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In this paper, using empirical and statistical research, we analyze the impact of the external sector on economic growth in Paraguay during the 1994-2020 period. The results enabled the assessment of the validity of the income elasticities of imports calculated in the long term, attributed to the presence of cointegration among the series. Consequently, the economic growth rate associated with the external balance was obtained, aligning with Thirlwall's Law. The empirical analysis and validation of Thirlwall's Law suggest that the growth dynamics of the Paraguayan economy can be explained by the Thirlwall model. Thus, it was determined that the external sector has had an impact on Paraguay's economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population aging has positioned as a key demographic change. This paper analyzes the characteristics of older adults in situations of dependence, care strategies and the profile of caregivers for Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, El Salvador and Uruguay. The population in a situation of functional dependence is mostly female and over 75 years old. Between 54% and 70% receive some type of care, with unpaid family care being the main care strategy. Unpaid caregivers are mostly women, under 65, and economically inactive. We evidence a negative relationship between the status of elderly caregiver and employment, that is stronger for women. Although elderly informal care leads to a lower probability of employment among individuals of all ages and income quintiles, the employment gap between caregivers and non-caregivers narrows substantially among higher-income people. Improving care for older people would have positive effects on female employment and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have examined the relationship between monetary policy and the stock market. However, few have assessed the impact of fiscal management on this market. This paper examines the extent to which fiscal policy affects a firm's stock market capitalization using the Panel Vector Autoregressive (PVAR) methodology. The study finds that the stock market capitalization in the CPI fully reflects the available information on the movements of variables related to monetary policy. However, total public indebtedness exerts a significant lagged effect on the stock market capitalization of Mexican firms. This finding indicates that the CPI does not fully reflect the available information on the movements of fiscal policy variables. A comprehensive analysis of fiscal policy measures can enhance stock market performance for investors and financial analysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the development of Latin America over the past three decades by using growth incidence curves and weighted growth rates calculated on the basis of harmonized microdata from national household surveys. Over the past three decades, Latin America has made progress in fundamental socioeconomic indicators. On average, there has been significant growth in income as well as some educational and housing variables, particularly among the lower income strata. In contrast, progress was slower among the most vulnerable population in other important areas (e.g., higher education, female labor participation). Despite notable improvements in various areas of development captured through household surveys, the evidence reveals that substantial shortfalls and disparities still persist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Money neutrality has complex consequences for small, open, and dollarized economies. For instance, it can cause external debt, when used as a stabilizer of the stock of circulating money in the face of negative exogenous shocks, not to contribute to economic growth in times of stagnation. The purpose of this paper is to describe this problem for the Ecuadorian case using a cointegration methodology and a vector error correction (VEC) model estimated over the 2000-2019 period (quarterly). The resulting impulse-response functions of the VEC model present evidence in favor of the money neutrality hypothesis, and the simulation of an exogenous negative shock in oil prices qualitatively describes the potential interaction between circulating currency, external debt, and production in dollarization. The paper concludes by presenting multiple empirical monetary-real patterns that may be useful for future research on dollarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased volatility of commodity prices caused by the entry of financial investors within the framework of so-called financialization, makes macroeconomic management more complex, especially for economies with a high incidence of primary products in their international trade. The purpose of this paper is to measure the exposure to export price risk for the Argentine case during the 1993-2018 period. The Value at Risk (VaR), typically used in finance, is employed in a novel way to design an export portfolio of commodities that operate daily in international markets. Among the main results is that 2.90% of the total exported is exposed to a monthly price risk from 2004 to 2018 in Argentina compared to 1.73% registered between 1993 and 2003. This indicator contributes to the design of fiscal rules that allow planning expenses based on structural income in contexts of high volatility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the gender wage gap in Spain by analyzing data from the 2018 Spanish Structure of Earnings Survey to quantify the gap and decompose it into the explained and unexplained gaps using three different "discrimination- free" distributions (Reimers, Cotton and Jann). As covariates, in addition to seniority at work, studies and type of contract, common in the literature, they introduce occupation. The study treats full-time workers separately from part-time workers. This distinction is important due to the characteristics of the Spanish labor market, where part-time contracts predominate among women. The results show that part-time female employees are less discriminated against than full-time female employees, and that at lower levels of education and in lower skilled occupations The results show that part-time workers are less discriminated against and that at lower levels of education and in lower-skilled occupations, women's wages are closer to those of men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fiscal credibility plays an important role in creating favorable scenarios for investment and economic growth. Adequate management of public finances can be decisive in the perception of country risk and the attraction of foreign capital. The aim of this paper is to build a fiscal credibility index and evaluate its impact on investment expectations in Colombia for the 2005-2019 period. Using monthly data on fiscal credibility, investment expectations, and a set of control variables, estimates were made using OLS and GMM methods. Robustness tests were performed using impulse-response functions. The findings reveal that fiscal credibility directly influences the investment decisions of private agents, and that local interest rates and international volatility negatively affect investors' expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is much debate around whether labor informality reflects situations of exclusion or whether it constitutes a valuable alternative for those who work in this sector. This paper contributes to the discussion by comparing the characteristics of those who move from the formal to the informal sector with the characteristics of those who remain in formal sector jobs during the 1995-2019 period in Argentina. Multinomial choice models are used for this purpose. The influence of such movements on the variation of wages is also evaluated. Both sets of evidence reveal that the positions in the informal sector, taken as a whole, do not seem to constitute a desirable destination for those who work in the formal sector. However, there is also evidence of heterogeneity in the informal sector, since the profile of those who move to one of its segments -that of employers- is consistent with the idea of voluntariness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically studies the impact of government quality on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in a sample of 46 economies in the 1996-2018 period. In particular, we comparatively examine to what extent quality of government influences FDI inflows in two groups of countries that show relevant differences in their levels of government quality: 33 OECD countries and 13 Latin American countries. Applying panel data methods, we found that institutional quality positively affects FDI in both groups of countries, and the impact is stronger in OECD countries than it is in Latin American countries. This study reveals that the design of public policies that strengthen institutional quality is essential, particularly in Latin American countries with weaker institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the influence of backgrounds (i.e., parents' education, observable and non-observable circumstances) on formal educational outcomes for cohorts born between 1955 and 1989 in a developing country: Uruguay. The information is taken from the Longitudinal Survey of Social Protection which contains information on parents, children, and siblings (regardless of cohabitation). Three complementary approaches are analyzed. The percentage of the variance of the years of education explained by each model is used as a summary measure. The father's education explains 28.6% of the total variance and the mother's 29.2%. Based on an equality opportunities approach using a broad set of observable circumstances, this value was estimated at 39.6%. In turn, family and neighborhood contexts shared by siblings were estimated at 63% of the variance of the years of education. The study of the importance of backgrounds has been growing consistently for the last cohorts. No relevant differences were found between men and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-lasting consistency of a regulatory framework is essential for the proper functioning of incentives, particularly in industries such as electricity generation, with high sunk costs where different schemes have been developed to guarantee a long-term supply. In this respect, the instability of the regulatory framework can both impede the proper functioning of such incentives and, on occasion, violate the legitimate expectations of the agents involved. The purpose of this paper is to study the stability of the regulatory framework in terms of the long-term incentive mechanism for power generation applied in Colombia, known as "Cargo por Confiabilidad." The findings of this paper suggest the independence of the regulatory agency must be strengthened and that the instability of the regulatory framework has generated redistributions of income among agents. This study observes that among these agents, the best-organized pressure groups benefit the most from such a redistribution of incomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a growth strategy that, modifying the distribution of income in favor of wage earners, allows boosting aggregate demand, productivity and employment. This proposal is essential for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially those related to growth, innovation, employment, and distribution in Colombia, opposed to the model that has historically been applied and that implied an exclusive growth. To build this alternative vision, the paper presents a renewed theoretical proposal based on the concept of inclusive growth, and by means of Structural Equations Modeling (SEM), the hypothesis that the concentration of the productive structure generates distortions in the economic, innovation process and job creation. This makes necessary to adopt policies focused on increasing productivity and diversifying the productive structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically analyzes the incidence of productive diversification on regional performance in Argentina between 2008 and 2018. Assuming that spillovers between productive activities requires proximity in the knowledge base, a distinction is made between related and unrelated productive diversification, which are estimated using entropy indicators. Econometric estimations are performed to explain the dynamics of employment and wages (as proxy for productivity) by the levels of related and unrelated regional diversification. Findings suggest that related diversification has a positive impact on employment and wage dynamics at the regional level, while unrelated diversification contributes to maintaining regional employment during macroeconomic contractions. No empirical evidence is found supporting that general purpose technology (such as mechanical engineering and ICTs) enhances the effects of related diversification on regional performance. It is observed, however, that the software sector enables the presence of externalities between technologically distant activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a decade of low TFP --factorial total productivity-- in Latin America, the paper shows evidence of the low level of TFP due to the degree of technical inefficiency of companies in the Peruvian productive sector case. For this, the technical efficiency indices of 116 875 companies (83 271 formal and 33 604 informal) distributed in 25 regions and ten productive sectors (agriculture, livestock, agriculture, mining, fishing, manufacturing, construction, commerce, hotels and restaurants, and the rest are non-governmental services). The estimates yielded a general average efficiency index for the regions and sectors of Peru of 37.94 --in other words, the total product of the companies would multiply by 2.6 without requiring additional productive factors--. This figure suggests that government or company interventions that induce technically efficient behaviors in production can contribute to increasing the TFP of the economy, probably at lower cost and time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores in detail the transfer and investment components of the General Budget of the Nation, whose composition is complex to evaluate due to the nature and variety of its items. For the study of these items, the literature on the political economy of the budget and the budget process in Colombia is considered. The transfer and investment items represent about 60 % of the General Budget and have great inflexibility of public spending, due to the diversity of appropriations with legal backing, especially in the transfer's item. The investment is made up of a wide range of social programs, subsidies, and infrastructure projects, which in some cases correspond to commitments acquired in previous terms, through the so-called future terms. The rigidity of the budget deepens with the frequent approval of laws that generate additional spending on a temporary or permanent basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the Venezuelan migratory crisis, recent opinion polls show an increase in discriminatory or xenophobic attitudes towards the Venezuelan population in Colombia. This paper presents an adjusted conceptual framework to understand the Venezuelan migrant crisis without appealing to the traditional concepts of race or language. Using a qualitative approach, we also study migrants' perceptions of discrimination, in their interaction with host communities and the Colombian state. Evidence suggests that while Venezuelan migrants interviewed do not express suffering direct discrimination generally, they or their fellow conational constantly encounter indirect discrimination. This type of discrimination is highly mediated by social status and economic resources and is observed when interacting with the state or by stereotypes pushed forward by the media. Simply put, this means that apparently neutral norms or processes, involve more difficulties for Venezuelans simply because they are Venezuelan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research shows that irregular immigration can worsen perceptions of security. However, the real effect of irregular immigration on crime rates remains unknown. In this paper, we analyze the effect of irregular immigration inflows on crime in the recipient country. For this, we build a dataset of Venezuelan irregular immigration in Colombia and crime rates at municipal level between 2016 and 2018. Our specification is based on an IV strategy using the exogenous variation in distance to the borderline as an instrument for immigration. We find that the immigration shock caused a slight increase in two types of theft in the short run and no significative changes in violent crime. These results are robust when using different instrumental variables, applying special autocorrelation corrections, and including controls for police capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we elaborate a theoretical model to explain how generating firms choose their aggregate position in bilateral contracts in the Colombian electricity market. Subsequently, we propose an empirical strategy to contrast the theoretical predictions of the model with data from the wholesale market. Our results show that there is evidence in favor of the hypotheses of our model. Firms tend to adjust their contracts according to the ideal generation they expect the market operator to allocate them, and the difference between marginal costs and contract prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to establish, the degree to which 44 social responsibility programs from private sector organizations in Colombia respond to the principles that determine the systemic logic of Agenda 2030, under the categories of comprehensiveness and intensity. The methodology adopted in this investigation involved a two-stage process: the first sets out an inventory of issues relevant to each SDG that fits with the actions of the private sector; and the second identifies the type of SDG interactions under the above categories. Empirical evidence shows that programs, although framed within a particular SDG, articulate with several SDGs simultaneously, with a bias towards economic, social, and governance issues rather than environmental ones. The study suggests the importance of adopting a systemic approach to social responsibility programs and is one of the few empirical studies on the interactions between SDGs that have been conducted in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of money demand enables us to understand the macroeconomic effects of monetary policy. In this paper, we estimate the money demand for 15 Latin American countries from 1996 to 2016, using panel cointegra-tion and FMOLS estimation methods. We also estimate a model of dynamic common factors to test for the existence of common trends between countries. The results show a long run relationship between money demand, income, and interest rates. However, there is no evidence of common factors between countries, which is consistent with the heterogeneity observed in the estimated elasticities. Contrary to what we expected, in several cases, the estimated income elasticity is greater than one, which could be associated with agents' higher risk perceptions which affect their liquidity preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investment in childhood is fundamental to healthy child development and positive long-term effects. This paper aims to analyze the impact of early education on child development, measured through: Ages and Stages Questionnaires - Third Edition (ASQ-3). The results are not homogenous for the studied population, and effects are not found when the total sample is considered. A negative and significant effect on gross motor skills was found for children under 40 months. For children over 40 months, the effect of early education on socioindividual tests and problem-solving tests is positive and significant. Early education policies are fundamental to contributing to the improvement child development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Colombian environmental normativity, the discount rate is the main variable that compares the temporal economic valuation of the costs and benefits produced by investment projects. Nevertheless, the established criterion of 12 % does not consider that some environmental impacts could be inter-generational. This paper estimates a specific discount rate (TAD) that integrates sustainability criteria, useful for the appraisal of environmental licenses. The methodological approach was to calculate the Social Rate of Time Preferences for Colombia, as an approximation of TAD during the 2001-2016 period. Due to the yearly widespread results, a declining discount rate with "gamma distribution" is proposed, finding values of 5 %, 4 % and 2 % for the short, medium and long term, respectively. The main conclusion highlights that due to the TAD's yearly widespread results found, it is possible to propose a decreasing behaviour in the discount rate related with time, which strengthens the importance of future consumption in governmental decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper denotes the heterogeneity of the most mentioned variables that explain the phenomenon of the informality in the Metropolitan Areas of Mexico. Across the Module of Socioeconomic Conditions 2016 micro data analysis and binary Logit models is observed that the most common variables to explain the informality influence in a different way every metropolitan area of the country. Analyzing the informality for metropolitan areas will allow to understand better its reasons, which will help to design public state and federal policies to attack the problematics in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty, as one of the constraints of social welfare, is among the greatest concerns of countries, multilateral agencies, and society in general. However, international academic consensus regarding the concept, measurement, and international comparability remains distant. As such, this paper seeks to approximate positions on the subject, and propose an indicator that can overcome one-dimensional visions of a polyhedral and multicultural phenomenon. In light of the results, and using data from 121,802 households from the 2012-2017 National Quality of Life Survey, it was evident that in six years, Colombia reduced its incidence of poverty by 7.2 percentage points, the gap by 1.1, and inequality by 1 percentage point, with rural areas and households being affected more frequently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effect of pollution on housing prices. In particular, we explore the effect of Metroplús on housing prices in Medellin city for 2010 and 2012 years, and the direct impact of air pollution and public transport coverage. We select treatment and control by georeferencing the households and according to a distance criterion of 750 meters. Using two methodologies: Difference in Differences (DD) and Propensity Score Matching with Differences in Differences (PSM-DD), we do not find effects at the aggregate level; However, we find that low strata houses receive a positive effect, while high strata houses are negatively affected. In addition, air pollution has a significant impact; however, public transport coverage does not have effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of child development has become extremely important in recent years because of the influence it has throughout people's life cycle. This paper aims to provide evidence on the situation of early childhood in Uruguay by analyzing its characteristics and determinants. In order to carry out this study, a characterization of early childhood is conducted and different econometric models are applied to evaluate the determinants of child development. For this purpose, the ASQ-3 and CBCL tests collected by the National Child Development and Health Survey are used. In general terms, the characteristics of children and socioeconomic characteristics of households, variables referring to mothers during pregnancy and to newborns, and child-rearing practices have a positive effect on development. Early childhood policies are fundamental to contributing to adequate child development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the relationship between the evolution of inequality and labor informality in Brazil during the 2000s. Despite the main goal of this paper is to present new evidence on the relation between informality and inequality, this should be analyzed together with other related factors. To make this analysis, and to establish the contribution of each factor, a number of econometric decompositions were performed. We use decomposition exercises based on the combination of reweighting techniques with recentered influence function (RIF) models. Results suggest that the process of formalization contributed to reducing the concentration of income by increasing the income of persons who belong to the lowest vintiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of the continuous improvement shown by the Human Development Index (HDI) for Mexico, a recent report has concluded about the persistence of inequality of development at the subnational level (PNUD, 2015). The document adds that state-level mobility in the scale of human development is almost nonexistent. This paper describes characteristics that have not been yet formalized for analysis from a spatial perspective. In the present work, I use novel spatial methods to explore the nature of such distributional movements and investigate their relative importance. The results show the presence of integrated spatial dynamics as well as rigidity in the distributive mix of the composite HDI index and its various dimensions. The findings offer new insights into the importance of such spatial patterns for the persistence of regional inequality in the different social dimensions of human development in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the evolution of the coverage of secondary education in Colombia. We combine impact evaluation techniques and cost-benefit analysis to compare the quality of public and private secondary education. We document that the increase of the public enrollment is crowding-out the private supply, and we show a considerable variation in the standardized test (Saber 11) results within public schools. In some cities and socioeconomic strata, some students attending public schools of lower quality than the available private schools, and others are atttending to private in places with better available public supply. Finally, our results show that if the government encourages families to transit from public school to private (through partial scholarships award), it could generate social profits. Similar profits could be generated if the government regulates the low quality of private education in some cities and socioeconomic strata with public schools of better quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the connection between innovative efforts of Argentine manufacturing companies and their level and distribution of productivity, wage and labor skills, within the framework of structural heterogeneity characteristic of peripheral economies. There are only a few studies which addressed these problematic relations in developing countries at a firm level. An approach to the problems of development and quantitative methodology is applied, starting from a preliminary hypothesis: greater innovative efforts in companies, greater productive and labor inequality among them, conditioned by structural heterogeneity. Primary data used in this study come from the National Survey of Employment and Innovation Dynamics, for Argentine manufacturing companies in 2010-2012. The main findings indicate that correlation of innovation and the levels of productivity, wages and labor skills is significant, differing in their magnitude among companies and industrial sectors by virtue of the structural heterogeneity of the Argentine industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Ecopred 2014 (Encuesta de Cohesión Social para la Prevención de la Violencia y la Delincuencia), this paper studies the risk factors that are associated with the violent behavior of young people aged 14 to 18 years in Mexico. We find two main categories of risk factors that are correlated with the violent acts of shouting, hitting objects, hitting people, carrying weapons or being arrested in which young people participate: 1) factors related to addictions (drugs or alcohol) and 2) violence at home or in the immediate environment (violence generates violence). More serious acts of violence (carrying weapons or being arrested) are more correlated with addiction-related factors, while less severe acts of violence (shouting, hitting objects, or hitting people) are correlated with both addiction-related factors and violence in the environmental factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to estimate how the gender differences in the labor market (participation and wage gap) affect both poverty and income inequality, based on four Latin American countries (Bolivia, Brazil, Perú, Uruguay). The methodology is based on a multiple imputations technique (Rubin, 1987) applied to the construction of counterfactuals. While the effects on poverty are always positive and strong, the effects of the elimination of the gender differences on the labor market on labor and household income cannot be generalized. They depend on the country, and the scenario since modifications on different parts of the income distribution is observed, associated with the starting point of each one. These results are in accordance with the differences in the sort of inequalities between men and women observed among countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yet little is known in Colombia about the quality of teachers. In this paper we ask about the academic standard of people who study and obtain a tertiary degree in education. Results show a negative relationship between results in the standardized test to enter higher education (Saber 11°) and the probability of studying (and obtaining) a tertiary degree in education (relative to other areas of study). We estimate that this probability is five times higher for people with results among the lowest scores than for people with results among the highest. This difference broadens when we consider only women. The paper discusses some hypotheses that would explain these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to analyze the differences in efficiency and its explanatory factors of students according to their membership in public and private schools using PISA 2012 data for Colombia. The methodology used has been, non-parametric order-m and the meta-frontier approach. A second stage analysis was also used to determine the explanatory factors of efficiency. The main results obtained were as follows: i) the existence of efficiency differences between public and private schools; ii) the influence of the student and school effects as components of inefficiency; iii) the identification of positive influence on the efficiency of students' participation in single-parent or nuclear families in relation to another kind of guardianship, the influence of parent training, the student's belonging to the degree he studies, the best climate in the classroom and the location of the school in the case of public ownership. The size of the school has not been significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine what factors determine the level of remittances sent by Latin American and Caribbean immigrants in Spain. Microdata from the 2007 Spanish National Survey on Immigration are used to estimate linear regression models and censored models by the act of remittance to analyse both the probability of remitting and the amount of the money sent to the home country. The results show, first, that the level of remittances is determined by family settlements and labor market integration. This is also shown in the higher level sent when increasing the years of residence in the host country. Second, remittances are determined by the existence of agreements with the family at origin or self-interest with the proposed to prepare the possible return. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to establish the determinants of degree of openness of the agribusiness SMEs of the department of Atlántico. The purpose of this is to identify the key factors for the formulation of policies that strengthen the open innovation strategy in the sector. The application of two Tobit models shows that acquisition capacity, geographical proximity to customers and suppliers, the signing of contracts, the size and barriers to innovate are the significant variables to explain the breadth and depth in the use of external sources to innovate. The results suggest the need to create environments that promote the creation of inter-organizational networks of cooperation for innovation, with the objective of consolidating geographic spaces based on the knowledge economy, that allow to integrate different agents of the innovation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional institutions, culture and symbolism are central to the management of natural resources in the indigenous societies of the Amazon. Leaders --religious and civil authorities--play an important role as custodians of traditional knowledge as well as their influence in the resolution of conflicts and decision-making. In this paper we present the results of the Fisheries Game implemented with people of the Cubeo community, inhabitants of the Cuduyari river basin in the department of Vaupés. We found that while the groups that communicate remained with larger availability of the resource, those unable to communicate tended to the resource's depletion. The presence of leaders in communication groups had a positive impact on the sustainability of the resource which is explained by their own behavior and their influence on the behavior of the other participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to analyze the institutional determinants of the forest harvesting in Antioquia between 2006 and 2010. The main hypothesis argues that informality in land tenure creates incentives to overexploit the wood resources through the omission or alteration of the institutions which regulate the forest harvesting. Thereby, in this paper it is estimated the relationship between forest harvesting in Antioquia and the property rights over land. Methodologically, this work incorporates a fixed effects panel data model, which allows temporal and longitudinal traceability of the wood exploitation in the producing municipalities of Antioquia. The results suggest that high levels of forest harvesting occur in municipalities with high informality in land tenure due to the difficulty of organizations to enforce regulations. This article quantifies the relationship between institutions which regulate the forest harvesting and the property rights over land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the implementation of majority voting in OCADs (Collegiate Administration and Decision Bodies) to choose which projects will be financed with royalties in Colombia. The results show that votes made in OCADs are not implementable unless some assumptions about leaders' preferences and the voting mechanism are added. Implementation is achieved assuming that the central government is always honest about its preferences; that departmental and municipal governments have unimodal preferences (such as when leaders show preferences for projects based on the proximity of these to their own regions); and that the first stage of voting (which is when mayors who will represent their municipal governments in the OCADs are elected) is carried out to vote for projects and not for mayors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present time profiles of home production and its consumption by sex and age for Uruguay. For this, we apply an extension of the methodology National Transfer Accounts, which implies estimating time spent in home production and then valuing it. The activities considered correspond to those that can be transferred to a third party, and for their valuation we use the replacement cost method. The data come from the Time Use Survey prepared by the National Institute of Statistics in 2007. The results show that women spend more time than men on unpaid household activities at all ages. It is also observed that a higher educational level of the individuals seems to generate a positive effect on the gender equality of the family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to analyze the main characteristics of households associated with the reception of domestic and international remittances in Mexico in 2014; and compare household expenditures of those that receive domestic or international remittances and those not receiving any remittances in order to ascertain differences among them. The data to analyze the household characteristics comes from the National Household Income and Expenditure Survey. We employed a binomial logistic regression model to examine the factors associated with the reception of remittances. We find statistical significant differences in the household characteristics of those that receive domestic and international remittances such as sex and marital status of the household head, and presence of minors and elders in the household, among others. Regarding the expenditures, households spent most of their income in satisfying their basic needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine the state of higher education in Colombia and estimate the efficiency of different academic programs from institutions of higher education in the country. To estimate efficiency measures, we use stochastic frontier techniques and the results of the Saber Pro test. Estimations evaluate the effect of variables associated with the teaching staff and infrastructure of institutions, and environmental factors that are not directly under the control institutions, such as the family income and parental education. Results highlight the importance of environmental factors, suggesting that while many institutions have margin to improve their efficiency, many of them are restricted by the influence of students' socioeconomic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a literature review dealing with vertical integration in healthcare systems with a special emphasis in the Colombian health care sector. We start by introducing some general concerns about vertical integration by presenting some of its traditional advantages and disadvantages. Next, we focus on the consequences of vertical integration in the healthcare sector, taking advantage of the US experience. Then, we describe the Colombian healthcare system and some changes of the vertical integration regulation. Finally, the authors provide some public policy recommendations regarding this regulation. In particular, we recommend to switch from a regulatory approach to a supervision model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to evaluate the impact of photo detection cameras installed in the city of Cali (Colombia) in 2012 on road accidents. Using 10.146 intersections with accident records for the period 2010-2013, a matching algorithm is used to identify a control group. Using different estimators, an evaluation of total accidents, damages and injuries is carried for treated intersections, compared to the control group, after the cameras were installed. Findings show an increase in all types of accident records on the four intersections treated in January 2012, this effect is reduced for those intersections treated in May, and it disappears in those treated in August. The main conclusions are that accidents were not reduced by the camera program and that accident history was not the criterion for treatment assignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the differences in men and women's labor market outcomes. We distinguish between intrinsic and imposed gender constraints on women's participation in the labor market in Chile. Using data from the 2011 survey "Encuesta de Caracterización Socioeconómica Nacional", we apply probability models to five stages of labor trajectories, decomposing gender gaps at each stage. Results confirm that women's labor supply is restricted by the existence of cultural barriers associated with the traditional sexual division of labor. This hinders their job market performance, leading to jobs with higher informality levels and lower levels of job quality in comparison to men. In addition, we find that institutional mechanisms reproduce these limitations through discrimination and segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the contribution of clusters to local development. The case of the Local Productive Arrangements (APL) in the non-metropolitan municipalities of the Sao Paulo State- Brazil is examined. Using the Oaxaca Blinder decomposition technique it is examined if there is a gap in local development gap or if there are better "living conditions" in municipalities with APL compared to those without. Results obtained indicate that municipalities with APL exhibit better development levels than municipalities without APL. However, such difference responds to demographic and economic factors rather than unobservable ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents empirical evidence on the impact of patents on economic growth, in 8 countries of Latin America during the period 1990-2011. A Cobb- Douglas production function type is estimated to quantify the effect and magnitude that have patents registered by residents and patents registered by non-residents, on the GDP, controlling by variables as gross capital formation and labor force. The empirical results show that there is a significant positive relationship in which long-run impact of the registered residents on GDP is smaller than patents registered by non-resident about 0.02%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional methodologies used to calculate the value at risk and conditional value at risk usually model the first and second moments of the series, assuming that the third and fourth moments are constant. This paper uses the methodology proposed by Hansen (1994) to model the first four moments of the series, in particular, several parametric shapes are used to model the skewness and kurtosis. The traditional measures of VaR, CVaR and proposals are calculated for the Representative Market Rate, TES, and the IGBC for the period between January 2008 and February 2014. Overall, it was found that measures of market risk have better performance when conditional skewness and kurtosis of the series is modeled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to study at firm level the role of public banking as an attenuator of market failures and as development instrument. We analyze the differential characteristics of small and medium enterprises in relation to their funding through private and public banks, comparing Argentina and Brazil. We use the World Bank Enterprise Surveys database. The results are in line with expectations, showing that smaller companies are more likely to have loans in public banks. As differential results between countries, in Argentina the variables that show a negative effect are belonging to the industrial sector, and having a higher percentage of sales devoted to the domestic market. In contrast, in Brazil it adversely affects that the company director is a woman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]