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The objective of this paper is to analyze the relative importance of knowledge inputs (or "technical change") and input prices in explaining factor demand in Argentine agriculture. Motivation for the paper is the fifteen-fold increase in fertilizer demand observed in Argentina in the 1990-2019 period. Understanding the factors affecting fertilizer use is important, as this input accounts for a significant portion of output in countries with a highly productive agricultural sector, such as the U.S. and others. In addition, increased concern for the sustainability of agricultural systems requires understanding of the economics of fertilizer use, as fertilizers can both contribute to sustainable production (via increased production not only of marketable products, but also dry matter to be incorporated to the soil), but at the same time raise issues, in particular, related to groundwater contamination and energy (in the form of fertilizer) used in the agricultural sector. Results show that in the 1990 - 2019 period increase in fertilizer demand was a result not only of a fall in the fertilizer/crop price ratio, but also on increased marginal productivity of the fertilizer input. It is suggested that this is a result of the increased importance of "knowledge inputs" in the production process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the basic characteristics of antitrust law in Argentina, and the way in which it has been enforced in several important cases. We begin with a section that introduces the evolution of the law, followed by another section about the basic economic and legal principles underlying that law. The rest of the paper describes the enforcement of the Argentine competition statutes, in a number of cases that involve collusive practices, exclusionary practices, vertical restraints, abuses of dominance, and mergers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to identify determinants of the reductions in the use of labor observed in Argentine agriculture. The paper focuses on the 2002-2018 period, using data from the last two publications of the Censo Nacional Agropecuario (the census undertaken in 2008 is incomplete). The paper summarizes trends of labor use and firm size in Argentina, and presents three possible hypothesis accounting for observed changes: (a) capital-labor substitution, (b) labor-saving technical change (reduced and no-tillage) and (c) changes in farm size and the types of capital (machines) used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argentina's modern economic history offers perhaps the clearest evidence in support of a rules-based fiscal and monetary policy framework. From 1899 until 1914 the country abided by the rules of the gold standard and experienced rapid GDP growth with price stability. After WWI and until 1939, when it was mostly off the gold standard, its inflation rate and fiscal balances remained in line with those of the world's most developed countries. During the 1930s the Argentine Treasury was able to issue long-term debt in pesos at rates between 3% and 4% per annum. Something fundamental happened after 1945 and its effects proved persistent: since then inflation has averaged 143% a year-with several bouts of extreme inflation and hyperinflation. In the last 50 years, persistent and high fiscal imbalances, low growth and recurrent sovereign debt defaults have become semi-permanent features of the Argentine economy. This paper argues that Argentina suffers from a condition that can be described as fiscal and monetary anomie, the roots of which can be traced back to the establishment of a populist-corporatist economic regime in 1946. It also contends that the failure of the 1990s structural reforms reinforced this condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before Hugo Chavez burst into the political scene in Venezuela, Argentina's Juan Peron (1895- 1974) was considered the quintessential Latin American populist leader. He ruled Argentina from mid 1943 until September 1955 and between 1973 and 1974 and his political party has been in power two thirds of the time since the reestablishment of democracy in 1983. Perón's economic policies between 1946 and 1949 are also considered archetypical. The Peronist economic policy paradigm (PEPP) emphasized income redistribution and a fiscally induced expansion of aggregate demand at the expense of productivity and allocative efficiency. Although the ideological roots of Peronism can be directly traced back to Fascism, when it came to his economic policies, Perón claimed to have been inspired by FDR's New Deal and Keynes's General Theory. However, in mosts respects, in their early stage, Peronist economic policies resemble more those proposed by Sir Oswald Mosley (1896-1980) in 1930. This paper describes the PEPP, its implementation and results and evaluates several hypothesis regarding its intellectual roots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper claims that besides training and equipment shortcomings, Argentine command structure was another source of problems that affected the military operations during the Falklands/Malvinas Campaign during April-June 1982. Consequently, the flawed command structure can be seen as a contributing factor in Argentina's military defeat. Improvisation, confusion, lack of coordination, and desperation prevailed along the command structure throughout the conflict. Operational and tactical commands were seem to be pulling apart between the political imperatives of the High Command in Buenos Aires that transcended to the islands and the military imperatives of the front. This handicap was critical to conduct operations. By using official documents, reports and accounts and the own participants' testimonies, this paper clarifies the issues connected with the structure of the Argentine High Command and it furthers our understanding of how the Argentine armed forces functioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The philanthropic activity of Baron de Hirsch was clearly marked by one characteristic: not providing charity but attempting the economic rehabilitation of the beneficiaries. Hirsch systematically suggests that education and professional training were the only way to break the vicious circle of poverty. For instance, for more than a decade Baron de Hirch spent his time and money in the economic rehabilitation of his coreligionists, both in the Ottoman Empire and in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, through education and professional training. In 1891, after discarding the possibility of improving the quality of life of Jews in the Russian Empire through the establishment of an educational system, similar to what was done in other societies, Hirsch founded the Jewish Colonization Association (J.C.A.) through which he would manage the immigration of thousands of people to Argentina and their settlement in agricultural colonies. The original rules of the J.C.A. gave Hirsch full control over the activities of the Association; therefore, this paper hypothesized that the educational actions of the Jewish Colonization Association in the colonies should have been all consistent with Hirsch's vision on education. The evidence presented clearly supports this hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes agricultural policy in Argentina and calculates the degree of support received by producers and consumers. We present a summary of developments in the agricultural policy environment that have occurred in the last decades in Argentina, as well as the resulting performance of the agricultural sector. The concepts of Producer Support Estimates, Consumer Support Estimates, General Services Support Estimates, Producer Nominal Assistance Coefficient and Nominal Protection Coefficient are used to analyse different dimensions of transfers occurring between agricultural producers, consumers and taxpayers in the period 2007-2012. Total transfers from producers have averaged US$ 11.000 million annually or 26% of total gross farm receipts. Support flowing from the public sector to producers in the form of R&D, infrastructure and other 'public good' type of inputs totalize some 500 million annually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature has long argued that the nation is a community, either "imagined", "invented", or of "sentiment". The existence of such a "national community" has strongly relied upon the assumption that members share --or feel/believe that they share-- something/s in common. It stands to reason that members of the national community, therefore, should have some degree of consciousness as to what unites them as a nation. Theoretically, they ought to somewhat concur in identifying the features that characterize their nations and differentiates them from others. Very seldom, however, has literature asked members of the nation what the nation means to them. This is precisely what I do in this paper, thereby questioning well-known arguments in current literature. First, I seek to establish to what degree, if any, the nation exists as a construct in the popular imaginary. Second, I attempt to identify the concepts and images that members of the nation associate with their being Argentinean, Uruguayan, or Spaniard, etc. Third, I detect the associations that members of the nation make between themselves as individuals and their national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies analyzing the impact of human capital in agriculture use the measure of years of schooling of the producer as a proxy for decision-making skills. An alternative measure is used in this paper. The measure was derived by "grading" decision-making and execution skills of a sample of farmers. Grades were assigned by farm advisors knowledgeable of each farm and producer characteristics. Assigned grades were then used in a production-function context in order to estimate the impact of management skills on firm-level results. A very significant impact of these skills on production efficiency and firm results was found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we do a couple of things: discussing a way to measure the welfare cost of country risk, and measuring it for Argentina in the period 1875-2006. There are two conclusions: a) the welfare cost of Argentine risk has been huge: for example, in the period 1976-2006 it was around 20% of GDP, several times larger than the welfare cost of any conventional distortion; b) this cost would be wholly paid by labor. These fascinating results deserve further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the time of Argentina's greenhouse gases emissions reduction voluntary commitment, most of the articles on intensity targets had not been published. The aim of this paper is to (re)discuss briefly the proposal made by Argentina taking into account that literature. To justify the adopted target form and stringency, we compare fixed and dynamic targets in terms of the likelihood of "hot air", the relationship between allowed emissions and GDP, the link between abatement and GDP, and outcomes' dispersion. But, the assumptions implicit in the design of the target may change those properties. We show how the BAU scenario taken as reference and the level of emissions reduction affects targets' design and characteristics. Finally, considering different emissions projections, we perform a comparison between allowed emissions and projected ones during the first half commitment period (2008-2010), concluding that compliance with the commitment depends on the data source used in the calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper holds that the country risk premium is the triggering factor of the business cycle in a small, financially open and highly volatile economy like that of Argentina. A rise of the premium determines a capital outflow, an aggregate demand contraction and a recession; a fall of the premium determines a capital inflow, an aggregate demand expansion and a boom. We build a model where country risk plays a central role in macroeconomic equilibrium. We evaluate the empirical relationship between country risk and GDP, consumption, investment, and the current account balance. We compare our country-risk model with those of various schools of macroeconomic thought. Main conclusions are: a) Country-risk perceptions of foreign and local investors determine the fraction of world income they like to spend in the small country and the country's GDP adjusts passively to that fraction. b) Country risk causes a sort of labor unemployment that resembles involuntary unemployment. c) Openness softens the impact of a rise in country risk. d) Argentine time series for the period 1985-97 show a strong negative correlation between country risk and those aggregate variables, with causality going from the former to the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural sector of many countries shows increasing farm size with corresponding decrease in farm numbers. Despite abundant research, the determinants of changes in firm numbers and size have not been clearly identified. This paper attempts to explain small firm survival in Argentine agriculture in the 1988 - 2002 period. The evidence suggests that labor market considerations, as well changing optimal size in response to production specialization are important factors affecting small-firm disappearance. In contrast, factor proportions (the K/L ratio) does not appear to have an impact on changes in firm size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the evolution of three types of corporate securities in Argentina, namely, corporate bonds, asset-backed securities and deferred checks. Corporate bonds (obligaciones negociables) were legally authorized in 1988, and after a tax reform in 1991 they became an important financing vehicle. Asset backed securities (fideicomisos), legally created in 1995, have been issued since 1996. They typically bundle together small credits of a similar category. Deferred checks (cheques de pago diferido) exist since 1993, alongside standard checks. They can be negotiated on the exchange since 2003, and are akin to commercial paper. Corporate bonds have been overwhelmingly issued by large firms and banks, with an average issue size of 53 million dollars. Asset backed securities have an average value of 9 million dollars. Deferred checks are typically used by smaller firms, and those traded on the exchange of the Buenos Aires board of trade have an average value of 9 thousand dollars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional theory leads to expect bonds to be a financing vehicle for large firms because of economies of scale and contracting costs. In this paper we present the results for Argentina of a survey of firms and of investors on the use of corporate bonds. The result of these surveys supports the idea that for Argentine firms, bonds are a financing vehicle of choice only for firms above a certain (large) size. This is independent of the criteria used for firm size. This result is similar to results in other countries such as the United Sates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]