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The sanitary crisis, created by the outbreak COVID-19, is accelerating Chile’s digital transformation, which has seen a surge in e-learning, streaming, online shopping and marketing and teleworking. The digital transformation has the potential to revamp productivity and inclusiveness, although it comes with adoption barriers and transition costs. Connectivity has increased substantially in the last decades, and the country is ahead of the region. However, fixed high-speed broadband adoption, essential for the digital transformation, lags behind. Firms have started to adopt digital technologies but micro firms and SMEs are well behind. Rural areas have lower connectivity and many workers lack the skills to thrive in the digital world. Lowering the entry barriers in the communication sector and making regulations simpler and clearer would ease infrastructure deployment. Targeted policies for SMEs, such as development of sources of financing or specific programmes for adopting digital tools, would help them access and use digital tools, increasing productivity. Reforms to the innovation ecosystem, competition and the regulatory framework are also needed. To reap the benefits of digitalisation for all, it is necessary to continue investing in quality foundational skills, adult and lifelong learning and in high-skilled ICT specialists. Labour market policies need to be adapted to face the challenges and exploit the benefits posed by the digital transformation. An effective safety net would address possible labour market disruptions.

This paper investigates the causal effect of public administration efficiency on firm-level productivity. To this purpose, we combine newly available data from Italy on public administration efficiency of subnational governments with geo-localised firm-level data for the years 2004-2014. Italy provides a relevant setting to examine the relationship between public administration efficiency and firm productivity because of large and persistent spatial disparities in economic performance and local administrative capacity. The identification strategy exploits discontinuities that occur in local public-administration efficiency across provincial borders. The results suggest that local public administration efficiency has a large effect on firms’ productivity growth. Increasing local public administration efficiency from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile would raise the firm-level labour productivity in Italy by 2.4 percentage points.

The development of software with international features and support for multiple languages is a complex project due to the knowledge they require of programming equipment, bases and cultural differences, as well as the translation process itself. This article reports the experience gained by two Latin American universities Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica (TEC) and Universidad Nacional de Cordoba (UNC) - Argentina, to locate EULER, a software designed to generate mathematical content in accessible formats. The software is configured in TEC and the location of its interface in French, English and German was carried out in UNC by groups of students led by their teachers. The result of this experience was very positive since the students were introduced to the location industry and acquired practice in view of their professional life, in addition they could contribute to the development of such a valuable tool, EULER, by allowing users of other parts of the world try and eventually adopt it in its content generation processes.

This paper evaluates the flow approach to unemployment forecasting proposed by Barnichon and Nekarda (2012) for a set of OECD countries characterized by very different labor markets. We find that the flow approach yields substantial improvements in forecast accuracy over professional forecasts for all countries, with especially large improvements at longer horizons (one-year ahead forecasts) for European countries. Moreover, the flow approach has the highest predictive ability during recessions and turning points, when unemployment forecasts are most valuable.

This paper proposes a framework for understanding key aspects of service innovation in developing economies, based on four dimensions: first, the integration of services in national innovation systems; second, competences and preferences; third, networking and cooperation; and, fourth, outcomes in terms of socio-economic impacts. This conceptual framework is matched with new evidence from case studies performed in six different Latin America and the Caribbean countries (Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Jamaica) and nine sectors (tourism, software-ICT, outsourcing, mining, logistics, retail, creative services, sport services and biotech services). The results reveal the importance of specificities in service innovation and suggest policy and managerial implications.

Economic policies shape how much people earn as well as how stable their income and jobs are. The level and stability of earnings both matter for well-being. Standard economic aggregates do not measure accurately the economic uncertainty which households are facing. This paper shows that household-level economic instability is only very loosely related to macroeconomic volatility. It uses several household-level databases to document how pro-growth reforms influence household-level economic stability. Movement from less to more productive processes and firms is at the heart of economic growth, which suggests a trade-off between growth and micro-level stability. Certain policy changes boost growth but increase micro-level instability: they include reductions in tax progressivity or social transfers (including unemployment benefits) as well as moves from very to moderately tight restrictions on the flow of goods and services and on the dismissal of regular workers. However, the analysis also uncovers that moving to highly competitive policies generally reduces micro-level instability.

In this paper, the links between investment in innovation activities, innovation outputs (technological and non-technological innovation) and productivity in services vis-a-vis the manufacturing sector are explored using innovation survey data from Uruguay. The size of firms, their cooperation in R&D activities, the use of public financial support, patent protection and the use of market sources of information are very important drivers of the decision to invest in innovation activities across sectors. The main determinants of technological and non-technological innovations are the level of investment in innovation activities and the size of the firm. The results indicate that both technological and non-technological innovations are positively associated to productivity gains in services, but non-technological innovations have a more important role. The reverse happens for manufacturing, where technological innovations are more relevant for productivity.

Este trabajo contribuye a la literatura empirica sobre evaluacion del impacto de la financiacion publica a la innovacion, los gastos en innovacion y la productividad en paises en desarrollo. Utilizando tecnicas de emparejamiento por puntaje de propension y datos de las Encuestas de actividades de innovacion, se analizan los efectos de las ayudas publicas a la innovacion en las empresas uruguayas. Se constata que la inversion en innovacion privada mediante fondos publicos no tiene un efecto excluyente y que la financiacion publica parece aumentar los gastos privados en innovacion. El apoyo financiero tambien pareciera inducir un incremento de los gastos de i+d y de las ventas innovadoras, especialmente en las empresas de servicios. Empero, los fondos publicos no estimulan considerablemente los gastos privados de las empresas que habrian realizado actividades de innovacion incluso sin apoyo financiero.

The employment effect of innovation in the heterogeneous universe of services is investigated using firm-level data provided by the 2004–9 Uruguayan services innovation surveys. The empirical analysis shows that the effect of product innovation on employment is positive, while process innovation appears to have no effect. Process innovation activities tend to replace low-skilled jobs with jobs of a higher level of qualification. Product innovation allows for efficiency gains in the production of new services with unskilled labor, and no gains with skilled labor. The results found for knowledge-intensive business services and small firms, with some exceptions, are similar to those found for the whole sample.

In this article, we investigate the effect of product and process innovation on employment growth and on employment composition in terms of skills using data from Uruguayan manufacturing firms’ innovation surveys. The results reveal that product innovation is associated with employment growth. There is (weaker) evidence that process innovation displaces labor, especially in high-tech firms. There is evidence that innovation is more complementary to skilled than to unskilled labor. Product innovation seems to have a larger positive effect on skilled labor, especially in high-tech industries. Process innovation in general displaces unskilled labor but is neutral in terms of skilled labor.

The various deficiencies of the labour market and the educational system have resulted in high unemployment, low labour force participation, low skills levels and high skill mismatch. Job creation is key to tackling the high unemployment rates, especially for the young and long-term unemployed. Promoting jobs without paying attention to their quality and to the skills required by employers may have adverse impact on welfare and productivity. The Jobs Act and Good School (“Buona Scuola”), two major reforms of the labour market and the educational system, are good steps in the right direction. The Jobs Act and the temporary social security contribution exemptions have contributed to raise employment. By strengthening job search and training policies, the Jobs Act can enhance jobseekers’ employability. Increasing the effectiveness of public employment services, given the low spending level, remains a challenge. The Good School reform has the potential to improve school outcomes and provide more aligned skills to the job market. Increasing employability by upgrading skills that match employer needs remains a priority. Business involvement in education and training institutions at all educational levels will be paramount to ensure the provision of relevant skills, the availability of traineeship and apprenticeship places and provide on-the-job training. The adaptability of skills could be encouraged by lowering barriers to labour mobility and boosting work-based learning. This Working Paper relates to the 2017 OECD Economic Survey of Italy (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/economic-survey-italy.htm).

This paper presents quantitative information on labour market flows for 25 OECD countries. It uses household surveys that offer the advantage of reporting monthly transitions between employment, unemployment and economic inactivity for individuals. Between 2005 and 2012, the annual probability of leaving employment averaged 10% across OECD countries. Jobless people have a 30% average probability of finding a job. The analysis uncovers significant cross-country differences and highlights key facts about how labour market flows differ depending on socio-demographic, worker characteristics and the institutional framework. Female, young, low educated and low income workers are at highest risk of becoming jobless. Young jobless individuals have higher chances of finding a job than their older counterparts. Female, low educated and low income jobless individuals face a lower probability of finding a job than others.

Do flexibility-enhancing reforms imply more employment instability? Using individual-level data from harmonised household surveys for 26 advanced countries, this paper analyses the effects of product and labour market reforms on transitions in and out of employment. Results indicate that reforms making product markets more competitive increase transitions out of employment for less qualified and low-income workers. Less qualified and low-income workers have very high job exit rates to start with, and reforms raise these rates further. On the other hand, more pro-competitive product market regulation generally increases entry rates into employment. The concentration on less qualified and low-income workers of the increase in labour market turnover associated with product market reforms suggests a case for accompanying such reforms with labour market programmes that help the most vulnerable workers transition to new jobs. Easing employment protection for regular or temporary workers has no systematic long-term effect on workers’ probabilities to move in or out of employment. Such reforms can, however, affect employment transitions through their interaction with other policies and institutions. For example, easing employment protection for workers with regular contracts raises the job-finding chances of people out of work in countries that invest a lot in active labour market programmes. Furthermore, employment protection legislation and product market regulation are complementary in that, when either employment protection or product markets are lightly regulated, reforming the other is associated with fewer job exits.

Les reformes qui visent a stimuler la croissance en misant sur une plus grande flexibilite de l’economie rencontrent souvent une forte opposition en raison des retombees negatives qu’elles font craindre pour certaines categories de travailleurs. Cette etude explore les incidences qu’un assouplissement de la reglementation du marche du travail ou du marche des produits peut avoir sur le risque de perdre son emploi pour ceux qui en ont un et sur les chances de trouver un emploi pour ceux qui n’en ont pas. Pour cela, les auteurs utilisent des microdonnees individuelles specialement harmonisees portant sur 26 pays de l’OCDE. Les regressions microeconometriques montrent que les reformes du marche du travail n’ont pas toute la meme incidence sur les transitions professionnelles, mais que leurs effets varient en fonction du cadre institutionnel et d’autres parametres de l’action gouvernementale. Par exemple, une protection plus souple des contrats a duree indeterminee va de pair avec une hausse des transitions vers l’emploi dans les pays ou les programmes d’activation sont plus developpes que la moyenne. Quant aux reformes du marche des produits, on constate qu’elles favorisent les transitions vers l’emploi, surtout chez les femmes, et qu’elles n’ont pas d’effet systematique sur les sorties, ce qui confirme leur aptitude a doper l’emploi global, comme d’autres travaux l’ont deja demontre. Les microdonnees montrent que les travailleurs a faible potentiel de gains qui connaissent deja, avant les reformes, des changements de situation beaucoup plus frequents que les autres categories sur le marche du travail, sont exposes a une hausse particulierement forte de leur taux de rotation lorsque la reglementation du marche des produits s’assouplit. Une autre analyse micro-econometrique centree sur les secteurs faisant l’objet de reglementations specifiques (energie, transports, communications) revele que les travailleurs des secteurs strictement reglementes sont generalement mieux payes, a caracteristiques egales, que les travailleurs des autres secteurs. Consideres dans leur ensemble, les resultats de l’etude peuvent aider a ameliorer la conception des reformes en soulignant notamment les avantages que presentent a) des mesures axees sur la complementarite entre les reformes du marche des produits et du marche du travail, b) des programmes actifs du marche du travail efficaces pour venir en aide aux travailleurs les plus vulnerables, et c) des reformes de grande envergure plutot que des systemes de compensation limites a certains secteurs.

Economic policies shape how much people earn but also how stable their income and jobs are. The level of earnings and the degree of economic stability both matter for well-being. Micro-level data indicate that, across OECD countries, economic instability is much greater at the level of individuals than at the aggregate level. The present study investigates the effects on micro-level stability of policies that boost growth. Movement from less to more productive processes and firms is at the heart of economic growth, which suggests possible trade-offs between growth and micro-level stability. The analysis indeed finds policy changes that boost growth but increase micro-level instability: reducing the progressivity or size of social transfers (including unemployment benefits) as well as moving from very to moderately tight restrictions on the competition for goods and services and on the dismissal of regular workers. However, the analysis also uncovers that moving to highly competitive policies generally reduces micro-level instability.

Les politiques economiques faconnent les revenus mais aussi leur stabilite ainsi que celle des emplois. De fait, le niveau comme la stabilite des revenus tous deux influencent sur le bien-etre. Cependant, les agregats economiques traditionnels ne mesurent pas l’incertitude economique a laquelle les menages sont effectivement confrontes. Cette etude montre que l’instabilite economique vecue par les menages n’entretient que des liens tres distendus avec la volatilite macroeconomique. Elle utilise plusieurs bases de micro-donnees collectees au niveau des menages pour documenter la maniere dont les reformes encourageant la croissance influencent la stabilite economique des menages. Le mouvement vers des processus et des entreprises de plus en plus productifs se situe au coeur de la dynamique de croissance economique : cette observation suggere qu’une tension peut s’etablir entre croissance et stabilite micro-economique. Certains ajustements des politiques publiques augmentent la croissance, mais au prix d’une plus grande instabilite micro-economique : il s’agit des reformes qui rendent la fiscalite ou les transferts sociaux (y compris les indemnites de chomage) moins progressifs ainsi que des mesures qui remplacent de fortes restrictions sur la concurrence ou sur les licenciements de travailleurs permanents par des restrictions de niveau intermediaire. Neanmoins, l’analyse fait aussi apparaitre que, lorsque les reformes dans ces domaines sont plus appuyees et conduisent a un niveau eleve de concurrence, elles reduisent le plus souvent l’instabilite micro-economique.

Economic policies shape how much people earn as well as how stable their income and jobs are. The level and stability of earnings both matter for well-being. Standard economic aggregates do not measure accurately the economic uncertainty which households are facing. This paper shows that household-level economic instability is only very loosely related to macroeconomic volatility. It uses several household-level databases to document how pro-growth reforms influence household-level economic stability. Movement from less to more productive processes and firms is at the heart of economic growth, which suggests a trade-off between growth and micro-level stability. Certain policy changes boost growth but increase micro-level instability: they include reductions in tax progressivity or social transfers (including unemployment benefits) as well as moves from very to moderately tight restrictions on the flow of goods and services and on the dismissal of regular workers. However, the analysis also uncovers that moving to highly competitive policies generally reduces micro-level instability.

Economic policies shape how much people earn but also how stable their income and jobs are. The level of earnings and the degree of economic stability both matter for well-being. Micro-level data indicate that, across OECD countries, economic instability is much greater at the level of individuals than at the aggregate level. The present study investigates the effects on micro-level stability of policies that boost growth. Movement from less to more productive processes and firms is at the heart of economic growth, which suggests possible trade-offs between growth and micro-level stability. The analysis indeed finds policy changes that boost growth but increase micro-level instability: reducing the progressivity or size of social transfers (including unemployment benefits) as well as moving from very to moderately tight restrictions on the competition for goods and services and on the dismissal of regular workers. However, the analysis also uncovers that moving to highly competitive policies generally reduces micro-level instability.

La baisse de la volatilite macroeconomique des les annees 1980 jusqu’au debut de la Grande Recession ne s’est pas, en general, traduite par une plus grande stabilite microeconomique. Si la volatilite microeconomique peut traduire des processus generateurs de croissance tels que la destruction creatrice et la reallocation des ressources, la volatilite de la croissance de la consommation pese sur le bien-etre des menages. Cette etude dresse un panorama de la litterature existante sur les liens entre les politiques economiques et la stabilite economique au niveau des entreprises et des menages. En s’appuyant sur des donnees d'entreprises et de menages couvrant un large eventail de pays de l'OCDE, elle fournit egalement des resultats preliminaires sur les caracteristiques de la volatilite microeconomique et ses origines.

La presente investigación tiene por objetivo aportar evidencia sobre la existencia e importancia del canal del crédito en la transmisión de la política monetaria en Uruguay a partir de un análisis a nivel macroeconómico. Para que el canal del crédito se encuentre activo como canal de transmisión de la política monetaria es necesario, en primer término, que las decisiones de política monetaria sean capaces de afectar las variables de crédito bancario. Una segunda condición necesaria es que las variaciones en el crédito bancario impacten sobre las variables objetivo de la política monetaria, es decir, la inflación y nivel de actividad. El abordaje empírico para testear ambas condiciones se realizó en base a series de frecuencia mensual para el período que comprendido entre 1998:12 y 2009:12. El análisis empírico se realizó en dos etapas. La primera, se baso en el análisis de las correlaciones cruzadas entre las variables instrumento de la política monetaria y diferentes variables de crédito, así como entre las variables de crédito y las variables objetivo de la política monetaria. Los resultados parecen sugerir que en el período de estudio el canal del crédito bancario no habría jugado un rol muy relevante como canal de transmisión de la política monetaria. No obstante, dadas las serias limitaciones de este análisis es necesario profundizar el estudio a partir de otras estrategias empíricas más sofisticadas. La segunda etapa del estudio empírico, consistió en la estimación de modelos estructurales de vectores autorregresivos (SVAR), estrategia comúnmente utilizada para el análisis de la política monetaria. Siguiendo a Bernanke y Blinder (1992) se estimaron diferentes modelos de funcionamiento del sistema bancario que varían en cuanto al indicador de crédito tomado como referencia. El objetivo fue analizar eventuales diferencias en la respuesta de los diferentes tipos de crédito. A su vez, para aislar el impacto sobre la oferta de créditos (canal del crédito) del efecto derivado del shock monetario sobre la demanda de créditos (vinculado al canal tradicional de tasas), se estimaron modelos incluyendo al PIB en forma endógena y exógena, alternativamente. Los resultados encontrados sugieren que la totalidad del efecto contractivo que sobre el crédito ocasionado por una contracción monetaria se derivaría de la contracción de actividad asociada y no de una conducta de los bancos tendiente a restringir el crédito. En este sentido, esta aproximación sugiere que el canal del crédito bancario no habría representado en el período de análisis un canal relevante en la transmisión de la política monetaria, que actúe amplificando los efectos del canal tradicional de tasas.

Esta investigación tiene como objetivo analizar la relevancia del canal de crédito en Uruguay. Se evalúa la existencia y efectividad de la política monetaria a través de canal de crédito bancario y hojas de balance de la política monetaria en la economía uruguaya. El estudio sobre el canal de crédito bancario se realiza a través de técnicas de datos de panel, procesando información sobre los balances de las instituciones bancarias correspondientes al período comprendido entre enero 2006 y junio 2009, con el objetivo de analizar la respuesta diferencial de los bancos según las características de tamaño, liquidez y capitalización ante un aumento en la tasa de interés. El análisis se realiza para los créditos en moneda nacional y extranjera, y diferenciando créditos otorgados a las familias y empresas. Los resultados indican que el canal de crédito estaría activo tanto para los préstamos otorgados en moneda nacional, como extranjera. Una política monetaria restrictiva afectaría en mayor medida los bancos peor capitalizados cuando se toman en cuenta los créditos otorgados en moneda extranjera. Los bancos menos líquidos son también los más afectados al analizar los créditos otorgados en moneda nacional. Adicionalmente, una política monetaria restrictiva conllevaría una reducción de los créditos a las familias de mayor entidad que a las empresas. Para la investigación del canal de hojas de balance de la política monetaria se utilizó un panel de datos para los años 2005 al 2008 de estados financieros de empresas obtenido de la Liga de Defensa Comercial (LIDECO). Se explota las diferencias por tamaño de empresas, asumiendo que las pequeñas empresas son las más afectadas por las asimetrías de información, y por tanto, tienen mayor dificultad para acceder a fuentes de financiamiento externas. En el presente trabajo se testea si las variables (inversión y ventas) del balance de las empresas pequeñas son las que resultan más afectadas por una política monetaria restrictiva. Los resultados no proveen de evidencia clara sobre la existencia de este canal. Contemplando el alto grado de dolarización de las empresas uruguayas, se testea si la política monetaria tiene un efecto diferencial a través del descalce de monedas entre activos y pasivos. Adicionalmente, se busca determinar si la liquidez puede ser una variable a través de la cual la política monetaria cause un efecto diferencial. Los resultados indican que la política monetaria afecta negativamente el balance de las firmas, pero no lo hace de manera diferencial por características de las firmas. Dentro de las empresas pequeñas, las firmas con mayor descalce y mejor liquidez mostraron una peor performance en términos de ventas e inversión en el período analizado.