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on Central and South America |
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Issue of 2007‒06‒11
seven papers chosen by |
| By: | María Alegre; Sergio Pernice; Jorge M. Streb |
| Abstract: | Conventional theory leads to expect bonds to be a financing vehicle for large firms because of economies of scale and contracting costs. In this paper we present the results for Argentina of a survey of firms and of investors on the use of corporate bonds. The result of these surveys supports the idea that for Argentine firms, bonds are a financing vehicle of choice only for firms above a certain (large) size. This is independent of the criteria used for firm size. This result is similar to results in other countries such as the United Sates. |
| Keywords: | debt structure, leverage, short-term debt, corporate bonds, firm size, firm value |
| JEL: | G3 E6 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cem:doctra:345&r=lam |
| By: | ALEXANDER COTTE POVEDA |
| Abstract: | El trabajo intenta emplear y examinar una serie de categorías para comprender la dinámica que se da entre el crecimiento económico, los factores productivos y la incidencia que estos generan sobre la pobreza y la desigualdad en Colombia. Interesa por consiguiente, conocer y describir las diversas relaciones que pueden existir entre los diferentes factores productivos, la productividad de los mismos y con esto la productividad total de los factores en un contexto multifactorial y su relación con el crecimiento del país. En este orden de ideas, se presenta y demuestra los diferentes estados de las interacciones entre el capital, el trabajo, el capital humano y el cambio tecnológico y su respectiva contribución al crecimiento y el desarrollo en términos de cada factor. Este acercamiento es por consiguiente un análisis de las fuentes y de los fundamentales del crecimiento para el caso de Colombia. |
| Date: | 2007–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:001000:002974&r=lam |
| By: | Pablo Brañas–Garza; María Paz Espinosa |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the emerging literature on the determinants of giving within a social network. We propose two main explanatory variables for previous experimental results on the friendship effect. The first is social integration, which has a positive impact on giving. The second variable is strategic and is based on reciprocity: the possibility of ex-post favors. Econometric analysis shows that both variables play a positive (and significant) role. |
| Date: | 2006–09–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:001051:002955&r=lam |
| By: | Lop ez, J. Humberto; Fajnzylber, Pablo; Acosta, Pablo |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the impact of remittances on poverty, education, and health in 11 Latin American countries using nationally representative household surveys and making an explicit attempt to account for one of the inherent costs associated with migration-the potential income that the migrant may have made at home. The main findings of the study are the following: (1) regardless of the counterfactual used remittances appear to lower poverty levels in most recipient countries; (2) yet despite this general tendency, the estimated impacts tend to be modest; and (3) there is significant country heterogeneity in the poverty reduction impact of remittances ' flows. Among the aspects that have been identified in the paper that may lead to varying outcomes across countries are the percentage of households reporting remittances income, the share of remittances of recipient households belonging to the lowest quintiles of the income distribution, and the relative importance of remittances flows with respect to GDP. While remittances tend to have positive effects on education and health, this impact is often restricted to specific groups of the population. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Remittances,Poverty Monitoring & Analysis,Pro-Poor Growth and Inequality,Small Area Estimation Poverty Mapping |
| Date: | 2007–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4247&r=lam |
| By: | Andrés Pereyra (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a case of public – private partnership in road provision in Uruguay. It is a concession where the concessionaire is public owned with a contract so called of present value of expenditure. This scheme is a good solution in a country where people reject private ownership of public services providers, and whit lack of independent regulation. It allows private financing of the investment and ensures the stability of the expenditure in maintenance of the roads. The concession contract minimizes the risk allocated to the concessionaire but with correct incentives to be efficient, reducing in this way the probability of renegotiating the contract. |
| Keywords: | concessions, infrastructure, roads |
| JEL: | H54 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:0107&r=lam |
| By: | Juan Pablo Pagano (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Máximo Rossi (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Patricia Triunfo (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República) |
| Abstract: | The present work studies the incidence of obesity and socioeconomic status on the prevalence of hypertension on the elderly of Montevideo, Uruguay. Based on data from the Survey on Health, Well-being and Aging (SABE project, PAHO-WHO), a bivariate probit model is estimated controlling by the potential endogeneity of obesity. The results obtained confirm the appropriateness of the joint estimation of both outcomes, and led us to state that being obese raises the probability of suffering from hypertension in 50 percentage points. This effect should have been understated in the probit estimation. At the same time, the instruments chosen that pick up religiosity, smoking and eating habits were relevant and valid with the expected coefficient signs. Tobacco consumption reduces the probability of being obese, showing that either smokers have different metabolism that make them burn more calories than non-smokers, or that smokers tend to ingest less amounts of food given the well-known appetite-suppressant effect of tobacco. On the other hand, the results show a positive association between obesity and religiosity, probably meaning that religion acts as a support once the problem is present, more than a mechanism of self-control or censorship. Finally, the thermic effect of food is confirmed, in the sense that as more meals one eats per day less the probability of being obese. The results do not show a significative association between poor health, measured through morbidity (presence of chronic disease hypertension), and low socioeconomic status. Given the fact that the variable that captures socioeconomic status is positive and statistically significative in the obese equation, the negative effects on health status of a worst socioeconomic status might operate through nutritional outcomes. On the other hand, there might be a problem of selection bias, in the sense that individuals of lower status have higher probability of early death (survival effect), and that public provision of health services with an emphasis on the elderly, reduce the gap between purchasing power and access to health care services. |
| Keywords: | obesity, hypertension, endogeneity, elderly |
| JEL: | I10 I12 J14 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:0207&r=lam |
| By: | Marco Castillo; Ragan Petrie; Maximo Torero |
| Abstract: | We present a series of experiments to understand the nature and extent of discrimination in urban Lima, Peru. The experiments exploit varying degrees of information on performance and personal characteristics as people sort into groups to test for statistical versus taste-based discrimination. This allows us to examine the nature of discrimination. Our sample is similar to the racial and socio-economic diversity of young adults in urban Lima. This allows us to look at the extent of discrimination. We use a unique method to measure race, along four racial dimensions common in Peru, and find that race is clearly observable. This gives us confidence that we can examine discrimination based on race. While behavior is not correlated with personal, socio-economic or racial characteristics, people do use personal characteristics to sort themselves into groups. Beauty is a robust predictor of being a desirable group member as is being a woman. Being unattractive or looking indigenous makes one less desirable and looking white increases one’s desirability. Interestingly, indigenous subjects are three times more likely to be classified as unattractive, suggesting that beauty might mask discrimination. We find that once information on performance is provided, almost all evidence of discrimination is eliminated, except in the most-preferred group. The evidence in these cases is consistent with taste-based, rather than statistical, discrimination. |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:exc:wpaper:2007-01&r=lam |