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Adopting a legal definition of informality, this paper studies the causes of informality in general and with a particular application to Mexico. It starts with a discussion on the definition and measures of informality. It then argues and provides evidence that informality is not only a reflection of underdevelopment but may also be the source of further economic retardation. Next, the paper analyzes informality's main determinants, arguing that informality is not single-caused but results from the combination of poor public services, a burdensome regulatory regime, and weak monitoring and enforcement capacity by the state. This combination is especially explosive when the country suffers from low educational achievement and features demographic pressures and primary production structures. The paper then evaluates the empirical relevance of each determinant of informality to the specific case of Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a survey on the Economics of Happiness; special attention is placed on recent research about the relationiship between income and happiness. The paper discusses the epistemological and methodological foundations of the Economics of Happiness. It starts by mentioning the two traditional approaches in the study of well-being: the imputation approach and the presumption approach. Next, the paper explains the subjetive well-being approach, which constitutes an alternative to the traditional ones. The subjetive well-being approach is concerned with the well-being people experiences, and it states that the best way to know it is by directly asking people. The paper goes on with a presentation of the main findings from the Economics of Happiness on what respects to the role of income. It is shown that income plays both a needs-satisfaction and a positional-marker function; thus, relative income matters for happiness. In addition, it is explained that in- come-aspiration gaps and habituation processes do matter for happiness; those personal values which people use in their assessment of a happy life are also relevant for the relationship between income and happiness. Furthermore, it is shown that income may have a nil impact on some domains of life where people act as human beings and where life satisfaction comes from. The paper ends with a brief discussion of other relevant findings from the Economics of Happiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the recent literature on the methodologies that have been used to evaluate the distributive and poverty effects of trade liberalization in Latin America. Our survey classifies the large number of papers on the subject according to the welfare measure they use: inequality (on wages and household income) or poverty. Our survey shows that a sound methodological approach evaluating the welfare effects of trade liberalization should take into account: the degree of tariff to price transmission, all income sources (not only wages), employment effects, gender and regional heterogeneity of the impact of trade, and second-order as well as general equilibrium effects. Two methodologies represent the latest efforts in this direction: (1) Income generation models with an explicit relationship between changes in tariff and changes in household real income (Porto, 2007), which are capable of testing the different transmission channels linking trade policy and inequality and poverty; (2) The Macro-Micro approach (Bourguingon et al, 2008), which combines a CGE with a micro-simulation model, evaluates the welfare effects of trade policy, taking into account general equilibrium effects. These two approaches can be combined to get the short- and long-term welfare effects of trade policy, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to present fuzzy sets theory as a reliable and straightforward methodology to measure poverty, which offers comparative advantages with respect to traditional methods. This paper also shows that fuzzy sets methodology is compatible with census data information to compute poverty indexes. Results of measuring poverty at state, municipal and town levels are presented for the case of Mexico and are compared with official results. Comparison reveals that fuzzy sets theory is an alternative that solve some of the methodological problems present in poverty lines and marginalization indexes, which makes it a helpful tool to evaluate and implement policies aimed at tackling poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the growth slowdown of the Mexican economy during the reform and post reform periods. It addresses four possible factors behind the growth deceleration. First, the role of international trade integration, showing that the trade policy reforms of the 1980s and 1990s were in fact very successful in enhancing export growth and trade openness but not in promoting a dynamic pattern of trade specialization. Second, the productivity growth slowdown, arguing that this should be seen as a consequence rather than a cause of the growth deceleration as the evolution of productivity growth is closely associated with the expansion of tertiary underemployment. Third, the discussion of the role of human capital formation suggests that educational and health indicators have been improving during the recent period, partly as a consequence of the demographic bonus, and cannot be held responsible for the fall in output per worker that has taken place since the early 1980s. Finally, the paper focuses on what it believes is the primary determinant of the growth slowdown, the low rate of physical capital accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper focuses on the potential bias in growth estimation generated by the problem of missing data (or data truncation) due to changes in census survey policy. The analysis will help to ascertain which sub-sectors in manufacturing were experiencing growth to show evidence supporting the hypothesis of a positive growth rate in manufacturing as a whole during the period 1929-1934. We particularly analyze the performance of the Mexican manufacturing industry at sub-sector level of disaggregation and during the period 1929-1934 considering that census policy was not homogeneous for the two censuses of interest (and for subsequent ones). When any data set is truncated, this can generate bias in the estimation process. However, the bias in estimates based on these data sets will depend on how important the proportion of missing data is. Hence, one of the main tasks on this paper is to examine how important the missing data problem is for each sector of Mexican manufacturing in order to shed light on the reliability of Value Added growth rates estimates which are calculated in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fundamental idea of this paper is the use of a market mechanism to induce a redistribution of wealth in the exchange economy. In this market, operating parallel to the goods market, consumption rights initially assigned by the planner are exchanged freely. Such trades generate a variety of Walras equilibrium solutions, in a way similar to what can be obtained from lump-sum transfers. In this paper we analyze the special case with an egalitarian initial distribution of consumption rights across the population and applying a simple price rule for consumption rights. This case has the advantage that no information of the population's initial endowments is required to induce a redistribution of wealth that reduces the gap between the rich and the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the usual hypotheses in standard economic growth theory is that labor force follows exponential growth. This is an unrealistic assumption because growing exponentially population can be arbitrarily large. In this paper we reformulate the neoclassical Solow model of economic growth by assuming that the law describing population growth verifies two stylized facts: i) population is strictly increasing and bounded and ii) the rate of growth of population is strictly decreasing to zero. The main result of the paper is the proof of the convergence of capital per worker to a constant value independently of the initial condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual inflation takes place when price increases in non-tradable goods are higher than those of tradable goods. In this paper, we develop a simple model where public spending has a positive externality on the production of both sectors. The main results suggested by the paper are the following: i) An increase in non-productive public spending does not generate dual inflation, as the usual Balassa- Samuelson result states ii) An increase in productive public spending rises the productivity of both sectors and this can result in dual inflation, dual deflation or no effect on prices; and, iii) Dual inflation only takes place when productive public spending has a higher effect on the technology of the tradable sector than on the non-tradable one, as illustrated in the Spanish data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latin America has been dominated by growth expansions that, more often than not, have ended in crises and protracted periods of stagnation. This has led to poor growth performance during most of the past century. This paper reviews Latin American growth experiences and discusses some particular areas that help to explain why sustainable growth has been so elusive in the region. In particular, it discusses the role of openness and intraregional trade, the role of institutions, macroeconomic stability and inequality, all factors that are central to resume and maintain growth. The paper also discusses more general issues related to growth, such as the importance of protecting property rights and having an adequate structure of rewards to effort, which includes equal opportunities. Finally, a brief overview on current macroeconomic developments is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After years of effective functioning, the intermediate exchange rate systems ended up becoming prone to suffering speculative attacks, as the process of financial integration advanced. The empirical evidence collected in this paper endorses the fact that the less strict pegged exchange rate systems, that is soft pegs, were the epicentre of the most of exchange rate crises during '90's in Europe, Latin America and Eastern Asia. Consequently, intermediate systems and, especially soft pegs, have lost credit to the benefit of more extreme systems of exchange rate spectrum. This paper contributes new evidence on the tendency toward the bipolarization of the exchange rate systems and studies their evolution between 1990 and 2004, both in the advanced economies and in the emerging economies most integrated in the international capital markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between exports and economic growth for the case of Guatemala and El Salvador, emphasizing the quantification of spillover effects. Cointegration vectors are estimated for each country, which includes the variables exports, GDP, public investment and private investment. It was found that one cointegration vector exists in each country. Error correction models were estimated including the error term from the other country's cointegration vector as an indicator of "excess demand". The cointegration vectors were re-estimated, including in each case the exports variable from the neighbor country. The existence of one cointegration vector was inferred for both countries. The paper concludes stressing the interdependence of economic variables gives rise to an interdependence of national social policies, and arguing for the convenience of establishing policy coordination framework on a Central American scale, with view towards utilizing economic interdependece to impart more dynamism to economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the determinants of the capital structure for a sample of 113 firms that are listed in the Santiago Stock Exchange (Chile) in the period 1990-1998. The major difference between this and previous studies is the statistical method to analyze the data. Using LISREL (Linear Structural Relations), we find that tangibility of assets is significantly and positively related to the financial leverage and companies with higher level of profitability have more debt. On the other hand, if we use OLS we find that the leverage significantly related to tangibility, profitability, regulation and quality of the firm. We find less significant results related to growth opportunities, size and industrial classification. This paper shows that measurement errors are important when we have to choose proxies to capture the variables that determine the financial leverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the changes in the Chilean economy specialization patterns mainly in the period of fastest economic growth and taking into account its relative abundance of productive factors. There are three important findings in this paper that are relevant for natural resources abundant, fast-growing economies. First, we find that even there is a great degree of heterogeneity in output and productivity growth across economic activities, the most dynamic sectors are those more intensive in natural resources. In contrast, labor-intensive sectors are more likely to experience economic contractions. Second, consistent with international evidence, our results suggest that significant changes in Chilean specialization patterns are possible only if the economy increases substantially the investment in both physical and human capital. Third, we do not find evidence that necessarily the tradable sector is an engine of growth. In fact, for a large part of the period under analysis, the non-tradable sector had experienced more rapid output and productivity growth than the tradable sector. This would be consistent with a number of structural reforms (privatization and liberalization of foreign direct investment) that favored expansion in non tradable sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates an Euler equation for per capita consumption to investigate whether social security increases consumption ceteris paribus in seventeen countries. Following the seminal work of Martin Feldstein, the literature has estimated consumption functions to address this question. Unfortunately, consumption functions confound structural and expectational parameters, making their interpretation problematical. Furthermore, if their variables are difference-stationary, least squares may produce inconsistent parameter estimates and must virtually always produce inconsistent standard errors for the estimated parameters. By contrast, under reasonable assumptions, generalized method of moments consistently estimates the parameters and standard errors of Euler equations. Moreover, the parameters are more readily interpretable. The paper finds strong evidence that social security increases consumption ceteris paribus. Furthermore, the coefficient estimates imply large negative effects either on the growth rates of the capital stock, out put and consumption along their balanced growth rates or alternatively on their levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the methodology of real options is presented as an imperative tool for the board of directors of a firm for the decision making process on the financial assessment of projects or business strategies when there is flexibility (optionality) of making, in the future, new decisions such as: expanding, contracting, deferring, correcting or abandoning a project or strategy. In this regard, this research carries out a literature review of closed-form formulas to value the optionality of several strategies are obtained under the assumption that the present value of the expected cash flow follows a log-normal distribution or by using binomial methods. In particular, this paper deals with the case of the decision making of selling or shutting down a firm when the market value of its securities (titles of capital and debt) exceeds the present value of the expected cash flows, or the present value of such expected cash flows is less than certain salvage value. In this context, a Mexican firm that provides satellite communications services is analyzed. Moreover, the methodology of real options is applied to highway construction projects, in particular, the case of the Toluca-Atlacomulco highway project is examined under the assumptions of constant and stochastic volatility. It is also important to emphasize that this paper focuses on: i) the valuation of American abandonment real options; ii) valuation of composed real options; iii) valuation of real options with stochastic volatility extending Hull and White's (1987) model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effect of minimum wages on the income of workers in Mexico. Using panel data from the National Urban Employment Survey (ENEU) and from the administrative records of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), this paper shows that changes in the real minimum wage induce changes in the same direction on wages in the Mexican labor market. This effect is weaker (although positive) the higher the income of the worker. It is also shown that the effect was stronger in the period comprising 1985-1993 than in the period comprising 1994-2001, suggesting that this effect is losing strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the effects of uncertainty of economic growth and inflation on average rates of output growth and inflation, using quarterly data of Argentina, during the last three decades. The paper employs a GARCH-M model (VAKMA model) that permits to test diagonally and symmetry relationships between the variables. The results suggest that increased growth uncertainty is associated with significantly higher average output growth (theory of precautionary savings), while higher inflation uncertainty is correlated with lower average output growth (Okun, 1971, and Friedman, 1977, arguments). Both inflation and economic growth show evidence of significant asymmetric response to positive and negative shocks of equal magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we measure levels of financial literacy among Mexican high school students between the ages of 15 and 18, using a survey based on the OECD methodology and Lusardi and Mitchell's focus, which we applied to these students in Mexico City and the State of Mexico. Our results show low levels of financial literacy. Using "L&M" questions, we found that 60% of the students surveyed understood the concept of inflation, 45.3% correctly answered the question about risk diversification, and only 22.2% correctly answered the question about compound interest. Similar results were obtained when using the OECD approach. Finally, gender differences were slight but favored men and differences by type of school were larger, generally favoring private schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies inter-industry structures at national level by applying traditional input-output measures and also network analysis. The main objective is to attain a better understanding of economic processes by focusing on inter-industrial structures as a main explanatory factor of the observed international disparities in development. This study shows the existence of a fundamental inter-industrial structure, common to all countries. When comparing groups of countries, there are also structural differences that are in accordance with differences in development levels, in industrial specialization and in the structural position of some industrial sectors. Those differences have an impact on the countries' unequal development processes. This study shows that both methodologies, input-output and network analyses, are complementary and allow to attain more advanced explanations of the processes of development. By applying network theory it is possible to improve our knowledge on structural differences and its relation with economic growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the impact of economic surprises and unconventional monetary policy announcements on the nominal structure factors in Brazil, Chile and Mexico. We find that domestic inflation and monetary policy surprises have strong effect in the shape of the yield curve, and also we evidence an asymmetric impact of these surprises in the yield curves of the countries considered. On the other hand, external surprises also have an asymmetric impact, while unconventional monetary policy announcements, such as the Quantitative Esing and the Twist Operation, are those which have strong impact in the term structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the stochastic properties of Spanish regional unemployment rates using quarterly data spanning the period 1976(1)-2013(2). Towards this end, we employ the Panel Analysis of Nonstationarity in Idiosyncratic and Common components (PANIC) procedures of Bai and Ng (2004, 2010), which allow for the decomposition of the observed unemployment rate series into a common component and an idiosyncratic component. This enables us to identify the exact source behind the nonstationary behavior in Spanish regional unemployment. Our analysis provides clear-cut evidence for the hysteresis hypothesis, which appears to be caused by a common stochastic trend driving all the regional unemployment series. These results are largely backed up by those obtained from the median-unbiased estimation of the persistence parameter which equals one for the common factor and to a lesser extent from the half-life estimate obtained from impulse-response functions that equals 12.5 years for the case of shocks hitting the common trend. This persistence analysis also provides evidence of stationarity for most of the idiosyncratic series (two regions being the exception), as found in the PANIC analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article evaluates two recent critiques to the author's papers on the distributive effects of market power in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a critique on the methodology used in previous research, which attempted to assess the effects on social welfare derived from the existence of firms with market power in Mexico. As a result of the methodological review, the effect generated by a hypothetical collusion between the main competitors in various markets of consumption goods is estimated. The conclusion is that even though there is a significant reduction in the welfare loss estimations in comparison to the other research, this does not demerit the need to strengthen competition policy. On the contrary, by sustaining this policy on a rigorous and objective economic analysis, it is possible to improve its reliability and effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2008, Mexico's Federal Competition Commission (CFC) commissioned a study of the distributive effects of market power which has influenced the national discussion on competition policy. In this paper, we attempt to replicate its results, we extend them to future years, identify and correct deficiencies in the analysis, and evaluate the conceptual and methodological framework employed. We conclude that the method used does not produce reliable results. Furthermore, using the same method, we estimate a welfare loss between 0.8 and 2.1% of total spending, depending on the income decile. While the conclusion that lower income households are more severely affected by the exercise of market power holds, we find that this effect is greater in urban areas than in rural areas for the lowest income households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report the results of a representative inquiry from undergraduate and graduate students in economics from Chile, in five universities, about subjects in economic thought. A comparison among universities that teach economics in Chile allows concluding differences, with singular characteristics of students from each university. Another comparison among Chilean, European and North American students of economics allows identifying the characteristics of the Chilean economic thought among economics students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The critical problem of decline in economic activity and unemployment in Spain has its reflection in the vicious circle generated by bankruptcy, proxied in this paper by the legal figure of the "concurso de acreedores". This work studies the phenomenon from a geographical point of view to analyze the possible contagion effect between provinces. The results show that bankruptcy does not spread affecting other companies in the construction sector but this effect is effectively verified in the industrial sector, which is the one that contributes to generate a contagion effect in the economy viewed as a whole. This contagion is verified only in the years before the crisis, whereas in the recession period it seems there seem to be stronger and alternative negative macroeconomic factors that affect all businesses than contagion itself, as this last one can be considered a firm-specific effect that impacts each company depending on the neighbor companies the firm has relationship with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analize the female labour distribution in 2012 in Spanish Labour Market, by proposing a double perspective: the expulsion or rejection degree suffered by women in male dominated occupations, and the attraction or concentration degree in female dominated occupations. For this purpose, using the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the methodology is based on Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition over the probabilities that men and women have to belong to a masculinized or feminized occupation. The main conclusion is that the concentration degree of women in feminized occupations is higher than the expulsion or rejection degree in masculinized occupations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the different methodologies used to estimate the long-run discount rate to be used when evaluating public projects in certain countries. Additionally, it estimates, for Chile, the discount rate, based on two methodologies: one is a small variation of Gamma discounting, first proposed by Martin Weitzman (2001), and the other one uses the Ramsey formula derived from a growth model to estimate the social rate of time preference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between market potential and wages of manufacturing workers in the states of Mexico, using a standard model of New Economic Geography. The evaluation is considered an important aspect in developing countries, such as the distinction between formal and informal workers. The estimates show that, in general, the elasticity of market potential on wages is 0.082, which is robust to different measures related to the theories of agglomeration and endogeneity problems and spatial autocorrelation. It is also found that wages of informal workers are less sensitive to changes in market potential compared to the wages of formal employees and benefit from externalities generated by the presence of foreign firms. A simulation suggests that up to 10.7% of the wage gap between workers in states bordering North America and located in southern Mexico can be attributed to economic geography; this effect is smaller for informal workers and for the case of formal doubles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally accepted that investment in initial education has a measurable impact both on individuals and society. And yet, there is very little evidence on the economic benefits of lifelong learning. The aim of this paper is to estimate the impact of lifelong learning (formal and non-formal education) on the probability of being employed. For doing so, we apply the propensity score matching methodology to a dataset extracted from the Survey on Adult Participation in Learning Activities. Results show that adult participation in non-formal education has a positive effect on individual employability. However, the estimated effect is not homogeneous, detecting significant differences in terms of gender, age and level of initial education. Other features such as who paid for the training and the reasons for taking the activity have also turned out to play a significant role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we attempt to characterize Mexico's trade flows during the NAFTA era. The import and export equations are derived from the imperfect substitute goods model of trade and are estimated with monthly data for the period 1994-2014 using Johansen's cointegration approach. We find that all variables can be described as processes with stochastic trends and that there exists one cointegration relation for each trade equation. In both cases, the estimated long run elasticities with respect to prices and income are statistically significant and consistent with economic theory. In particular, both trade flows are inelastic with respect to their respective relative prices although these findings are consistent with the Marshall-Lerner condition. Additionally, Mexican imports are elastic with respect to real aggregate production, a fact that confirms that Mexico's economic growth is highly dependent on imported goods. Differently than other studies, we find that Mexican exports are inelastic to industrial production in USA during this period, which implies that they have become more stable against fluctuations in the neighbor's economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at explaining the long-run inflation of Uruguay (1870-2010). A monetary inflation model is used based on the assumption that the long-run inflation results from the equilibrium conditions in the money market. A forward-looking Phillips curve is estimated where the inflation expectations are explained by the core money growth, which is defined as the growth of long-lasting component of nominal money supply that exceeds the long-run increase of the real money demand, this last one determined by the change of the potential output (output adjusted core money, OACM). The results show a positive and significant impact of OACM on inflation. Although in the short run it cannot be rejected that this effect is similar than the others, in the long run OACM has a unitary impact on inflation. In addition, we compare the OACM with the effective inflation and we construct a monetization index which enables us to identify processes of "demonetization" and "monetization" that the Uruguayan economy experienced along the last 140 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the role of the regional heterogeneity in the financial constraints of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). To do this, we develop an empirical application based on a sample of Spanish SMEs and propose a model of financial access that distinguishes between two regions. We obtain estimates using dynamic probit models with panel data. Our results confirm the relevance of including regional differentiation. In particular, we find that in the less developed region, the specific characteristics of SMEs are not as important in determining the likelihood of their being financially constrained as the actual conditions in the region where the company is located. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review the corporate takeover regulation in place in the world and find evidence that it is converging from the Market Rule (MR) towards the Equal Opportunity Rule (EOR). The literature on the economic rationale of these rules shows that the Private Benefits of Control (PBC) affect control changes; in particular, the EOR has the potential to preclude inefficient transfers but also to slow down the overall activity of the corporate control market. Jurfest, Paredes and Riutort (2015) proposes a model to estimate the PBC under the different regulations, nesting as a special case the well-known model of Block Premium Barclay and Holderness (1989) and Dyck and Zingales (2004). In this paper we illustrate the applicability and consistency of this model to estimate the PBC under the different regulatory regimes in place and under alternative distributions of the bargaining power of the seller of control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide evidence to shed light on the role of order flow in transmitting information to price, for the Mexican peso/US dollar exchange rate in the short and long run. Specifically, we offer a statistically sound characterization of how order flow conveys non-public information to such exchange rate and through which specific channels, order flow impulses contribute to mapping the relevant information. In order to do so, we use a cointegrated SVAR model to show that including order flow in a standard monetary model specification increases the explanatory power and forecast precision, but more importantly to demonstrate that order flow is informative about fundamentals and is associated with transitory exchange rate movements generated by monetary policy news. Our tests on the underlying long run and short run mechanisms confirm that the relation between the exchange rate and order flow is consistent with the macro approach to exchange rate determination, as suggested by Bilson's version of the monetary model, and that transitory monetary shocks are, to some extent, transmitted to the nominal exchange rate through order flow in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the residential consumption of electricity by considering the relevant socioeconomic characteristics of households, their location, and the use of electric appliances. Our empirical exercise uses microdata for the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires and the estimation strategy applies a quantile regression approach which enables us to identify the characteristics associated with high consumption levels, and presumably, with high energy inefficiency. The two main results of the paper are the relative low importance of income and the high importance of the lack of access to natural gas, i.e. the lack of access to one kind of energy good (natural gas) leads to inefficiencies in the consumption of another energy good (electricity). This evidence suggests that efficiency programs should be targeted to such household groups. Other interesting results are the relevance of air conditioning units as one of the main determinants of high electricity consumption and the preliminary evidence that a move from houses to apartments leads to lower consumption (and very likely, to better energy efficiency levels). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyse the changes in the determinants of the decision to participate in the labour market, union formation and non-maternity. We use the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Survey (2005-2011). The econometric technique is a trivariate probit model, which allows estimating the three dependent variables simultaneously. The results show, among other things that highly educated women are more likely to participate in the labour market and not to have children and less likely to live in a couple. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides evidence about the public employment in Latin America during the period 1992-2012, exploiting a standardized database of household surveys from all the countries of the region. These surveys constitute a useful tool because of their national representativeness, their frequency, and their wide coverage about employment and wage issues, both in the public sector as in the private, formal and informal. The article documents and analyzes the changes in the employment and wage levels of Latin-American public employees vis-à-vis the rest of workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), economic growth and income inequality in Latin America. Using a data panel of 18 economies for the period 1980-2009, we estimate two equations that represent the relationship between FDI and economic growth, and income inequality, respectively. The main results obtained confirm the positive effects of FDI on economic growth, and show nonlinear significant effects on income inequality: while FDI leads to an increase in inequality, above some level of FDI (in% of GDP) it leads to greater equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to capture climate change impact on endogenous crop choices by Peruvian farmer's and the impacts on their expected income. The model is estimated across 110 227 farmers in Peru. The results show that both temperature and precipitation affect the selection crops. The study estimates that climate change would reduce the expected revenue per hectare in the range of 8% and 13% depending on the climate scenario. Climate change induces a reduction of conditional income for alfalfa, rice, coffee and maize (durum) and increases for potato, starchy maize, bananas and grapes for both climate models, with results mixed for cassava depending on the climate model. Rice and coffee are the crops with the greatest losses, while the native potato is the crop with the highest gain. Also, the probability of choice of maize and banana increases as temperature and precipitation increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the adjustment strategies to face hypothetical supply and demand shocks used by 1 138 Mexican firms surveyed by Banco de México in 2012. The results of the analysis show that the response of firms to both types of shocks is not symmetrical in general, and that firms react to these shocks combining adjustment strategies (mostly choosing to reduce costs) to smooth the pass-through to prices and production. Stronger competition makes firms use the adjustment strategies more intensively, and it encourages price flexibility. For all shocks, the costs more likely to be reduced are non-labor costs, followed by temporary employment. A high degree of competition and a high labor share make the pass-through of shocks to employment stronger. On the other hand, collective wage agreements smooth this pass-through. No pass-through of shocks to wages is observed, which combined with a low observed incidence of reducing base salaries shows nominal wage rigidity in the firms surveyed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

En este artículo se argumenta que la corriente dominante en economía no es un bloque monolítico sino que, más bien, se compone de un núcleo ortodoxo en el que prevalece el pensamiento neoclásico y un conjunto de enfoques de vanguardia que comparten con la ortodoxia su interés por la modelación formal (matemática, computacional o estadística) y por el análisis del comportamiento micro para describir fenómenos agregados. Al revisar las fichas bibliográficas de la base de datos de RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) se encuentra, por un lado, que las investigaciones que se realizaron a nivel mundial con enfoques de vanguardia tuvieron un gran crecimiento en el periodo 2000-2012 y, por otro, que las investigaciones económicas de índole vanguardista en México son relativamente escasas. Esta falta de pluralidad también se refleja en los programas de licenciatura y posgrado de las universidades mexicanas, en donde la estructura curricular se limita la mayoría de las veces a planteamientos ortodoxos y en unos cuantos casos a tratamientos heterodoxos (es decir, que se ubican fuera de la corriente dominante). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the influence of the AFPs, as major institutional investor, on the capital structure decision of the Chilean firm. These investors may influence the capital structure decision through different avenues; monitoring the firm's managers and transferring useful information to the capital market. The study considers a sample of 109 Chilean public companies in the period 2009-2011. The AFPs not only participate in the stock market but also in the bond market and therefore our results are new and relevant to explain how AFPs influence the capital structure decision. We find a positive relation between the participation of AFPs in the ownership structure of the firm and the leverage and it is also positively related to the public leverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a conciliatory argument to the debate over the relationship between income inequality and economic growth by proposing that the disparities in most previous empirical studies derive from the fact that they have not accounted for the level of inequality as a factor that can define the sign of the relationship. An inverted U shaped relationship is demonstrated, showing that low levels of inequality exert a positive correlation with economic growth while high levels depict a negative one. Additionally, it is demonstrated that the existence of an Optimal Rate of Inequality (ORl) that maximizes growth rates in comparison to other inequality levels, and releases the economy from any distortion generated by high inequality or high redistribution and the associated taxation levels. Empirical evidence from a broad panel of countries as well as a bibliometric analysis is presented to validate these propositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze, by using the concept of mutual information, the existing relationship between the nominal exchange rate and different inflation components. The proposed information measure captures the dependence structure between these two variables, resulting in new empirical findings not explored by previous works. Among these findings are: i) existence of bimodal bivariate distributions useful to explain regime changes, and it) increases in dependence between the variables in low-volatility periods and decreases in dependence in uncertain environments, previously measured as pass-through. Moreover, such distributions allow studying the different transmission speeds for each inflation component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the relationship between the size of sugarcane cultivation plots in Mexico and their yield. We show, theoretically and empirically, a U-shaped association between these variables. We present suggestive evidence that this relationship is driven by the more intensive use of inputs in smaller and larger plots relative to those of medium size - those of about eight hectares. These results contribute to the debate regarding the relationship between the size of agricultural production units and their productivity; in the case of Mexican farms, this literature is practically nonexistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to make imputation of earnings in observations with missing values in the Encuesta Nacional de Ocupaciones y Empleo (ENOE), and also to analyze a possible bias in human capital estimations from ignoring such missing observations. We present imputations by two methods, and also a correction for estimations by reweighting observations with reported earnings. The results show differences in human capital estimations on wages and factors related to labor poverty when missing values of earnings are ignored. Differences are acute when measuring labor poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we study the impact of programs meant to spread the use of ICTS for teaching purposes in Chile. In particular, we measure the impact of two initiatives of the Ministry of Education -"Funds for Broadband" (2006-2010) and " ICT in Classroom" (2007-2011)-, on the students' standardized tests performance in Language and Math, established by the Education Quality Measurement System (SIMCE), and available since 1998. The results show that the programs have not had a significant impact, neither individually or jointly, on the students' performances, however, it was possible to identify positive and significant effects of ICT in Classroom on specific groups in language, but not in math. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potential Output is a key factor for debt sustainability analysis and for developing strategies for growth, but unfortunately it is an unobservable variable. Using three methodologies (production function, switching, and state-space), this paper computes potential output for CAPDR countries using annual data. Main findings are: i) CAPDR potential growth is about 4.4% while output gap volatility is about 1.9%; it) the highest-potential growth country is Panama (6.5 percent) while the lowest-growth country is El Salvador (2.6 percent); Hi) CAPDR business cycle is about eight years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]