Micro and Macro Determinants of trade temporary barriers: the Brazilian case over the last two decades

When the process of trade liberalisation started in Brazil in the late 1980s, a regime of temporary trade protection was put in place. This paper describes the use of TTB by Brazilian’s authority over the last two decades. We found them to be highly concentrated in a few sectors and to heavily rely on antidumping measures, rather than countervailing or safeguards measures. We also develop a simple empirical model to explain the micro and macroeconomic determinants of TTBs in Brazil. After controlling for the political strength of each HS six-digit sector in Brazil, as well as the time invariant characteristic of each trading partner and the level of domestic economic activity using fixed effects, we found that low import prices are not an important determinant of TTB in Brazil even though more than ninety percent of TTB that were put in place over the last two decades were antidumping cases. TTBs are more likely to be observed when imports are large. But, perhaps more interestingly, in sectors with low MFN tariffs and where MFN tariffs are falling, which suggest that MFN tariffs and TTBs are substitutes. Finally, changes in the bilateral exchange rate are important determinants of TTBs, with appreciations of the domestic currency making the imposition of restrictive TTBs more likely.Temporary Trade Barriers, Brazil, Exchange rate

Diagonal Cumulation of Rules of Origin in South America

This paper provides a description of what Rules of Origin are, its economic effects, the main RoO types and the options for adding leniency to these rules by means of using the diagonal cumulation. Nowadays, cumulation of origin is studied in different trade agreements models in the Americas and the use of this practice among FTAs families of one or another style is imminent. According to evidence provided by several papers (Cornejo and Harris, 2007; Gasiorek, 2007; and Estavadeordal and Suominem, 2008), we estimate that taking measures for adding leniency to RoO structures will make it more attractive for regional firms to import from within the region. Finally, more flexible rules of origin will make the region more attractive to foreign investors and, as a consequence, will foster investment flows from abroad. We consider that South American countries have now an opportunity to define a strategy for cumulating origin norms among them. Therefore, it is necessary to negotiate the implementation of a single RoO regime for the region. In this negotiation we think MERCOSUR would be the leading PTA, due to the fact that it is the main player in the region.Rules of Origin, Diagonal Cumulation, Regional Integration.

Public opinion’s involvement and interests on environmental issues

The aim of this study is to extend previous findings by showing that involvement in environmental issues is shaped by personal attributes such as education and the subjective income but also by country characteristics. The dataset for this research comes from the 2005 World Value Survey and the 2008 Latin-barometer survey that allow us to consider a large and heterogeneous set of countries. The contributions of the paper are three-fold. Firstly, we provide clear evidence that the economic performance plays a relevant role, one direct consequence of this finding is that policies that change the macroeconomic arena would also change people’s attitudes. Secondly, we find that environmental quality could be considered as a luxury good by richer people because people’s attitudes depend not only on their income but also on the economic performance. Finally, richer people are aware of the availability of resources and of the quality of the institutions, hence their behavior changes depending on the characteristics of the country: in relatively poorer countries (where there are fewer resources), they tend to participate more than richer people that live in relatively richer countries.environmental economics, environmental quality, income, human development, cross-country research

Characterization of solutions for bankruptcy problems

This paper provides an analysis of solutions to bankruptcy problems from an axiomatic point of view. In particular, we provide characterizations of certain classes of solutions involving the properties of linearity, symmetry and efficiency. Furthermore, we show that there is a unique solution satisfying the previous axioms and inessentiality.Bankruptcy problems, axiomatic solutions.

Exploración, experiencia y emoción de archivo. A modo de introducción

La problemática de los archivos de imágenes de archivos suscita hoy un renovado interés. Según las modernas concepciones nacidas de las reflexiones de Foucault y revisadas con perspectiva histórica, los archivos no son depósitos de información, sino formas de organización del saber que se reestructuran constantemente. El presente dossier de la revista ANIKI tiene por objeto analizar la relación que los archivos de imagen (fotográficos, cinematográficos, digitales) tienen con la memoria

Accounting for Cross-Country Income Differences with Public Capital

This paper offers new evidence on the sources of cross-country income differences by investigating the role public capital in development accounting. I explicitly measure private and public capital stocks, and I find large differences in both types of capital across countries. Moreover, differences in private capital are larger than the ones I find for total capital for the richest and poorest countries. The methodology I use implies a share of publica capital in output of at most 10%. My findings indicate that differences in capital stocks can not account for a substantial part of the observed dispersion in income across countries.Income differences, Public capital, Development Accounting.

Pension Systems in Latin America: Concepts and Measurements of Coverage

Pension systems’ performance around the world can be usually assessed by considering three dimensions: coverage, adequacy, and sustainability. This paper focuses on the coverage dimension, looking at empirical data in Latin America. It represents a review and expansion of a previous analysis (such as Rofman and Carranza, 2005), as it corrects a few methodological problems and expands the timeframe. Data were available for 18 countries, for a period that starts in the early 1990s to the mid 2000s. Recognizing the difficulties involved in comparing the available information, the paper presents a group of similar indicators that make it possible to measure coverage in the various countries, both among active workers and among the elderly. In addition, several socio-demographic characteristics of the covered population are presented and discussed, identifying relevant differentials. The covariates taken into account in the study are: age, geographical areas, sector of employment, level of education, gender, occupation, firm size, and income quintiles.Coverage, Pension Systems, Latin America.

Assessing the Distributive Impact of More than Doubling the Minimum Wage: The Case of Uruguay

This paper analyzes the role of the sharply increases in the minimum wage after 2004 in Uruguay in the slight decrease on wage inequality. We Önd no impact of the miminum wage increases on wage inequality. This results can be explained by the low starting level of the minimum wage or lack of compliance with it. The Uruguayan experience shows that the minimum wage is not always e§ective as a redistribution instrument.minimum wage, wage inequality, IV, semiparametric estimation

Armington Elasticities: Estimates for Uruguayan Manufacturing Sectors

Armington elasticities of substitution – AEs – are a crucial set of parameters that allows CGEMs applied to trade to be operational. In the case of Uruguay, no estimated values for these parameters have been available until now, forcing researchers to impose them arbitrarily. We here start filling this gap by providing estimated AEs for 32 Uruguayan 4-digit manufacturing industries belonging to the Food, Beverages and Tobacco; Chemical Products; and Textiles economic sectors, using monthly and quarterly data along 1989-2001. The specification of the models follows the simplified benchmark proposed by Armington (1969) that has been used in most of the existing applied research. The resulting estimated AEs are in line with those reported by the international literature and hence of a smaller size than expected by CGEM modellers. Our econometric analyses also show that the low values of the estimated elasticities are not due to the characteristics of the available data and/or the methodology used. Instead, a plausible explanation suggested by our results relates to the theoretical models used being misspecified, particularly due to the omission of relevant variables.Armington elasticity, Substitutability, Computable General Equilibrium Model.