New Economics Papers
on Central and South America
Issue of 2011‒02‒19
twelve papers chosen by
  1. Regionalism and Developing Countries: A Primer By Jaime Melo De
  2. Forecasting Brazilian Inflation Using a Large Data Set By Francisco Marcos Rodrigues Figueiredo
  3. Distribucion del Ingreso en América Latina: Caracterización de las Diferencias entre Países. By Francisco Haimovich
  4. Inequality and Poverty under Latin America’s New Left Regimes By Darryl McLeod; Nora Lustig
  5. Victimización y justicia por mano propia en Uruguay: Una visión comparativa con América Latina By Fernando Borraz; Natalia Melgar; Máximo Rossi
  6. Satisfacción con la vida, fe religiosa y asistencia al templo en Uruguay By Zuleika Ferre; Mariana Gerstenblüth; Máximo Rossi
  7. Decomposing the Gaps between Afro-descendants and Whites along the Wage Distribution By Marisa Bucheli; Graciela Sanromán
  8. Movilidad intergeneracional y raza en Uruguay By Graciela Sanromán; Cecilia González
  9. Salud y felicidad en Uruguay By Mariana Gerstenblüth; Todd Jewell; Máximo Rossi
  10. Opinión ciudadana sobre el aborto: Uruguay y América Latina By Máximo Rossi; Patricia Triunfo
  11. Ingreso y desigualdad: ¿Cómo afectan a la felicidad en América Latina? By Mariana Gerstenblüth; Natalia Melgar; Máximo Rossi
  12. Job satisfaction and the individual educational level, re-assessing their relationship By Marisa Bucheli; Natalia Melgar; Máximo Rossi; Tom W. Smith
  1. By: Jaime Melo De (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I)
    Abstract: The paper discusses regionalism from the standpoint of developing countries surveying the more significant recent contributions surrounding the contentious debate about identifying resulting benefits for Southern partners in the recent wave of North-South Preferential Trading Agreements (PTAs).
    Keywords: regional integration;Trade creation;Trade diversion;political economy
    Date: 2011–02–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00564707&r=lam
  2. By: Francisco Marcos Rodrigues Figueiredo
    Abstract: The objective of this paper is to verify if exploiting the large data set available to the Central Bank of Brazil, makes it possible to obtain forecast models that are serious competitors to models typically used by the monetary authorities for forecasting inflation. Some empirical issues such as the optimal number of variables to extract the factors are also addressed. I find that the best performance of the data rich models is usually for 6-step ahead forecasts. Furthermore, the factor model with targeted predictors presents the best results among other data-rich approaches, whereas PLS forecasts show a relative poor performance.
    Date: 2010–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcb:wpaper:228&r=lam
  3. By: Francisco Haimovich
    Abstract: Este trabajo explora las diferencias entre las distribuciones del ingreso de las áreas urbanas de América Latina a través de ejercicios de microsimulaciones. Los principales insumos de estos ejercicios lo constituyen los microdatos de las encuestas de hogares de 16 países de la región. Los resultados indican que las diferencias entre países en los retornos a la educación formal y a factores inobservables en términos de salarios horarios dan cuenta de gran parte de las diferencias en pobreza y desigualdad entre las economías de la región. Las diferencias en términos de estructura sectorial del empleo, horas trabajadas, empleo, fecundidad, estructura de edades, diferencias salariales por género y edad, y aun de estructura educativa parecen tener, en promedio, un papel algo menor.
    Keywords: Distribución, ingreso, pobreza, América Latina, descomposiciones.
    JEL: I3 D3 D6
    Date: 2010–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lap:wpaper:080&r=lam
  4. By: Darryl McLeod (Fordham University, Department of Economics); Nora Lustig (Tulane University, Department of Economics)
    Abstract: During the last decade, inequality and poverty fell sharply in many Latin American countries; a period in which voters chose left-leaning leaders in ten countries including about half the region’s population. Are these two developments related? Using data for 18 Latin American countries and political regime classification of Arnson and Perales (2007), this paper presents some econometric evidence that the social democratic regimes in Brazil, Chile and to a lesser extent Uruguay were more successful at reducing inequality and poverty than the so-called left populist regimes of Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela. Both groups implemented policies to redistribute income, but the social democratic regimes redistributive efforts were more effective. Argentina and Venezuela started the 1990-2008 sample window with lower levels of inequality, so to some extent recent reductions in inequality are a return to “normal” levels (as estimated by fixed effects). Inequality and poverty in Brazil and Chile, on the other hand, fell to historic lows during this period. Second, overall terms of trade shocks were more favorable for Argentina and Venezuela, so part of the drop in inequality in those countries can be attributed to typically transient commodity price booms.
    JEL: O15 P16 I32
    Date: 2010
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frd:wpaper:dp2010-13&r=lam
  5. By: Fernando Borraz (Banco Central del Uruguay y Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Natalia Melgar (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Máximo Rossi (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República)
    Abstract: The issue of public safety has been under debate in Uruguay and a great part of the public opinion highlights that the situation has worsened. The objective of this study is to verify people’s perception in Uruguay and discuss the responses in comparison with others Latin American countries. We employ the 2008 survey carried out by LAPOP (Latin American Public Opinion Project, Vanderbilt University). The main findings show that crime, violence and insecurity are mentioned among the main problems. In Uruguay, 9.2% consider that basic rights are fully protected while the Latin American average is 5.9%. In addition, 22% of respondents report having been victims of a crime. This ratio varies from 8.4% in the case of Jamaica and Panama to 27.5% in Argentina. In Uruguay 62.6% of respondents consider that the current crime rate is a serious threat to future prosperity. While high, this ratio is lower than the average (67.9%). Uruguayans seem to be against taking the law into their own hands (49.6% totally disapprove it, while the average is 41%. However, the estimated probit model shows that the probability that a person is victimized in Uruguay is one of the highest in Latin America.
    Keywords: public security, crime, Latin America
    JEL: D60 I31 Z13
    Date: 2010–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:1710&r=lam
  6. By: Zuleika Ferre (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Mariana Gerstenblüth (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Máximo Rossi (Department of Economics, University of North Texas)
    Abstract: In this study, using data from the Religion, Health and Youth Emancipation survey, 2008 (DECON-FCS, Uruguay, ISSP), we estimate the probability of being happy with special emphasis on its relationship with religion and religiosity. We find that those who profess the Protestant faith are less happy than the rest. Those who attend religious services more frequently are more likely to be satisfied with life than those who do not.
    Keywords: happiness, religion, Uruguay
    JEL: D01 D60 Z12
    Date: 2010–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:1610&r=lam
  7. By: Marisa Bucheli (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Graciela Sanromán (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República)
    Abstract: In this paper we analyze the racial wage gap in Uruguay in the period 2006-2009 using data from the Household Survey collected by INE (the National Statistics Institute). We select a sample of full-time men workers aged 25-59. We decompose the gap between log hourly-wages of Whites and Afro-descendants at the mean and at each percentile of the wage distribution using the distributional regression approach proposed in Chernozhukov et al. (2009). We find that Afro-descendants are paid less in all position of the wage distribution and that the gap increases from the median up. It is around 0.20 until the median and reaches 0.60 at percentile 90. The results from the decomposition show that both the gap that can be explained by selected characteristics (years of schooling, potential experience and region) and the residual widen at the upper tail of the distribution.
    Keywords: Wage gap, Afro-descendants, Discrimination, Counterfactual estimation
    JEL: C14 C21 D31 J31 J71
    Date: 2010–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:1410&r=lam
  8. By: Graciela Sanromán (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: In this paper we analyze intergenerational educational mobility for afro-descendants and no afro-descendants in Uruguay. We consider the relationship between educational achievements of teenagers and their parents’. The results show that relative mobility is higher among afro-descendants than among no-afro descendants and that absolute mobility is higher than relative mobility among afro descendants. We also estimate the educational expected gap between afro and no-afro teenagers. The gap observed between teenagers is similar than the gap observed between parents. Finally, educational differences among parents explain more than a half of the teenager gap.
    Keywords: Intergenerational mobility, education, afro-descendants
    JEL: J62 J15 I21 C13
    Date: 2010–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:1310&r=lam
  9. By: Mariana Gerstenblüth (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Todd Jewell (Department of Economics, University of North Texas); Máximo Rossi (Department of Economics, University of North Texas)
    Abstract: In this paper we study the relationship between individual happiness and self reported health status, using the Religion, Health and Young Emancipation ISSP survey for Uruguay in 2008. Probit estimates suggests that health status has the highest correlation with happiness. In order to control for the observed heterogeneity of this variable, we estimate using matching methods. Results show that reporting a good health rises the probability of being happy between 18 an 29 percentage points. Previous literature support this findings.
    Keywords: happiness, health, matching methods
    JEL: D60 I31 I12
    Date: 2010–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:1210&r=lam
  10. By: Máximo Rossi (Department of Economics, University of North Texas); Patricia Triunfo (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República)
    Abstract: In most Latin American countries abortion is illegal, and there are mitigating causes. However, studies for countries that have been releasing processes for more than two decades, such as the United States, show that different attitudes remain the same, ranging from pro-life to pro-choice views. This work, from Latinobarómetro 2007, analyzes the patterns of individual attitudes towards abortion, focusing on the same degree of justification in terms of socioeconomic, religious, and country characteristics. The OLS estimates that the average for 18 Latin American countries show that most individuals who justify abortion are forty-year old or younger men, highly educated, with low level of deprivation of goods, low religiosity, and who do not profess the catholic or evangelic religion. Analyzing by country, Uruguay is where abortion is most justified, and unlike the average, women justify abortion further than men, the impact of education and socioeconomic status is significantly greater, and marital status is not significant as well as the degree of religiosity.
    Keywords: abortion attitudes, public opinion.
    JEL: I3 J13
    Date: 2010–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:1510&r=lam
  11. By: Mariana Gerstenblüth (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Natalia Melgar (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Máximo Rossi (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República)
    Abstract: Latin America is known as the most unequal region in the world. However, the effect of income inequality on people’s welfare is still an open question. This paper assesses the relationship between income distribution and welfare by considering the levels of happiness reported by people. The main contribution of this paper is the examination of not only the direct effect of economic performance on happiness, but also the indirect macroeconomic effects through the subjective income scale. Our database comes from the 2008 Latino-barometer survey and we estimate probit models. Findings indicate that while poverty, income per capita and the human development index have only a significant direct impact on individual happiness, income distribution play an indirect role. In particular, we find that even when it plays non significant role, it matters through the subjective income level. The results show that richer people tend to be happier, however, the interaction term between the self-placement in the income scale and inequality is negatively related to happiness. Hence, individuals with higher income levels will be happier in countries where inequality is lower.
    Keywords: happiness, inequality, Latin America
    JEL: D31 D60 F00 I32 O57
    Date: 2010–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:0910&r=lam
  12. By: Marisa Bucheli (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Natalia Melgar (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Máximo Rossi (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Tom W. Smith (NORC, University of Chicago)
    Abstract: We examine the factors that shape job satisfaction and in particular, the direct and indirect effects of the educational level. Our motivation is based on extending a large body of researches that is focused on private sector data by employing a larger and widely heterogeneous set of micro-data and by including non-linear effects and indirect effects of education. Our dataset includes 25 countries and it comes from the 2007 survey carried out by the International Social Survey Program. We estimate a probit model which includes country-effects in order to control for specific environmental factors. Findings indicate that job satisfaction is negatively related to being male, living in a big city, the number of worked hours per week, and not being self-employed. We also find that age registers a non-linear impact and we provide evidence that individual educational level shows a positive effect but with a decreasing growth rate and also an indirect effect through earned income.
    Keywords: job satisfaction, cross-country research
    JEL: J28 J81 I31 Z13
    Date: 2010–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:1110&r=lam
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