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This paper estimates the spatial or geographic effects of employment, income and production value of eleven mining centers upon the share of employment of the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors from the geographic areas wherein these centers are located. Based upon a Spatial Durbin Model, SDM, the main estimation results points outs that the 'direct effects' of the income or mining output generated in the geographic areas wherein the mining centers are located upon the share of employment in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the same areas were statistically significative for most of the estimations (about 69,4% of them). Contrarily, these effects for the share of formal employment of the mining centers were not statistically significative for most of the estimations (about 61,1% of them). However, the 'indirect' geographic or spillovers effects of such an employment were significative particularly for the share of the informal employment of the secondary, tertiary and primary (in that order). These employment geographic spillovers effects has implied that changes in the formal employment share in the mining sectors were associated to changes in the informal employments shares of the secondary, tertiary and primary (in that order) of the geographic areas close to de mining production centers. The indirect effects of income and production value in the production centers were not significative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon the export product space, this paper shows the main features of the export product composition of Peru and its regions. With respect to export baskets, these include: a high concentration in few commodities; a relatively low degree of similarity between products; relatively high levels of productivity at the international level, and; enormous undiscovered or untapped export potential. In addition, this paper analyzes the hypothesis that the natural resource curse affects regional growth, employment and export diversification. Subject to the limitations of the data and the heterogeneous panel methods employed, estimation results indicate that the share of natural capital out of the total tangible wealth and natural capital per capita seems, on average and in a relatively statistically robust way, to spur growth, primary employment and export concentration in a few products. Consequently, the natural resource curse for the Peruvian regions is not about growth but about low regional development, since such resources do not have a significant impact on secondary and tertiary employment or on export product diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon manufacturing sector data, this paper estimates the total factor productivity (TFP) for this sector with parametric and modern methods for the 2002-2007 period. Subject to data limitations and methods used, the estimations indicate that the TFP growth rate for a representative sample of up to 578 firms was low in the period analysed, without having contributed to the growth of manufacturing firms' real production value. In addition, the TFP growth rate was greater for large firms (more than 100 employees) than for medium and small firms (less than 21 employees). In terms of industrial sectors, TFP growth rates were higher for primary processing and technology-intensive industries than for traditional industries (such as textiles, clothing and footwear), and the foodstuffs, tobacco, and beverages sectors. Lastly, though capital, employment and installed capacity growth may explain the growth of manufacturing real output value for the period 2002-2007, the absence of TFP growth may jeopardize the sustainability of such a growth in the medium and long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the validity of four hypotheses on the relationship between the price-cost margin and import penetration as well as firms' market concentration for a sample of Peruvian firms of the manufacturing sector in period 2002-2007. The first hypothesis states that an increase in the degree of import penetration reduces firms' price-cost margins. The second hypothesis states that such a negative impact of the import penetration is greater the higher is firms' concentration ratios. The third hypothesis propose the negative impact of import penetration is reduced the higher is firms' concentration ratios. The fourth hypothesis states that the positive effect of a firm' share of the market is decreasing. The evidence in the Peruvian case reject the first and third hypotheses and accept the other two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By way of a set of productive factors from a sample of manufacturing firms that created and destroyed jobs in Peru's formal manufacturing sector for the period 2002-2007, this paper estimates the conditional labor demand equation under three interpretations. The results of these assessments suggest that job creation and destruction were statistically related to positive and negative changes of real output respectively. However, the rates of change of these job flows were lower than those of the real output value. On the other hand, job flows were positively associated with firms' degrees of processing. Other minor factors associated with job flows were the size of firms and the capital-labor ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work synthesizes the relevant theoretical propositions for the analysis of the economic impacts of the preferential trade arrangements (PTAs) which have been part of the trade liberalization process implemented in the last two decades by developed and developing economies. These arrangements are divided in three groups of arrangements: i) unilateral (UPTAs), ii) regional (RPTAs) and iii) multilateral (MPTAs). In addition, this paper addresses two questions. The first one, (from the perspective of an individual economy) which of these arrangements benefit the most for an economy?. The second, to what extent UPTAs and especially RPTAs, contribute (or are \' building blocks or friends\'), obstruct (or are \'stumbling blocks or friends\') or converge (or are \'stepping stones\') or not (\'strangers\') to the PTAs? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a straightforward and diverse methodology, this paper assesses and estimates the trade barriers impact on exports from the Peruvian economy. The results of the analysis indicate that Most Favored Nation (MFN) and Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) tariffs rates imposed by developed countries to Peruvian exports are relatively low and close to zero. Conversely, the number of Non-Tariff Barriers (NTB) and the average number of NTBs per export tariff line, specially the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), are relatively high. This difference produces a higher estimation of the export impact of the NTBs. An implication of these results is that the new wave of regional preferential trade agreements among developed and developing countries (which face similar trade barriers structure as the Peruvian case) may not have meaningful effects on trade flows unless it is accompanied by substantial reductions in the number of NTBs per export tariff line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]