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Energy policy, like any other public policy, requires the powers of the government to devise precise and coordinated provisions to efficiently manage a strategic sector. Every country adopts its own energy policy based on factors like resource endowment, macroeconomic policy, the regulatory framework, and its own vision of the relationship between the state and market in a given field, to name a few factors. This paper analyzes energy policy in twenty-first century Argentina, considering its most notable peculiarities, how it has changed and remained the same, and the principal challenges looming ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries in Latin America have made nanotechnology a development priority in their public policy platforms. The main feature of these public policies is to provide support for nanotechnology research and development, aiming to forge ties between public institutions and universities and the private sector, to boost innovation and competitiveness. These public policies do not take into account the global context of strong capital concentration in which nanotechnologies emerge, and which makes it difficult to be competitive within the framework laid out by these public policies to develop these technologies. This paper analyzes the direction of public policy in the international context, and also suggests policy alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micro-enterprises have traditionally been considered a burden for development, from both the theoretical perspective of social sciences as well as policy praxis. However, for some years now, some of the specialized literature has presented evidence that despite their low productivity, the contribution of the informal economy to job creation and income in less-developed economies is significant. Given that other countries have begun to develop policies to encourage productivity in the informal sector, the main purpose of this paper is to understand, through a review of the regulations that support micro-enterprises, as well as new decrees and regulations, the current position of Mexico in this debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 2003 to 2007, the Argentine economy experienced one of its most intensive and extensive phases of growth in recent decades. In this new scenario, small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) registered notable economic performance and recovered the dynamism they had lost in the previous decade. Nevertheless, the Argentine SMEs' limited access to credit markets is a widely recognized phenomenon, which limits the possibilities for the growth and expansion of these companies. This paper analyzes the bank credit effectively extended to the SMEs during the period 2002-2009 in Argentina. It concludes that there is a need for intervention and regulation by the Argentine state in the banking market, as well as a redefinition of credit policies for public entities and other policies focused on improving the financing of these companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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