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The primary purpose of this paper is to present an actual case of a Peruvian SME which applied IFRS accounting standards – specifically, IAS 41 for consumable biological assets – to reflect its financial situation more accurately as an alternative to legal and tax regulations applying historical cost, which Peruvian SMEs more commonly use for the preparation of financial statements. Primary data were gathered through interviews and observation at the SME studied. This forestry-industry SME in question tried unsuccessfully to get financing from banks, even presenting complementary information regarding the calculation of biological asset values according to IAS 41. Failing this, it turned to seeking funding from private long-term investors, eventually succeeding in obtaining long-term financing from a new strategic investor. The significance of this paper is that it presents evidence of the advantages for companies (specifically agriculture-related companies) that comply with IFRS in a country where historical cost-based tax rules are traditionally applied for accounting purposes. Other SMEs can similarly improve the likelihood of obtaining new capital from potential investors by complementing the information provided in financial statements with detailed data regarding fair value calculation of biological assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analytical framework that captures the informational problems and tradeoffs that policy makers face when choosing between public goods (e.g., infrastructure) and industrial policies (e.g., firm or sector-specific subsidies). The paper first provides a discussion of the literature on industrial policies. It then presents an illustrative model, where the economy consists of a set of firms that vary by productivity and a government that can support firms through general or targeted expenditures. The paper examines the cases of full and asymmetric information on firm productivity. Working under full information, it describes the first-best allocation of government resources among firms according to their productivity. It then introduces uncertainty by restricting information regarding firm productivity to be private to the firm. The paper develops an optimal contract (which replicates the first-best) consisting of a tax-based mechanism that induces firms to reveal their true productivity. As this requires high government capacity, the paper considers other simpler policies, one of which is the provision of public goods to all firms. The paper concludes that providing public goods is likely to dominate industrial policies under most scenarios, especially when government capacity is low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Welfare measures and their assessment involve a set of indicators that, as economic thought evolves, are subject to critique. Nonetheless, the ultimate debate focuses on the quality of life and the conditions fostered by each economy. Using data from the period 1993 to 2019, this paper presents an analysis of the current account and terms of trade, highlighting the significance of these variables, as they encompass important flows and contribute to shaping market conditions and the resulting benefits. The study employs both Vector Error Correction (VECM) and Structural Vector Error Correction (SVECM) models to explore the interplay between external dynamics and their effects on the economy. The findings reveal that an export price shock has an expansive effect on investment, yet its impact on savings becomes marginally significant over time. Unexpected shocks on investment are roughly 38% reliant on external factors, of which an average of 32% is attributable to export prices, underscoring the tight correlation between investment and international market dynamics. Notably, the results indicate that external dynamics primarily exert short-term effects. Consequently, despite periods of robust growth, reduced unemployment, and poverty reduction, these indicators have not proven to be sustainable in Peru. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments are spending a considerable amount of resources to digitalize their many services. The purpose of this research was to conduct a systematic review of e-Government acceptance papers that used the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technologies (UTAUT) as the theoretical background. From the 1529 articles using UTAUT (from 2003 to 2019), we selected the 41 most cited papers that were related to e-Government acceptance. All 41 articles were fully read to understand research gaps. We found that only a few studies have been faithful to the original UTAUT model. Although improving the theory with new variables is important, the validation of the original model also is. Constructs such as trust, quality of information, quality of service, and quality of the system, despite not being original from UTAUT seminal paper, were often integrated into the model to predict individuals' behavioral acceptance. Our findings are important to understand that as different technologies have different users and different purposes, different constructs might help to explain the individual behavior about using or not those technologies. By highlighting the research gaps, our paper guides future work on the use of UTAUT as a theoretical lens for the acceptance of e-Government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this instrumental study was to show how to conduct an RStudio process to obtain a content validity visual representation through the alluvial function of the ggplot2 package to Condom Use Self-Efficacy Scale (This paper explains the stages to analyze content validity using a visual representation of an interrater agreement and item - factor belonging and focused mainly on qualitative aspects to evaluate the judge's behavior and items' weight. Furthermore, the paper discusses classical criteria to obtain content validity and its representation. The visual representation used shows high relevance to present the qualitative data associated with the content validity analysis since it allows to visualize in a differential way the weight of the dimensions in each item, the content validity coefficient in the set of dimensions, and the behavior of the judges in the overall evaluation of the scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the concept of koinōnia discussed in Plato's Republic. It focuses on the specific ways the term enters the discussion about social organisation within the guardian class, such as the proposal for abolishing a nuclear family in favour of the community of wives and children. The paper aims to reveal the psychological basis connecting Plato's socio-economic proposals to his principal ethical and political concerns. It examines (i) the argument supporting the proposals of the social organisation of the guardians, (ii) the psychological background of these proposals, (iii) the socio-cultural context against which these proposals are defined and (iv) the position of these considerations in the broader scheme of Plato's thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we introduce a "power booster factor" for out-of-sample tests of predictability. The relevant econometric environment is one in which the econometrician wants to compare the population Mean Squared Prediction Errors (MSPE) of two models: one big nesting model, and another smaller nested model. Although our factor can be used to improve finite sample properties of several out-of-sample tests of predictability, in this paper we focus on the widely used test developed by Clark and West (2006, 2007). Our new test multiplies the Clark and West t-statistic by a factor that should be close to one under the null hypothesis that the short nested model is the true model, but that should be greater than one under the alternative hypothesis that the big nesting model is more adequate. We use Monte Carlo simulations to explore the size and power of our approach. Our simulations reveal that the new test is well sized and powerful. In particular, it tends to be less undersized and more powerful than the test by Clark and West (2006, 2007). Although most of the gains in power are associated to size improvements, we also obtain gains in size-adjusted-power. Finally we illustrate the use of our approach when evaluating the ability that an international core inflation factor has to predict core inflation in a sample of 30 OECD economies. With our "power booster factor" more rejections of the null hypothesis are obtained, indicating a strong influence of global inflation in a selected group of these OECD countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analytical framework that captures the informational problems and tradeoffs that policy makers face when choosing between public goods (e.g., infrastructure) and industrial policies (e.g., firm or sector-specific subsidies). The paper first provides a discussion of the literature on industrial policies. It then presents an illustrative model, where the economy consists of a set of firms that vary by productivity and a government that can support firms through general or targeted expenditures. The paper examines the cases of full and asymmetric information on firm productivity. Working under full information, it describes the first-best allocation of government resources among firms according to their productivity. It then introduces uncertainty by restricting information regarding firm productivity to be private to the firm. The paper develops an optimal contract (which replicates the first-best) consisting of a tax-based mechanism that induces firms to reveal their true productivity. As this requires high government capacity, the paper considers other simpler policies, one of which is the provision of public goods to all firms. The paper concludes that providing public goods is likely to dominate industrial policies under most scenarios, especially when government capacity is low.

This article discusses the development of the notion of archaeological heritage in nineteenth-century Peru, within the historical and socio-political processes that led to its rise as a modern nation-State. Unlike the many studies locating the origins of the basic principles and praxis of heritage in the early twentieth-century’s intersection of Peruvian archaeology and nationalism, this study argues instead that this period marked a major landmark in the course of several processes that had begun in the nineteenth-century. Throughout the early years of the republic, heritage, here conceived as a social cons.truct and as a process, underwent a formative century from three different perspectives: nationalism, the modern scientific outlook, and the role of tutelary institutions. This study concludes identifying two major foundational moments of archaeological heritage in contexts of nationalist enthusiasm stirred by political and intellectual elites: the rise of the Peruvian State (1821-1824) and the aftermath of the War of the Pacific (1879-1884). The paper likewise acknowledges that the origins of heritage and its political nature cannot be understood outside processes closely connected with modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the potential association between two geographic indicators, distance and altitude, with the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for 1,874 district in Peru by using the National Census of 2017. We investigate whether higher altitude or longer distance is associated with higher MPI values. For this purpose, we use the distance of each district to three different potential spaces of reference. First, we use the shortest distance to the metropolitan area of Lima; second, the shortest distance to the capitals of coastal departments; third, and finally, the shortest distance to the sea. We obtain three relevant results. First, we find evidence that altitude is statistically significant and positive associated with variation of MPI among districts. Second, the distance with respect to the sea appears to be more relevant to explaining differences in MPI than the distance to the Metropolitan area or coastal departmental capitals. Finally, we find evidence of spatial externalities of MPI across districts which also seem to be stronger than the direct effect of altitude and distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial systems around the world have undergone considerable development. This paper analyzes the effect of financial development on economic growth. It replicates the estimation of Beck et al. (2000), one of the pioneering research papers in this field. Then, it tests the sensibility of the results by expanding the sample of countries (99) and the period (1961-2010). This study contributes to the literature by analyzing differentiated effects when a country's economic conditions are incorporated. The results show that the positive impact of financial development on economic growth found by Beck et al. (2000) becomes non-significant if financial crises and macroeconomic instability periods are taken into account. However, if income per capita level is considered, the impact becomes positive and significant in high-income countries and decreases in low-income per capita countries. This impact is influenced by each country's level of education, level of financial deepening, and average inflation rate over the last ten years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically investigates whether Brazilian companies that are more tax-leveraged have a lower capital cost from third parties than those that are less tax-leveraged. The survey data comprises financial information from 315 companies listed on the stock exchange - B3 and was structured containing information on the total liabilities due (PET), tax liabilities (PT), and the third parties' capital cost (ki) of the sampled companies for the years between 2013 to 2017. The research is descriptive, with a quantitative approach, using methods of descriptive statistics and Pearson's Correlation Coefficient for data analysis. The results indicate that the tax leverage provides a lower capital cost for third parties compared to the companies' other onerous liabilities in the sample analyzed, proving, in this paper, that the financial strategy of not collecting taxes and using these resources to finance the activities of the companies can generate savings in the capital cost of third parties. The research contributes academically to provide an opportunity for discussion on the topic, contributes to society by exposing the public policy implications of granting tax installments, and contributes to companies by indicating the possibility of reducing the cost of third-party capital via tax leverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the relationship between accounting information reflected in financial statements and stock return in Vietnam Stock Market. The authors propose a research model to define the relationship. Besides, machine learning algorithms are used in researching and forecasting, with data obtained from observed firms during the period from 2009 to 2020. Research results show that gradient boosting algorithm has the best self-reporting performance and financial ratios also have great impact on stock returns, including operating income growth, stock earnings volatility, dividend yield, earnings before tax-to-equity ratio, cash holding ratio, and accrual quality. Based on the research results, the authors make some recommendations for investors, firms, and policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the point of view of a contemporary Kula Ring ethnographer, this paper surveys Malinowski's heritage, sums up the current state of Kula Ring research, and asks of the status of the ethnographic research heritage Malinowski did much to define. All recent Kula Ring anthropologists partly define themselves with respect to Malinowski's tradition. And the results of their work over the last 50 years again made the region central to the discipline for part of the recent past. But today Malinowski's Trobriand corpus is being redefined. New lines of inquiry are contributing to our understanding of the area. And Malinowski's methods have fertilized other portions of our social system and branches for self-reflection. As it should be, what Malinowski helped define is very much with us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the factors underlying poverty transitions in Nairobi's slums focusing on whether differences in characteristics make people more prone to enter poverty and persist in, or whether past experience of poverty matters on future states. Understanding these issues is essential for the design of effective policy programs aimed at enhancing the lives of the poor. The paper uses an endogenous switching model, which accounts for initial conditions, non-random attrition, and unobserved heterogeneity. Estimations are based on a panel dataset from the Nairobi Demographic Surveillance System. Results indicate that true state dependence (TSD) constitutes the major factor driving poverty persistence. There are little heterogeneity effects. Even when household and individual observed characteristics differ notably, the TSD size remains very large. Active anti-poverty programs aimed at breaking the cycle of poverty constitute then the most appropriate policies for taking people out of poverty and preventing them to fall back in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide evidence about the POUM hypothesis (prospects of upward mobility) in Latin America. It postulates that preferences for redistribution decrease with the prospects of upward mobility of individuals, given that in a possible economic improvement they would be harmed by redistribution. The case of Latin America is analyzed for the period 2009-2018, which has registered changes in inequality and intragenerational mobility in part, due to redistributive policies in the past decade. For this, data from Latinobarómetro and the Probit-Adapted OLS methodology are used. The results support the POUM hypothesis, unlike what the studies carried out for previous periods obtain, in another context of inequality and mobility in Latin America. In addition, suggestive results are obtained about the influence of intergenerational mobility, religiosity, ideology and institutional quality on preferences for redistribution. It should be noted that these results vary according to the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the empirical evidence of the effects of unanticipated nominal interest rate increases on the evolution of household inequality in Mexico, which highlight the importance of insurance mechanisms to deal with idiosyncratic risks, the paper uses a Heterogeneous Agent New Keynesian model to analyze the relationship between monetary policy and household inequality. The model is able to capture the main features that characterise both the business cycle dynamics, as well as the distribution of income and wealth. Results indicate that heterogeneity affects the transmission of monetary policy, and that the design of monetary policy has important distributive effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the background paper for the productivity extension of the World Bank's Long-Term Growth Model (LTGM). Based on an extensive literature review, the paper identifies the main determinants of economic productivity as innovation, education, market efficiency, infrastructure, and institutions. Based on underlying proxies, the paper constructs indexes representing each of the main categories of productivity determinants and, combining them through principal component analysis, obtains an overall determinant index. This is done for every year in the three decades spanning 1985-2015 and for more than 100 countries. In parallel, the paper presents a measure of total factor productivity (TFP), largely obtained from the Penn World Table, and assesses the pattern of productivity growth across regions and income groups over the same sample. The paper then examines the relationship between the measures of TFP and its determinants. The variance of productivity growth is decomposed into the share explained by each of its main determinants, and the relationship between productivity growth and the overall determinant index is identified. The variance decomposition results show that the highest contributor among the determinants to the variance in TFP growth is market efficiency for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries and education for developing countries in the most recent decade. The regression results indicate that, controlling for country- and time-specific effects, TFP growth has a positive and significant relationship with the proposed TFP determinant index and a negative relationship with initial TFP. This relationship is then used to provide a set of simulations on the potential path of TFP growth if certain improvements on TFP determinants are achieved. The paper presents and discusses some of these simulations for groups of countries by geographic region and income level. In addition, as a country-specific illustration, the paper presents simulations on the potential path of TFP growth for Peru under various scenarios. An accompanying Excelbased toolkit, linked to the LTGM, provides a larger set of simulations and scenario analysis at the country level for the next few decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do market relative prices reflect real scarcity of resources? If this were so, market prices would provide society with the correct signals about real scarcities. Economics--the science of scarcity-- has different answers to this question. Following the principles of current epistemology, the paper reviews three theories of markets: neoclassical, bio-economics, and unified theory, analyzing their assumptions, their derived empirical predictions about the relation between market prices and scarcity, and their validity when confronted against known basic facts. Clarifying misconceptions about the nature and the role of the market mechanism in the functioning of capitalism is the expected contribution of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we introduce a “power booster factor” for out-of-sample tests of predictability. The relevant econometric environment is one in which the econometrician wants to compare the population Mean Squared Prediction Errors (MSPE) of two models: one big nesting model, and another smaller nested model. Although our factor can be used to improve finite sample properties of several out-of-sample tests of predictability, in this paper we focus on the widely used test developed by Clark and West (2006, 2007). Our new test multiplies the Clark and West t-statistic by a factor that should be close to one under the null hypothesis that the short nested model is the true model, but that should be greater than one under the alternative hypothesis that the big nesting model is more adequate. We use Monte Carlo simulations to explore the size and power of our approach. Our simulations reveal that the new test is well sized and powerful. In particular, it tends to be less undersized and more powerful than the test by Clark and West (2006, 2007). Although most of the gains in power are associated to size improvements, we also obtain gains in size-adjusted-power. Finally we illustrate the use of our approach when evaluating the ability that an international core inflation factor has to predict core inflation in a sample of 30 OECD economies. With our “power booster factor” more rejections of the null hypothesis are obtained, indicating a strong influence of global inflation in a selected group of these OECD countries.

This paper argues that, in order to understand the unified relations that are commonly predicated of koinōnia in the ethical, political, and cosmological spheres respectively, one must first appreciate certain prerequisite "principles" or "rules" that are necessary for koinōnia formation. One principle which has been for long the subject of intense discussion in Platonic scholarship is proportionality. However, rather than stopping short at the unproblematically straightforward point of connection between proportionality-in the broadest possible sense--and well-ordered wholes, I suggest that we can get a much richer account from Plato's preoccupation with proportionality and koinōnia formation by exploring the different proportional models he puts to work in different contexts. It will be argued that for Plato geometrical proportionality in particular is the binding principle par excellence for koinōnia formation as it is the fairest model of order and enables the most enduring complex wholes. Approaching the point from this angle may yet provide a further significant way of understanding the undeniably obvious political differences between the Republic and the Laws in terms of koinōnia formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Women's Law discussed in book V of the Republic, known as the first wave, is a notorious example of Socrates' reformist intention to achieve justice in the polis. The legislation for women, in general, has historically been relegated by the Republic interpreters. This paper aims to analyze this passage, from 449a to 457c, through the arguments provided by Socrates seen as crucial to conceive equality between the sexes (under the ontological foundation of the same human nature) as well as to favor institutional change according to nature, kata physin, thus opening the possibility for women to govern the polis. Before leaving for the external confrontation, Socrates considers it urgent that his interlocutors, Adeimantus, Glaucon, and Polemarchus, agree with each other. Thus, he urges them to start the argument by questioning the human nature of women and their capacity for the same functions (erga) performed by men in the city. The examination of the intelligible enabled the logos on women's intellectual capacity to support adequate legislation. Such nomos put into practice proves to be the best for the city and its guardians. To that extent, Socrates can conclude the investigation with a consensus on what to do and willingness to confront opposing opinions in the city urgently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Commerce according to Plato: a factor of division or political community?". It is often thought that the Greek philosophers despise both wholesale trade between cities as retail trade within cities. According to this lengthy interpretive tradition, Plato conforms on this matter to Homeric and Hesiodic poetry: commerce has a reputation as a trade associated with dishonesty and profit-seeking, for which it is believed to promote more division and conflict than harmony and social cohesion. However, a careful reading of some passages in Plato's Dialogues, and particularly of the Republic, reveals another aspect of his approach to commerce and its influence on the cohesion of the polis. Trying to highlight an aspect that is usually ignored by most interpreters, this paper argues that Plato sees in commerce itself a factor allowing the formation and maintenance of the community of the polis. This approach is based on Plato's conviction that the political character of the human being is forged through multiple exchanges, among which trade plays a fundamental role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the number of references to koinōnia in Plato's dialogues, it is striking that the phrase "common good" (koinon agathon) is used only once - at Charmides 166d. Socrates asks his interlocutor Critias a question, "Do you not think it is for the common good, almost (schedon), of all men, that how all the beings (tōn ontōn) are should be discovered?" The question emerges after Critias has claimed that sōphrosynē is self-knowledge, which he then specifies as a "knowledge of all other knowledges and of itself". In this paper, I argue that it is no accident that Socrates mentions the "common good" at precisely this moment in his discussion with Critias. The notion of sōphrosynē that Critias defends is incoherent owing to what Critias claims to be its distinguishing feature - its reflexivity. Because of its total reflexivity, it points to no end beyond itself and thereby it is neither capable of disclosing "the beings" nor of being connected to any good outside of itself. The common good Socrates mentions here is therefore essentially related to an acknowledgment of ignorance that motivates one to wonder (thauma) at a good beyond one's love of one's own things. I thus suggest an explanation for the curious addition of "almost" (schedon) in Socrates' remark here: Critias himself shows that unless he (or his young cousin Charmides) can admit ignorance and experience such wonder, then he is constitutionally not included in this common good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much recent scholarship on Plato' Crito has revolved around the controversy about the relationship and possible compatibility between the arguments Socrates gives in his own person (SocratesS) and those he gives in the person of the Laws (SocratesL). By contrast, the relation between the arguments given by SocratesL and those given by Crito continues to be seen as uncontroversial: by the end of the dialogue, commentators agree, Crito has no choice but to concede to the force of SocratesL's arguments. Against this traditional reading, this paper will argue not only that SocratesL's arguments fail to secure Crito's agreement, but also that two characters' attempts to communicate end at an impasse that seems to leave little room for meaningful shared discourse -and may even undermine Crito's belief in the possibility of meaningful speech. My interpretation is informed by Socrates' account (at 49c9-e3) of the need for and nature of a "common ground" as a requisite for genuine dialogue. This passage, I argue, challenges the traditional analysis of Crito as the representative of a particular value system or a particular "type", demanding, instead, a consideration of the effect of Socrates' arguments upon Crito in light of a more robust view of the latter's perspective. Such a reconsideration has consequences not only for our appreciation of the dramatic structure of the dialogue, but also for how we understand one of the dialogue's central, if underexplored, themes: the belief in a shared logos and the psychagogic necessity and perils of testing that belief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the multiple functions of the notion of koinōnia in Plato's dialogues. Koinōnia and its absence characterize reality as a whole: both the intelligible and the sensible entities either "communicate" or do not "communicate" (koinōnein); therefore, reconstructing the net of koinōniarelationships amounts to putting dialectics into practice. So far so good. But an analysis which aims at clarifying the role played by koinōnia cannot but take also syngeneia into account. The reason for this fact lies in the essential link which binds koinōnia and syngeneia, with the latter being the condition of possibility of the former. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper finds strong support for a Phillips curve that becomes nonlinear when inflation is "low"-which our baseline model defines as less than 3 percent. The nonlinear curve is steep when output is above potential (slack is negative) but flat when output is below potential (slack is positive) so that further increases in economic slack have little effect on inflation. This finding is consistent with evidence of downward nominal wage and price rigidity. When inflation is high, the Phillips curve is linear and relatively steep. These results are robust to placing the threshold between the high and low inflation regimes at 2, 3, or 4 percent inflation or for a threshold based on country-specific medians of inflation. In this nonlinear model, international factors play a large role in explaining headline inflation (albeit less so for core inflation), a role that has been increasing since the global financial crisis. These results provide evidence of channels which could boost inflation in the future, even if they were dormant before the Covid pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes two econometric tools that are used to evaluate distributional effects, conditional quantile regression (CQR) and unconditional quantile regression (UQR). Our main objective is to shed light on the similarities and differences between these methodologies. An interesting theoretical derivation to connect CQR and UQR is that, for the effect of a continuous covariate, the UQR is a weighted average of the CQR. This imposes clear bounds on the values that UQR coefficients can take and provides a way to detect misspecification. The key here is a match between CQR whose predicted values are the closest to the unconditional quantile. For a binary covariate, however, this relationship is not valid. We illustrate these models using age returns and gender gap in Argentina for 2019 and 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the impact of import competition from China on labor outcomes in the Peruvian manufacturing sector in 2001-2010. Using data from the Peruvian Household Survey, we use a two-step procedure to evaluate the impact of the surge in imports from China on the likelihood of having an informal job and on wages in both the formal and informal sectors. On the first step, the results suggest that greater import competition increased--albeit weakly--the likelihood of having an informal job for workers with elementary education. On the second step, we find that the surge in imports from China was detrimental to wages of the least educated individuals with informal jobs--with no education and elementary education--, although we also find that this result is mostly driven by the presence of self-employed among informal workers. We also observe a wage increase among workers with formal jobs and elementary and high school education. These results are robust to the inclusion of different exclusion restrictions and even after accounting for industry-level growth which was strong during the period studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is oriented to quantify the trade creation and diversion effects in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Peru and the United States. For that purpose, using a disaggregated database at the 10-digit level for Peruvian goods with intervals of 3-years between 2002 and 2018, this article adopts a three-dummy variable methodology that allows the identification of intrabloc and extra-bloc effects. Besides, a theoretically-founded gravity equation is employed with the incorporation of country-time and time-invariant fixed effects to solve common econometric specification problems, such as lack of multilateral resistance terms in modelling, heteroscedasticity of trade data, the inclusion of zero trade flows, and endogeneity of trade policy. Estimating with the PPML method for the complete sample and among types of goods (group 1: raw materials and intermediate goods, and group 2: consumer and capital goods), the main results show that the Peru-US FTA generates intra-bloc trade creation for the entire sample and two groups of goods separately. Also, the FTA produces export trade diversion for the complete sample and group 2, while import trade creation for both groups. Overall, the Peru-USA FTA is an "intra-bloc trade creation agreement" that boosted bilateral trade flows. These effects are considered to formulate some policy recommendations for improving the results of this Peruvian FTA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the existence of spatial diffusion of civil liberty among neighboring countries. For that purpose, we first combine different exploratory space-time data analysis approaches to find that this phenomenon is spatially clustered and that a convergence process is at work among the world countries from 1985 to 2010, with a structural change by the end of the Twentieth century mainly due to the appearance of the Internet. Second, we specify a spatial autoregressive panel data model for a sample of 130 countries, for 1985–2000, and 172 countries, for 2000–2010. Results provide evidence for spatial diffusion of civil liberty, though it is not constant along this time span. The spreading rate is 0.34 in the first sub-period. After 2000, it reduces to 0.21; that is, countries only “catch” 21% of the average changes in their neighbors’ civil liberty levels. Additionally, religious culture, urban agglomeration and GDP explain the levels of civil liberties in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a test based on the principle of Lagrange Multipliers to identify spatial instability in the constant coefficient of regression models including substantive spatial dependence. The test has been adapted to the Scan methodology. Its main advantage is that it identifies areas with differential behavior without the need to provide information about their location, shape, or size. The study shows the utility of the test, reconsidering the results obtained by Mur et al. (2008) about instability in the distribution of per capita income in European regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we assess the drivers of office rental prices in the municipality of Madrid with a sample of 4,721 offices in March, 2020. The estimation was performed using the decision tree approach, which was built with a random forest algorithm. This technique allows us to capture the strong nonlinear component in the relation between price and its drivers, mainly geospatial location. Through a stratified analysis, we find out that the willingness to pay high rent in the center of Madrid is a feature of particular relevance to medium-sized offices. For different reasons, we also find out some office clusters located far from the city center with high rent for both large and small offices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic satisfaction has been studied from different perspectives that considerate distinct ways of measurement. However, the plurality of evaluated facets prevents a more parsimonious assessment of the general students' academic satisfaction. In the article, we aimed to provide psychometric evidence of the validity and reliability for the AMSS in Brazil in two studies (N = 893). In Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis and item parameters (Item Response Theory) support the one-factor solution and the suitability of the six items. Moreover, evidence for factorial invariance across gender and convergent validity with the PANAS and with the SWLS was also presented in Study 2. In conclusion, the present paper provides evidence of the adequacy of the AMSS to evaluate global satisfaction with the academics course in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an environmental accounting system in Peru that will improve the sustainability reporting of Peruvian corporations and have a positive impact on all the stakeholders (communities, stockholders, government, NGOs, etc.). This new environmental accounting system will allow companies to properly quantify and report environmental issues and have a more integral assessment and analysis of all the variables which affect their triple bottom line. Moreover, environmental issues in Peru will be partially solved when companies adhere to accurate measurement rules, timely submission of data, and fulfillment of government regulations. The principle behind the proposal is that accurate measurement, calculation and reporting on pollution levels will improve the ways companies address environmental and social issues, as well as enhance their financial results. This paper focuses on companies of the mining, gas and oil sectors, since they are arguably some of the main contributors to Peru's GDP, as well as some of the nation's largest polluters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial systems around the world have undergone considerable development. This paper analyzes the effect of financial development on economic growth. It replicates the estimation of Beck et al. (2000), one of the pioneering research papers in this field. Then, it tests the sensibility of the results by expanding the sample of countries (99) and the period (1961–2010). This study contributes to the literature by analyzing differentiated effects when a country’s economic conditions are incorporated. The results show that the positive impact of financial development on economic growth found by Beck et al. (2000) becomes non-significant if financial crises and macroeconomic instability periods are taken into account. However, if income per capita level is considered, the impact becomes positive and significant in high-income countries and decreases in low-income per capita countries. This impact is influenced by each country’s level of education, level of financial deepening, and average inflation rate over the last ten years.

Around half of Peru's public investment is made by local governments. Through the estimation of a dynamic panel data model for 1796 local governments between 2010 and 2018, we find that the most important drivers for local public investment are: (i) availability of funding sources, especially those associated to non-renewable natural resource revenues; (ii) variables associated with each local government's capacity to plan, budget and execute public investment; and (iii) political budget cycle effects, especially during the year following local elections. Furthermore, we extend our analysis by differentiating between local governments with reelected and non-reelected authorities, and by grouping local governments according to their economic size. Most of our results are shown to be robust across different specifications. Results from this paper can be used as a starting point to design mechanisms that make public investment more stable and predictable in a context where reelection banning can further deepen public investment's fall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to analyze the negative impact of climate behavior on economic sectors in order to minimize this impact through the implementation of adaptive mechanisms to generate certainty in the performance of companies. With this goal, first we present a brief description of the vulnerabilities of each economic sector (primary, secondary and tertiary) in general terms and, subsequently, focus on the services sector, the sector lines, studying the correlation between adaptation and the processes of mitigation in order to reduce the negative impact of climate risk. Our main conclusion is that all the activities have a great sensitivity to the climate due to the interrelation that the productive activities present to each other. Adaptation to these climatic changes is therefore necessary in order to minimize the vulnerability (sensitivity) of the activities since in the long term the impact will be greater. The value of this paper is to facilitate or improve the capacity to face weather risks because the better the vulnerability to climate change is identified, the better certainty will be the companies' returns, and their survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new version of the Spain-STING (Spain, Short-Term INdicator of Growth), a dynamic factor model used by the Banco de España for the short-term forecasting of the Spanish economy. The extended and revised version of the Spain-STING presented in this document includes a forecast for each of the demand components of the National Accounts. In order to select the indicators that best estimate the Spanish GDP and its demand components, several models are considered. Following this strategy, the selected models are those in which the common factor explains the highest proportion of the variance of the GDP. These models allow us to forecast GDP, private consumption, public expenditure, investment in capital goods, construction investment, exports and imports in a consistent way. We assess the predictive power of the models for GDP and its demand components for the period 2005-2017. With regard to the GDP forecast, we find some improvement of the predictive power compared to the previous version of Spain-STING. As for the demand components, we show that our proposal has better predictive power than other possible time series models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do market relative prices reflect real scarcity of resources? If this were so, market prices would provide society with the correct signals about real scarcities. Economics—the science of scarcity— has different answers to this question. Following the principles of current epistemology, the paper reviews three theories of markets: neoclassical, bio-economics, and unified theory, analyzing their assumptions, their derived empirical predictions about the relation between market prices and scarcity, and their validity when confronted against known basic facts. Clarifying misconceptions about the nature and the role of the market mechanism in the functioning of capitalism is the expected contribution of the paper.

The application of different unit root statistics is by now a standard practice in empirical work. Even when it is a practical issue, these statistics have complex nonstandard distributions depending on functionals of certain stochastic processes, and their derivations represent a barrier even for many theoretical econometricians. These derivations are based on rigorous and fundamental statistical tools which are not (very) well known by standard econometricians. This paper aims to fill this gap by explaining in a simple way one of these fundamental tools: namely, the Functional Central Limit Theorem. To this end, this paper analyzes the foundations and applicability of two versions of the Functional Central Limit Theorem within the framework of a unit root with a structural break. Initial attention is focused on the probabilistic structure of the time series to be considered. Thereafter, attention is focused on the asymptotic theory for nonstationary time series proposed by Phillips (1987a), which is applied by Perron (1989) to study the effects of an (assumed) exogenous structural break on the power of the augmented Dickey-Fuller test and by Zivot and Andrews (1992) to criticize the exogeneity assumption and propose a method for estimating an endogenous breakpoint. A systematic method for dealing with efficiency issues is introduced by Perron and Rodriguez (2003), which extends the Generalized Least Squares detrending approach due to Elliot et al. (1996). An empirical application is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects of the great financial crisis on the behavior of the Brazilian credit market through a panel of 101 Brazilian banks. For that, we measure the amount of cash involved in the credit activity in the different segments that compound the Brazilian financial system. The results show that: (i) the crisis did not change the relationship between the credit market and the credit risk, regarding the Brazilian financial system as a whole; (ii) both the state-owned and the private-owned segments of the financial system were significantly affected by the crisis, but in opposite directions. While the private segment extracted cash from the credit portfolio, reacting to the worsening in credit risk, the state-owned segment injected cash in the credit portfolio, acting counter-cyclically and compensating the private reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I present a model to forecast the daily Value at Risk (VaR) of the Peruvian stock market (measured through the general index of the Lima Stock Exchange: the IGBVL) based on intraday (high-frequency) data. Daily volatility is estimated using realised volatility and I adopted a regression quantile approach to calculate one-step predicted VaR values. The results suggest that the realised volatility is a useful measure to explain the Peruvian stock market volatility and I obtained sound results using quantile regression for risk estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the interaction between production subsidies and innovation subsidies. We develop a model which allows us to calculate the socially optimal subsidies (and how they vary with changes in the economic environment), and to understand how firms react to each type of subsidy. In a three-stage game, the government chooses production and innovation subsidies in the first stage to maximize welfare in the presence of a shadow cost of public funds; two firms invest in cost-reducing R&D in the second stage; and the two firms compete in quantities in the last stage. We find that production subsidies crowd out innovation. On the other hand, providing a production subsidy reduces the cost of the innovation subsidy, and vice versa. The optimal production subsidy either increases monotonically with spillovers, or is U-shaped with respect to spillovers, depending on exogenous parameters. The innovation subsidy is increasing in spillovers. The production subsidy is higher for very low spillovers, while the innovation subsidy is higher for moderate/high spillovers. In equilibrium, because of the innovation subsidy, R&D increases with spillovers, and so does welfare. We also consider the case of a financially constrained government, as well as the case of a uniform subsidy to production and innovation costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]