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

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

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

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

In this paper we analyze intergenerational income and schooling mobility during the 1996-2006 decade in Chile. Using the countries most extended household panel survey, we overcome some of the limitations of the previous Chilean studies by using observed income data for both parents and children, as opposed to observed income data only for children and income data that is generated for parents from the information given by their children retrospectively. Following the recent literature, we control our estimates for time-series variation (Lee and Solon, 2009). Our results show high intergenerational income elasticities in comparison to other developing countries, and these values are higher for sons than for daughters. The same results hold for educational mobility. Trends analysis show that the transmission of economic status have remained constant during the last years in Chile, while educational mobility has increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is substantial evidence suggesting that central banks in open economies react to exchange rate fluctuations, in addition to expected inflation and output. In some developing countries this reaction is comparatively larger and it is nonlinear . In an estimated structural macromodel for Chile, this paper assesses the advantages and potential costs of adopting such a reaction function. We conclude that, in the face of most of the external shocks, a policy rule that responds to exchange rate misalignments smooths inflation and output variability, while marginally increasing interest rate fluctuations. On the other hand, for some domestic innovations such a rule performs poorly. When all the shocks are considered at the same time, this rule generates important welfare gains. Finally, when the volatility of external shocks rises, increasing the response to exchange rate misalignments brings welfare improvements. In fact, a more aggressive response to the exchange rate offsets the impact that greater external volatility has on output and inflation, at the cost of inducing higher interest rate fluctuations. In this way, one can interpret the nonlinear reaction to the exchange rate as an optimal response to a more volatile external environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over two decades there have been attempts across many countries to reform the management of public services and substitute market based provision for bureaucracy. But while these changes have been pursed vigorously, doubts about their appropriateness, feasibility and effectiveness remain. The aim of this paper is to contribute to this debate focusing on the specific case of social care markets in the UK. Drawing on ideas from institutional theory and a range of secondary sources it is argued that, in the UK, broad policy objectives of moving towards a mixed economy have been largely successful. However this review also points to costs associated with implementation and the reliance on low trust arms length contractual relations. Social care organisations are now seeking to manage these costs by attempting to move towards more collaborative networks, although the effectiveness of this change is open to question given prevailing institutional conditions in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How much power to tax do really enjoy the seventeen new regional governments created in democratic Spain? What other sources of income do they dispose of? Which rules have been implemented for regulating their tax and non-tax sources of income and how are these rules influencing the behaviour of relevant political agents? These are the questions addressed in the present paper. Although no econometric estimation has to my knowledge been provided yet, the arguments and figures provided indicate that the political mobilization and the overspending incentive generated at this level of government must be considered key factors in any explanatory model of the surprising path of growth and development registered in Spain since the mid 1980s. Physical and human capital stocks increased at a spectacular rate so as to substantially narrow the gap, in comparison to European standards, that had been generated over the previous forty years of dictatorship. Public deficits and outstanding public debt remained under control. Spanish per capita real GDP soared from 2,536 Euros in 1980 to 19,456 in 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]