Fernando Leiva
I am interested in how particular economic ideas and policies transform class and gender relations in economies undergoing sustained processes of internationalization. My current work explores three main themes:

The relationship between government-sanctioned labor market deregulation, firm-level labor "flexibility" strategies, and the changing nature of poverty and inequality. At the 2000 meeting of LASA, I presented the paper "Three Perspectives on the Linkage Between Flexible Labor Markets and Poverty: Neoliberal, Neostructuralism and Radical Political Economy Explanations for the Outcomes of Chile's Economic Model," which is the basis for expanding my research other Southern Cone countries.

Capital flows to Latin America and their impact upon economic and political structures. I am working on a monograph titled: "Five Forms of Foreign Investment and their Impact on Productive Structures, Elite Alliances and Political Representation in Chile."

The effects of 'free trade' and regional integration agreements upon labor markets and the labor process. I recently completed an UNDP-funded research project on MERCOSUR's repercussion upon Paraguay's manufacturing sector. Based on a 100-firm survey, I evaluated the differentiated ability of firms to initiate productive strategies that combined changes in technology with changes in the organization and management of production.

Co-author with James Petras, Democracy and Poverty in Chile: The Limits to Electoral Politics. Boulder: Westview Press, 1994.