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This paper analyzes the impact of the Chile-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (CKFTA) over the bilateral extensive and intensive margins of trade. Using disaggregated product-level data for the period 1996-2017, the paper tests the impact of CKFTA on bilateral flows, as well as differentiate these effects between intensive and extensive margins at the product level. To estimate, a Poisson-Pseudo Maximum Likelihood model is proposed. It is found that the CKFTA had a positive effect over bilateral trade flows, and although new products were added to the bilateral export basket (extensive margin), the impact is stronger on goods already traded (intensive margin). Moreover, the paper concludes that this effect is stronger for Chilean exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides pioneering estimates of the impact of loan-to-value (LTV) ratios, also known as leverage, on Bolivia's GDP. The empirical evidence reveals the pro-cyclicality between the economic and financial cycles, which affects the intertemporal resource allocation processes between the financial and real sectors. The findings from the RBC model demonstrate that shocks in the loan-to-value (LTV) ratios trigger a rise in housing prices and greater consumption by entrepreneurs, leading to an increase in investment, employment, and output. Additionally, the study confirms that LTV ratios can be a double-edged instrument, as excessive use can potentially destabilize the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop a daily-frequency measure of economic and policy uncertainty for Chile, employing information obtained from Twitter accounts using web scraping techniques and following closely the methodology proposed by Baker et al. (2016). Our proposed measure, called DEPUC, aims to capture the level of general disagreement -a proxy for economic and policy uncertainty-in topics such as the economy, economic policies, uncertainty about particular events, and Chile's conjuncture situation. The index, available from 2012 onwards, shows significant hikes that coincide with several local and international episodes that provoked extraordinary levels of uncertainty in Chile, especially after the events around the civil protests in mid-October 2019 and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March 2020. An empirical exercise reveals that the proposed measure is a significant determinant of the nominal exchange rate dynamics, especially when this variable's magnitude is high and a week after the shock occurs. On the contrary, when the exchange rate is low, the impact of uncertainty on this variable is quantitatively smaller for any forecasting horizon. These features, and others discussed in the paper, highlight the usefulness of the proposed metric as an additional indicator that policymakers can incorporate into their monitoring toolkit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to determine the effect of extreme wealth on economic development (human development index and sub-indices) in 64 countries during 2005-2018, with special emphasis on Mexico and China. A dynamic estimation (sys-GMM) is followed. Estimations show that extreme national wealth acts as a constraint on human development for the entire sample of countries, including Mexico and China. Income is found to be most sensitive to this type of wealth, followed by the education index. The analysis confirms that democracy, economic freedom, investment and social spending are underlying factors of HDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study wage convergence and flexibility in the labour market of Argentinean provinces. We first review historical determinants and propose a theoretical interpretation: the higher the level of convergence in wages, the lower the convergence in employment and eventually in the product level, because of the low competitiveness of the Interior Area, which conspires, via a restriction of the balance of payments, against their growth. Then, we empirically analyze wage convergence and the degree of wage flexibility in provincial labour markets for the period 1997-2013. We find evidence of real wage convergence and low wage flexibility. This indicates that wages do not depend on provincial factors such as labour productivity or local unemployment but on national determinants such as centralized wage agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses public policies concerning sustainability in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico; and examines their contribution to the transformation of the productivity practices towards circular economy (CE). The findings allow for a distinction among three fields: renewable energy and energy transition, sustainable production and consumption, and waste management. This paper points out elements for formulation of public policies directed towards CE, such as the need for stability and normative clarity to handle actions from active participators; the creation of taxes and economic/financial incentives to industrial updating processes and making of profit out of externalities; the formation and training of human capital to align business' goals with sustainable practices; and both the education and sensitization of the population that drive policies dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This working paper explores the effect of joint labor decisions on the study of wage regression models. The estimation of Mincer equations suffers from numerous sources of bias, including the sample selection problem generated by the fact that agents' decision to work is not independent of their wage levels. Most of the papers correct for this bias using a model of individual labor participation. However, recent trends in the labor market show greater participation of women in the labor force and seem to indicate that the joint decision of the spouses is increasingly relevant in determining the selection mechanism. A bivariate version of Heckman's method appears as an interesting alternative to solve this problem. Although the estimates are in line with the previous literature, the results indicate that the joint decision of the couple is a relevant factor in the selection bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been shown that the variability of the marginal capital product ratio is what determines the growth rate of economies according to Harrod's model; therefore, it is important to predict its behavior. This paper develops a methodology based on probabilistic random walk to predict the annual marginal capital product ratio of Colombia for the year 2017 based on information from the Penn World Table database from 1993 to 2016. It was found that this variable has underlying mathematical orders, which allows its prediction with an accuracy of 97.69%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent global trends show high levels of households' indebtedness in developed and emerging economies. This paper proposes a method applicable in those economies where a household financial survey and interest rate caps exist. The method applies to the country with the most indebted households in Latin America, Chile. The results state that: (i) the same debt threshold does not apply to all households as variables such as income affect it; (ii) the debt threshold increases with households' income level; (iii) the presence of mortgage debt increases the debt thresholds; (iv) Chilean households overindebted are more than a quarter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household equivalence scales serve a key role in measuring income poverty. This paper analyzes poverty trends and levels under a set of alternative equivalence scales for Argentina and explores how the use of different scales modifies the demographic composition of the poor population. Results suggest that poverty levels are indeed affected by the choice of the scale, although trends are robust. There is evidence of changes in the demographic profile of the poor in favor of certain household types according to the scale employed. Results depend on how the poverty line is set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of the exchange rate in Peru using a stochastic model for a small open economy that is identified through a structural model with autoregressive vectors (SVAR) with long term restrictions to the Blanchard and Quah. The decomposition of variance indicates that the This paper examines the role of the exchange rate in Peru using a stochastic model for a small open economy that is identified through a structural model with autoregressive vectors (SVAR) with long term restrictions to the Blanchard and Quah. The decomposition of variance indicates that the real supply and demand shocks are the main source of fluctuations in the economic cycles in Peru and that, as the quarters pass, they are gaining relevance in explaining the movements of the exchange rate. These results suggest that the exchange rate plays a role in absorbing the real shocks that affect the Peruvian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role played by credit unions in financial inclusion in Chile. Using administrative individual-level data, we analyze the borrowing behavior of credit union debtors. The results find that credit unions contribute to financial inclusion: it is more likely that people with low income, elderly, women, and inhabitants of small communities, far from the large urban centers, borrow from credit unions. Also, we find that having a credit union commercial office in the county where individuals live increases their access to credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Bolivia, women working in similar positions as men face lower remunerations, besides being concentrated in low-paid jobs. This paper sheds lights over the gender labor income gap evolution in Bolivia over a 25-year period (1993 to 2018). Using household surveys and applying two different methods, the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition and the Ñopo decomposition, we find sound evidence of an important reduction in the gender labor income gap during the analyzed period. This reduction is due to, firstly, the reduction of the number of observable characteristics affecting the labor market such as education and the impact of family characteristics on access to employment. Secondly, it shows the reduction in the unexplained component, which is usually assumed to be discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a macro-financial model that combines a semi-structural, medium-term macroeconomic model with the Dynamic Gordon Model or DGM (Campbell and Shiller, 1988). The proposed framework allows us to analyze the relationship between the output gap, inflation, short-term interest rate, and stock market indicators: price, dividend, and volatility. We estimate the model for the US economy using Bayesian techniques on quarterly data from 1984 to 2020. The decomposition of the unconditional variance of the variables shows that (i) demand shocks are relevant for most macroeconomic variables and stock prices; (ii) supply shocks affect inflation mainly; (iii) shocks to the price-dividend ratio account for around 12%, 5% and 16% of the variability of the output gap, inflation, and interest rates, respectively; and (iv) the DGM mechanism helps to cushion the effects of an interest rate shock and increases the speed of convergence of all macroeconomic variables after an inflation shock, compared to a standard, semi-structural model, reflecting in this manner the importance of stock prices on the dynamics of macroeconomic variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effects of the 2014-2015 Chilean tax reform on firms’ valuation and incentives to retain earnings and finance their operations with equity versus debt. By analyzing the effects of the reform on total taxes paid and cash flows received by investors, the paper concludes that in general the reform reduces the value of firms and lessens the incentives to retain earnings. Also, simulations show that the majority of firms would choose the accrual or ‘attributed’ tax based system. However, if the latter is not permitted firms will choose debt over equity. The cash-based or semi-integrated system becomes the preferred option only when tax avoidance is possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a methodology to decompose the redistributive effect of fiscal policy for individual income units that belong to groups. This methodology is useful to identify how much of redistributive effect and also progressive/regressive effects apply within groups, between groups and among overlapping units, and whether there are tensions between different effects. A case study with an application of fiscal policy in Argentina for year 2010 is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What drives elderly people decide to work after retirement? This paper analyzes the economic determinants of the decision to work in Ecuadorian elderly. In the analytical part, authors have analyzed the literature devoted to the study of elderly people, from which several testable hypotheses that relate it to income, education level and complex household have been derived. The article provides empirical evidence from using the Living Conditions Survey (2014). The estimation results suggest that variables as income, education level and belonging to a complex household play a significant role in the decision to work of Ecuadorian elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the role of the exchange rate in Mexico during the inflation targeting regime. The framework is based on the New Keynesian Macroeconomics, and the empirical evidence in the estimation of a Vector Error Correction model and the statistical analysis of the inflation targeting in Mexico and Latin America. The results describe to the Mexico's monetary policy as a hybrid system, where the nominal interest rate (policy instrument) and appreciations of the real exchange rate (intermediate instrument), have as their primary objective, the inflation stabilization within a numerical goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food inflation in Peru has a significant influence on total inflation, so the presence of second-round effects on core inflation may be high. This paper estimates the size of these second-round effects using a general equilibrium model for the Peruvian economy. The results indicate the absence of a significant second round effect on Peruvian inflation, given that food inflation does not play any role in the formation of inflation expectations and in the determination of wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the correlation between the presence and the number of elderly people in households and the labor supply of men and women between 18 and 54 years old, using data from the Argentina Permanent Household Survey for an extended period. Does the presence of elderly people alter the labor participation of men and women at central ages? It is proposed that this is so and that the correlation direction correlation will depend on the contribution they make to the home, or the demand for care they generate. Through the application of traditional multivariate models, it was found that the presence and the number of elderly people in the household is negatively related to the labor participation of men and women at central ages, and, in some cases, it relates positively with the participation of women. The effects on working hours are more elusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes relevant empirical evidence which indicates the existence of difference in default rate of loans between male and female. It concludes that independent of types of loans, the default rate of female is less than male. Moreover this paper analyzes the effect of other variables as Married Status and Size/Income over default rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive overview on the theoretical and empirical analysis of the selection and assessment of exchange rate regimes. The literature can be divided into two main groups: classical and modern. The first group refers to earlier studies examining the differences between floating and fixed exchange rate regimes. The second group is focused on the trade-off between credibility and flexibility, the economic performance and currency crisis, among others. In addition, this paper reviews why many countries follow de facto regimes different from their de jure regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes the inflow into non-performing loans (INPL) ratio, defined as the change in the stock of non-performing loans adjusted by write-offs and standardized by loans, as the main measure to be used for modelling the credit risk of the Chilean banking system. In particular, the paper identifies certain statistical and conceptual advantages of this measure with respect to loan loss provisions (LLP), which support this idea. First, the INPL ratio by type of credit has a greater time span than LLP. Second, the forward-looking nature of LLP --one of its main advantages over the INPL ratio-- is applicable only from 2004 onward due to various changes in Chilean reporting standards. Third, LLP is discretionary because provisioning is made on the basis of relative risk aversion of banks. Fourth, the INPL ratio produces smoother series than LLP for consumer and mortgage loans. In addition, the dynamic structure observed in both time series does not differ significantly. The econometric model estimated for the period January 1997 to June 2010 shows that the INPL ratio has statistically significant relations with macroeconomic aggregates such as the annual output growth, the short and long term interest rates, the annual inflation rate, the peso-dollar exchange rate, and non expected credit growth. Finally, the out-of-sample forecasts indicate differences between the actual and projected INPL ratios that are economically significant only in the case of mortgage credit. For the remaining portfolios, the evolution of this ratio during the period of July 2008 to June 2010 does not differ significantly from that predicted by the econometric model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effects of new technologies oriented to automation in the Chilean labor market. A general equilibrium model is used, in which the investment in robotic capital and the investment in traditional capital are considered separately, allowing the study of the effects of complementarity and substitution that are verified in relation to the labor factor. In particular, the model treats robotic capital as a direct substitute for labor, while incorporating traditional capital as complementary to it. By subjecting the economy to shocks in robotic capital prices, the effects on consumption, employment, wages and GDP can be studied. The results indicate that a fall in the international purchase price of robotic capital has a negative impact on employment as well as on the product. The exercises carried out in this study indicate that a decrease in the international price of robotic capital by 1 %, under conditions of high replacement rates between employment and robots, produces a drop in employment and wages of 0.05% if the change is transitory and of 0.25% if it is permanent due to an increase in imports of robotic capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper investigates the dynamics in the Chilean labor market during 1996 and 2016. It estimates the unemployment flows following Shimer (2012) in order to characterize labor market variables in the bussisnes cycle. According to our results recessionary increases in unemployment are driven by the outflow from unemployment rather than the inflow. Using structural vector autorregresive analysis (SVAR), we estimate a model to identify several shocks that affect the economy and labor market. An aggregate supply shock generates greater variance in the inflow also shows grater persistence to the variety of shocks examined; meanwhile an aggregate demand shock generates greater variance in the outflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper determines an empirical indicator for the cost of marrying a spouse with a different level of impatience or rate of time preference, and/or a different degree of aversion to intertemporal variability in consumption. Empirical data from different published sources are used to calibrate the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the most important calendar anomalies in a market that have received very little attention by researchers. The anomalies investigated are the day of the week, turn of the month, turn of the year, and holidays. The methodology we propose allows to simultaneously considerate all the mentioned anomalies through a single model. Although most of the empirical evidence reports calendar anomalies as accepted stylised facts of financial markets, a growing number of recent investigations find these anomalies weakening in most markets. Our results support this set of papers, since we do not report calendar anomalies in the LATIBEX indices. In addition, given the peculiarities of the LATIBEX market, our results also stress the importance of particular features of individual stock markets in the existence of calendar anomalies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper poses a new methodology to estimate the required economic capital for a retail credit portfolio. The methodology is based on both the general copula concept and some core results from the extreme value theory (EVT). The main results support the fact that the proposed methodology is more flexible than other traditional techniques, in particular when it makes use of generalized elliptical and/or grouped t Student copulas to model the dependence structure of risk-parameters or when it includes elements of the EVT to analyze the extreme loss behavior of a retail credit portfolio. In applying algorithms, the paper includes data from a Mexican bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative view of the training of economists in Latin America, analyzing curricula, commonly utilized textbooks, professors' time-commitments, teaching methods, and the use of technologies and computational tools. Also, following the approach of Colander (2005), the paper presents the results of a survey of Economics students, creating a socioeconomic profile of them and examining their attitudes and opinions. Among the regularities found for the five countries, particularly notable is the lack of connection between students' expectations regarding job market demand for economists and the actual demand by employment sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper detects structural similarities among several regions in Chile, in particular those that can be compared to the Magellanic and the Chilean Antarctica region: the regions Tarapacá, Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme, Bío- Bío and Los Lagos. This exercise is particularly relevant given the economic characteristics and geographic location of all of them. This comparison would allow less advantaged regions to learn from the most successful ones. Policy makers would be able to evaluate ex-ante different policies, helping in this way the decision making process. To this end, in this paper we follow two approaches: first, we find similarities among regions using Le Masne's (1988) indicator; second, we use one in which the similarities are identified through the productive links, following the methodologies of Rasmussen (1956), Dietzenbacher and van der Linden (1997) and Soza (2007b). Once we determine which technique is better for our problem, a hierarchical cluster is applied to obtain groups of regions based on the relationship they form. It is of particular interest to identify those sectors that have the largest impact on development and analyze its productive linkages. The analysis is done using the 1996 input-output charts developed by National Institute of Statistics (INE) and the Ministry of Planning and Development (MIDEPLAN). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 20 years, demand for air passenger transport has grown dramatically. At the same time, the two largest domestic airlines merged and several smaller entrants exited without being able to make significant inroads. As a result, the industry is highly concentrated, with a dominant firm and a few fringe firms. This condition has generated considerable public debate about the degree of competition in the airline industry in Chile. With the purpose of contributing to the public discussion, this paper analyzes the industry from an industrial organization point of view. Specifically, the paper describes the domestic airline industry in Chile, defines the relevant market and then analyzes both the degree of concentration and entry conditions. In particular, I focus on the roles played by vertical integration, the computer reservation systems and the revenue management practice. I then evaluate self-regulation of airfares by the dominant firm and propose several public policies to increase competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the question of whether low cost carriers provide low quality service. Considerable work has been done on various aspects of airline service quality, including: examining the causes of flight delays and cancellations, investigating service quality during irregular airport operations, and exploring the link between on-time performance and airline ticket prices. Little research has been conducted, however, on the performance of low cost carriers. This paper attempts to fill this void in the literature by examining the on-time performance of six million domestic flights in 2006. We find considerable evidence indicating that low cost carriers offer more reliable flight schedules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are several examples of pelagic fisheries that have experienced fishing collapse when facing downward abundance cycles. Improving understanding about pelagic catch's stock dependence can help avoid new cases of fishing collapse. This paper analyses the possible endogeneity of the fish stock variable in a pelagic fishery harvest function. The harvest function is estimated using panel data and 'El Niño' episodes as instrumental variable for the Chilean jack mackerel biomass. This strategy produces consistent estimates of the fish biomass coefficient. The paper makes two contributions. First, it corrects for endogeneity of the fish stock variable, an issue often underestimated in empirical fishery economics. Secondly, it shows that 'El Niño' episodes have negative effects on the Chilean jack mackerel biomass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effects of unemployment benefits and minimum wage policies in a noncompetitive labor market with two sectors, two types of workers and sector specific search. It finds that those policies can shift the job composition towards low-wage jobs and that they will never increase the number of high-wage jobs. Welfare can only increase because of reduced social vacancy creation costs. The paper is an extension of Acemoglu (2001) who finds in the homogeneous-worker random search version of the model that the mentioned labor market policies can shift the job composition toward high-wage jobs, increase the number of high-wage jobs and welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a critical analysis of Kaminsky and Reinhart (1999) (KR), perhaps the most prominent empirical paper on causes of currency crises. After dealing with problems present in this paper, it proposes an aggregate leading indicator of crisis. The proposed indicator performs better than a composite index based on the best six individual indicators of KR, both in terms of accuracy and predictive capacity, and represents a unified version of the currency crises approach that emphasizes the role of inconsistent macroeconomic policies as an explanation of currency crises, and the approach that emphasizes the role of tradeoffs among policymakers decisions as the main cause of these crises. Variables included in the proposed leading indicator are: the deviation of the actual stock of international reserves from an estimated demand for international reserves; the real growth of domestic credit; the ratio of domestic credit to M2; and the behavior of both the real exchange rate and industrial production as a measure of overvaluation of the real exchange rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 90s, Mexican firms issued more than ever American Depository Receipts (ADRs), i.e, certificates of Mexican stocks, traded in U.S. markets and managed by U.S. depositories. This paper is about testing the top Mexican firms' ADR for ability to: a) replicate the ups and downs of U.S. markets; b) outperform their U.S. peers; c) be an opportunity for diversification away from their U.S. peers. This paper's finding is that only Telmex's ADR passes the tests a), b) and c). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The institutional and organizational details framing legislative processes are key aspects for understanding how Congresses work. From a new institutional economics perspective, this paper comparatively examines how the Spanish and USA Congresses are organized. The main purpose of the paper is to unveil the so-called "black box" factors operating in each case. The role played by property rights, hierarchy, individual deputies, leadership, transactions costs and committees will be researched. Whereas committees and decision-making rules based on a property rights system are key factors for understanding how the Congress performs in USA; in the Spanish case the most relevant explanatory factors are strong party leadership and the hierarchical rules by which political parties and parliamentary groups are organized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When social structures are stable and social systems yield expected and desirable results, there is relatively less demand for institutional economics than during times of change. Surge of interest in institutional analysis usually comes during times when countries contemplate basic reform. The 1980s and early 1990s were such a period. NIE offered a fresh way of thinking about economic organization and its broader social context and immediately caught the attention of reformers. Yet the original contributions rarely dealt explicitly with institutional policy. This paper is concerned with the lessons of NIE for major reform or institutional policy. I particularly emphasize opportunities and limits for reform that reflect the knowledge problem as well as political and social responses to reform. Social science has not developed a comprehensive theory of social systems; rather we have accumulated bits of useful insights, often without explicitly knowing in what circumstances the insights apply. The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the lessons of modern institutional theory for institutional reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether the current political arrangements framing the Mexican politics help in consolidating and advancing those economic reforms that have been implemented in Mexico since the 1982 severe economic crises. I will argue that these arrangements create impediments to the co-ordination required to sustain and advance those policy changes that are needed under the new economic model. Formal and informal institutional environments that do not provide for the adequate enforcement of political exchanges also generate high transaction costs. Politicians will have to design complex mechanisms to protect their rent allocation. Many political transactions will not be implemented, and those that may be so will tend to generate relatively inefficient public policies. The capability of the political system to enforce the new economic rules as well as property and other legal rights is also weak. As these factors play a key role for the allocative efficiency of markets and, consequently, for growth and development, the paper concludes that formal macroeconomic and structural reforms in economic sectors may not be enough. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper emphasizes the central role of arrangements called "hybrids" in the organization of production and distribution in market economies. Several forms are taken into account, such as subcontracting, supply-chain systems, distribution networks, franchising, partnerships, alliances, or cooperatives. It is argued that under the apparent heterogeneity of these forms are shared characteristics qualifying them as specific "institutional structures of production". The paper stresses that beyond their relevance for economists wishing to understand the coexistence of alternative modes of governance in market economies, hybrid arrangements provide unique opportunities for theoretical investigation on the nature of inter-firm coordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the time allocation of all family members, including the children, where it is assumed that parents distribute their time between market work and household work, and the children may work in the labor market, do the household chores or study. In this framework, I propose that wages and shadow prices play an important role in the allocation of time of household members. Since empirical papers cannot find a clear relationship between child labor, wages and exogenous income, the theoretical model presented here sheds light on the relationship between those variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to conceptually present measures of performance, cost and efficiency of the public sector and quantify them fo r various services in the Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia. As in all applied research, the work has limitations that originate, fundamentally, in the lack of information. But using the available information some results are obtained that can be challenged in future research. The quantifications show important improvements between 1992 and 2012. In this period, the vertical structure of the general government of Bolivia underwent a profound transformation originated in the process of fiscal decentralization. Expenditure from subnational government levels (departments and municipalities) doubled its share in total spending between 1990 and 2012 and municipal participation went from approximately one third of subnational spending to approximately two thirds. The preliminary conclusion of this work is the existence of a positive relationship between performance in the health, education, and housing and urban services sectors and decentralization. With the improvement in performance also increased the political participation of citizens so that it can be concluded, preliminarily, that the country moved in one of the positive intervals of the federalism frontier of Inman and Rubinstein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we estimate the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) fo r the Chilean Construction Sector, considering an annual period between 1986 and 2015. The contribution of the productivity to the sectorial growth is estimated residually, based on a Cobb-Douglas production function for the sectorial GDP and independent measures for capital and labor, corrected by quality and intensity of use. As a result, the sectorial TFP has exhibited a downward trend in the last five years, after remaining virtually flat since 1986 to 2011. The economic growth of the sector shows to be dominated by the accumulation of factors rather than by the efficiency with which they are used in the productive process. This could explain, partially, the vulnerability of sectorial activity to the economic cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of minimum wages on employment quality and the likelihood of transition between jobs of varying quality in both medium and large enterprises and the public sector in Argentina. So far there are no studies with a similar objective in our country. The analysis was developed from data from the Permanent Household Survey using the method of differences in differences. The results indicate that increased minimum wages decreases transitions to quality jobs mainly among informal workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to identify the impact of the different types of innovation on export behavior in the Colombian food and beverage industry. The application of the propensity score matching method reveals that only technological innovation has a significant effect on the sector's export behavior. In particular, product innovation impacts positively the internationalization of large companies, while process innovation does so in SMEs. The differences in strategic and innovative strategy explain the heterogeneity in the impacts obtained by the size of business and the type of innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effects of structural balance fiscal rule on economic aggregates through a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model, which characterizes an emerging small and open economy as the Peruvian. The results show how this fiscal rule reduces the volatility of different aggregates and the cyclicality of consumption, government spending, investment, imports, exports, net external debt of the economy and the production of non-tradable, except of the production of exportable goods. However, other shocks has a null or opposite effect, namely structural balance fiscal rule is a necessary condition, but not sufficient to smooth the transition of government spending and other economic aggregates to the steady state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a quantification of the response of the sovereign risk premium (EMBI) of a group of Latin American countries, to unexpected changes (shocks) in external financial variables. The main contribution of the paper is to use the estimated parameters of a vector autoregression (VAR) model using a special Cholesky variance-covariance decomposition as a tool for risk scenario's assessment. The proposed interpretation of the estimated matrix allows for the quantification of the impact of more than one shock and also to quantify spillovers. A VAR is estimated for each country (Colombia, Chile, Mexico, and Peru) in monthly frequency that includes China's and Brazil s EMBI, the global volatility index (VIX), plus the value of the dollar against a basket of currencies (Broad Index) and a proxy of the slope of the US Treasury yield curve (Spread US). The VIX and Broad Index shocks turn out to have a relatively homogenous effect on each country's EMBI, while shocks to the China and Brazil EMBI are more heterogeneous. For the case of Chile, we further study three alternative risk scenarios, incorporating the copper price as an additional variable. The most disruptive scenario at the time when the shock hits is the "Volatility driven" one. Nevenheless, it is the "Emerging markets" scenario (namely one with simultaneous shocks to China ' and Brazil's EMBl) the one with the most harmful dynamics, as it dyes out slower. Finally, a "Copper price bust" scenario, in which the price of copper drops significantly in addition to a shock to the EMBl China, is the one with the least effect as the price of copper is relatively less affected by shocks to other variables, displaying lower spillovers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we test the positive -assortative- mating (PAM) hypothesis that posits that marriages can be positively sorted along the couple's education using Argentinian data. Using a regression approach, we find that the effect of husband's education on wife's education is positive and significant. Then, we empirically verify if the observed matching distribution is super-modular, i.e., the local log odds ratios of education are all positive. We conclude that the data (weakly) supports Becker's positive assortative mating hypothesis in Argentina. The model that best describes marriage formation is more consistent with preference for own type rather than with PAM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify the key determinants of Chilean spot power price and assess their relative importance in recent price decline. To do so, we use a VAR model with weekly data between the years 2015-2016 and variance decomposition analysis to attribute variations of marginal cost to different shocks. The results show that while the availability of water for hydropower and lower fuel prices are important for explaining power spot prices, they only account for 50%-75% of the marginal cost's variance, leaving 25%-50% to other factors, such as more renewable generation and lower generation from oil sources, among other factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the economic determinants of fecundity. In the analytical part, authors have analyzed the vast economic literature devoted to the study of fecundity, from which several testable hypotheses that relates it to household income, education level of the mother and her occupation have been derived. The article provides empirical evidence from 46,716 Ecuadorian women between 12 and 49 in 2006 and 2014. In particular, it was found, through count data models, that years of mother education and household income have a negative effect on fecundity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]