Scholars have studied the relationship between inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and within-country income inequality in cross-national contexts, but have not empirically investigated how FDI in different sectors might affect inequality in different ways. We use error correction models to analyze sectoral FDI data compiled from UNCTAD investment reports in 60 middle-income countries from 1989 to 2010, arguing that FDI in services is more likely to be associated with inequality than FDI in other sectors. We argue that skill biases and changes in employment patterns associated with service sector investments can help explain these findings.

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Research on the politics of skills formation in Latin America is severely underdeveloped. This article offers a novel characterisation of the supply of skills in the region or ‘skills supply profiles’, taking inspiration from the comparative capitalisms literature. We identify four configurations of skills supply profiles – universalising, dual academic-oriented, dual VET-oriented and exclusionary – and analyse their historical dynamics. By doing this, we challenge general assessments of Latin America's skills formation systems as pertaining to one overarching type. This sets the stage for a deeper understanding of the politics of skills in the region and their connection with different development alternatives.

Diverse studies of the political economy of tax composition across middleincome countries have found that Latin American economies tax upperincome groups much less than do other developing regions, such as East Asia and Eastern Europe (i.e. Di John 2006; Mahon, Chapter 8 in this volume). As the Introduction to this volume suggests, this finding is consistent with the relatively low redistributive capacity Latin American states display when compared to advanced capitalist societies. Sharp within-region differences remain even during periods of significant inequality reduction in the region, such as during the most recent decade (see Lustig and Pereira 2016). Against this backdrop, this chapter analyzes cross-national differences in how distributive preferences map onto class and political attitudes.Latin America is a heterogeneous region in terms of the strength and stability of democratic institutions and party system configurations (Mainwaring and Scully 2010; Kitschelt et al. 2010). However, the resilience of democratic rule in the region during the last three decades is also historically unprecedented. As Mahon highlights (Chapter 8 in this volume), the region thus combines stable democratic rule and high inequality, in a context where significantthough comparatively marginalreductions in inequality occurred during the last decade and a half. The region is also characterized by diversity in party system configuration, programmatic structure and stability, and state capacity (Kurtz 2013; Soifer 2015). These characteristics, in a context of high inequality, affect the degree to which distributive preferences are consistent with objective class position, and are subsequently translated (or not) into political ideology, vote choice, and, eventually, effectively enforced public policy.

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