En las últimas cuatro décadas se ha reducido la desigualdad

El año 2013 marca una década desde que América Latina y el Caribe cambiaran dramáticamente para bien.

Luego de décadas de estancamiento, la región inició una rápida transformación económica y social en 2003 que sacó a 73 millones de personas de la pobreza, expandiendo la clase media en más del 50% o 50 millones de personas.

Según nuestros datos, hoy día hay más latinoamericanos viviendo en la clase media que en la pobreza. Esto, sin incluir a quienes se ubican en la clase vulnerable, o clase media baja, con una mayor probabilidad de caer en la pobreza.

Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading  across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and employing workers.

In a series of annual reports  Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 185 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. The data set covers 46 economies in SubSaharan Africa, 33 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 24 in East Asia and the Pacific,  24 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 19 in the Middle East and North Africa and 8 in South Asia, as well as 31 OECD highincome economies. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.

This economy profile presents the  Doing Business indicators for Argentina. To allow useful comparison, it also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator.

Neuroscience tells us that, to be more productive and creative, we need to give our brains a break. It's the quiet mind that produces the best insights. But it's a challenge to take that sort of time off in the midst of a busy day. Here are three specific, quick and easy ways to build purposeful break time into your day.

Quick meditation

New research from the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging suggests that people who meditate show more gray matter in certain regions of the brain, show stronger connections between brain regions and show less age-related brain atrophy. In other words, meditation might make your brain bigger, faster and "younger". As lead researcher Eileen Luders explains, "it appears to be a powerful mental exercise with the potential to change the physical structure of the brain."

Tip: If you commute via public transportation (or even if you're a passenger in a car pool) use the time to close your eyes for 10 minutes. If you drive, leave a little early, park and spend 10 minutes in the car before you walk into work. Choose a very specific image, such as a waterfall, beach or tree, and try to focus on it alone. If other thoughts get in the way, gently push them aside. Do this once or twice per day. The goal is to let your mind achieve a sense of relaxed awareness.