the study hold the potential to foster gender equality in education by promoting inclusivity, increasing women’s participation, and fortifying digital security. By doing so, this approach will empower women for exceptional growth in the digital era, marking a substantial step towards a more equitable and secure digital society.