New Economics Papers
on Central and South America
Issue of 2007‒07‒07
six papers chosen by
  1. Latin America's Access to International Capital Markets: Good Behavior or Global Liquidity? By Ana Fostel; Graciela Laura Kaminsky
  2. Economic and Political Inequality in Development: The Case of Cundinamarca, Colombia By Daron Acemoglu; María Angélica Bautista; Pablo Querubín; James A. Robinson
  3. El estado de salud de los uruguayos By Ianina Rossi; Fernanda Tellechea; Fiorella Tramontin; Patricia Triunfo
  4. Alternativas en el manejo del riesgo de demanda en concesiones de infraestructura vial By Andrés Pereyra
  5. El sistema NTA: método de estimación para Uruguay (1994) By Marisa Bucheli; Rodrigo Ceni; Cecilia González
  6. Dividendo, expropiación y oportunidades de crecimiento en la empresa brasileña. By Fuente Herrero, Gabriel de la; Da Silva, José María
  1. By: Ana Fostel; Graciela Laura Kaminsky
    Abstract: This paper examines Latin America's access to international capital markets from 1980 to 2005, with particular attention to the role of domestic and external factors. To capture access to international markets, we use primary gross issuance in international bond, equity, and syndicated-loan markets. Using panel estimation, we find that sound fundamentals matter. For example, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile's superb performance in capital markets during the early 1990s has been in large part driven by better fundamentals. However, the upsurge in international lending to Latin America starting in 2003 has been mainly driven by a dramatic increase in global liquidity.
    JEL: F3 F30 F32 F34 F36
    Date: 2007–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13194&r=lam
  2. By: Daron Acemoglu; María Angélica Bautista; Pablo Querubín; James A. Robinson
    Abstract: Is inequality harmful for economic growth? Is the underdevelopment of Latin America related to its unequal distribution of wealth? A recently emerging consensus claims not only that economic inequality has detrimental effects on economic growth in general, but also that differences in economic inequality across the American continent during the 19th century are responsible for the radically different economic performances of the north and south of the continent. In this paper we investigate this hypothesis using unique 19th century micro data on land ownership and political office holding in the state of Cundinamarca, Colombia. Our results shed considerable doubt on this consensus. Even though Cundinamarca is indeed more unequal than the Northern United States at the time, within Cundinamarca municipalities that were more unequal in the 19th century (as measured by the land gini) are more developed today. Instead, we argue that political rather than economic inequality might be more important in understanding long-run development paths and document that municipalities with greater political inequality, as measured by political concentration, are less developed today. We also show that during this critical period the politically powerful were able to amass greater wealth, which is consistent with one of the channels through which political inequality might affect economic allocations. Overall our findings shed doubt on the conventional wisdom and suggest that research on long-run comparative development should investigate the implications of political inequality as well as those of economic inequality.
    JEL: H27 N01 N1 N16 O1 O11 O16 O54
    Date: 2007–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13208&r=lam
  3. By: Ianina Rossi (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Fernanda Tellechea (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Fiorella Tramontin; Patricia Triunfo (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República)
    Abstract: Research has established that health status is affected not only by medical factors but also by socioeconomic variables. In this paper we analyze the links between health status (measured by self-reported illness occurrence in the last 12 months) and individuals’ socioeconomic situation. Using the annual households surveys of Uruguay for the period 1991 to 2000, we compute probit models and find that men, unmarried, those who do not live alone, young people, those who have a job and those with more than 5 years of education, have a smaller probability of reporting a bad health status. Also, we evaluate the evolution of self-reported health status during this 10-years period and find that the probability of reporting a bad health status has a descendent trend, being 0,34 in 1991 and 0,25 in 2000.
    Keywords: health capital, health status, human capital
    JEL: I12 J24 D12
    Date: 2006–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:2106&r=lam
  4. By: Andrés Pereyra (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República)
    Abstract: In road concessions – where the effort of the concessionaire cannot increase the demand for infrastructure – it is better not to allocate risk of demand into the concessionaire. Engel et. al. (1997) introduced variable term concessions in order to mitigate risk of demand allocated to the concessionaire. In this paper we introduce variable investment concessions to achieve the same target. We show that both mechanisms are equivalent in their objective of mitigate risk of demand, although the mechanism proposed is more difficult to be implemented. We compare the application of both mechanism in the case of Uruguay.
    Keywords: concessions, infrastructure, roads
    JEL: H54
    Date: 2006–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:2206&r=lam
  5. By: Marisa Bucheli (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Rodrigo Ceni (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Cecilia González (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República)
    Abstract: The National Transfers Accounts (NTA) system seeks to measure intergenerational transfers at the aggregate level consistent with National Income and Product Accounts. The method of estimation is shared by many countries and is depicted in the web page www.schemearts.com/proj/nta/. In this paper we describe the applied procedure in the estimation of Uruguayan NTA. Specifically, we analyze the data sources and the estimation methods. We also include the description of institutions whose characteristics lead to some methodological decisions.
    Keywords: Intergenerational transfers, generational accounts
    JEL: J10
    Date: 2007–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:0307&r=lam
  6. By: Fuente Herrero, Gabriel de la (Departamento de Economía Financiera y Contabilidad, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad de Valladolid); Da Silva, José María (|Departamento de Ciências Contábeis, Centro de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (Brasil))
    Abstract: Este trabajo analiza la decisión de dividendo de las empresas brasileñas desde la perspectiva del conflicto entre accionistas mayoritarios y minoritarios. El problema de gobierno corporativo en los países del civil-law confiere a la decisión de dividendo dos funciones principales: mecanismo de expropiación y fuente de reputación. Nuestro estudio se centra en la relación entre el ratio de dividendo, la concentración del voto del accionista mayoritario y las oportunidades de crecimiento. La aproximación empírica se realiza con una muestra de 173 empresas brasileñas cotizadas en la Bolsa de Sao Paulo. Los resultados obtenidos de la estimación Tobit confirman nuestra hipótesis: el ratio de dividendo depende negativamente del porcentaje de voto del accionista mayoritario y positivamente de las oportunidades de crecimiento. Los resultados son corroborados con diferentes segmentaciones de la muestra y especificaciones del modelo. This paper analyses the dividend decision in Brazilian firms from the perspective of the conflict between large-controlling owners and minority-outside shareholders. The problem of corporate governance civil-law countries provides the dividend decision with two main functions: an expropriation mechanism and a reputation instrument. Our study focuses on the relationship among the dividend pay-out ratio, voting shares concentration and growth opportunities. Empirical propositions are tested in a sample of 173 Brazilian firms listed on Sao Paulo Stock Exchange. Results from Tobit estimation support our hypothesis: dividend pay-out ratio depends negatively on the portion of the voting capital owned by the largest shareholder, and positively on the relevance of growth opportunities. Our findings are robust to different sample segmentations and model specifications.
    Keywords: Dividendo, expropiación de minoritarios, reputación, oportunidades de crecimiento, empresas brasileñas. Dividend, minority expropriation, reputation, growth opportunities, Brazilian firms.
    Date: 2007–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ntd:wpaper:2007-03&r=lam
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