Is Mercosur an optimum currency area? An assessment using generalized purchasing power parity

We consider the cointegration approach of generalized purchasing power parity to show that a necessary condition for Mercosur to be an optimum currency area is met. Yet there are still large cross-country differences as to cast doubt on the success of either monetary union or official dollarization. The PPP puzzle is also found to occur in Mercosur.

Is Mercosur an optimum currency area?

We find that generalized purchasing power parity does not hold for Mercosur, and thus that the South American trade group does not constitute an optimum currency area. We also find that the role of the United States cannot be neglected in the region, and that high short run volatility of real exchange rates is accompanied by slow adjustment processes of between 2 and 16 years (PPP puzzle).generalized purchasing power parity; optimum currency area; Mercosur; PPP puzzle

A two-stage DEA approach

This paper examines the impacts of the tourism sector on the overall eco-efficiency of 22 Latin America and Caribbean countries from 1995 to 2016. A two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis methodology was used in order to first calculate the overall eco-efficiency of the countries from the sample (considering the CO2 emissions as the input and the economic growth as the output), with the outcomes pointing to an eco-efficiency decrease in the majority of countries. Posteriorly, a Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag model was applied to analyse the impacts of tourism arrivals, tourism capital investment, and direct tourism contribution to employment on the previously calculated overall eco-efficiency. Moreover, given the presence of cross-sectional dependence, heteroscedasticity, and first order autocorrelation in the model, the Driscoll-Kraay estimator was used, and the results indicate that tourism arrivals, use of nonrenewables to generate (a substantial part of) electric power to consumption, and trade openness contributed to the decrease in these countries' eco-efficiency, both in the short- and long-run. Contrariwise, tourism capital investment, direct tourism contribution to employment, and Human Development Index seem to promote eco-efficiency in the long-run. These findings suggest that policymakers should pay attention to these destinations carrying capacity given that, if they ignore this feature, it can produce environmental and climatic shocks to these countries, as well as bringing constraints to their development (both in the short- and long-run). Simultaneously, in order to grant their sustainable development, they must continue to encourage investments in sustainable tourism projects and productive employment to all. Lastly, we see that the error correction mechanism has a negative and statistically significant value in the estimation, which points to the existence of a cointegration/long memory relationship between our variables.Este estudo pretende analisar os impactos do sector do turismo na eco-eficiência total de 22 países da América Latina e Caraíbas, para um período de 1995 a 2016. A metodologia twostage Data Envelopment Analysis foi utilizada para calcular primeiramente a eco-eficiência dos países da amostra (considerando as emissões de CO2 como input e o crescimento económico como output), apontado os resultados para um decréscimo da eco-eficiência na maioria dos países. Posteriormente, foi aplicado o modelo Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag para analisar os impactos das chegadas de turistas, do investimento de capital em turismo e da contribuição direta do turismo para o emprego na eco-eficiência anteriormente calculada. Considerando a presença de dependência seccional, heterocedasticidade e autocorrelação de primeira ordem no modelo, o estimador DriscollKraay foi utilizado e os resultados indicam que as chegadas de turistas, a utilização de não renováveis para gerar (uma parte substancial da) energia elétrica para consumo e a abertura do comércio contribuem para reduzir a eco-eficiência destes países, tanto no curto como no longo prazo. Contrariamente, o investimento de capital em turismo, a contribuição direta do turismo para o emprego e o Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano promovem a ecoeficiência, no longo prazo. Estes factos sugerem que os decisores políticos devem prestar mais atenção à capacidade de carga dos destinos dado que, caso ignorem, esta pode resultar em choques ambientais e climáticos nestes países assim como constrangimentos ao seu desenvolvimento (tanto no curto como no longo prazo). Simultaneamente, para garantir o seu desenvolvimento sustentável, devem continuar a incentivar projetos de investimentos turísticos sustentáveis assim como a criação de emprego. Por fim, confirma-se que o mecanismo de correção de erros tem um valor negativo e estatisticamente significante na estimação, o que aponta para a existência de uma relação de cointegração/longa memória entre as variáveis

X-BORDER PLATFORMS: THE IMPLICATIONS OF DISTRIBUTED LEDGER TECHNOLOGY

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) has been argued to play a vital role in facilitating cross-border payments and improving the financial ecosystem at a global scale. This research builds upon digital platform literature to frame cross-border payment organisations and uses a case study within the remittance industry to review the potential shapes of DLT within these platforms. Findings suggest that DLT can play a role at removing inefficiencies and promoting financial inclusion in developing countries by being used as a settlement mechanism, as a standardised communication channel and as a way for consolidating data located within the boundaries of different platforms. This study contributes to digital platform and DLT literature by suggesting three potential implications that this phenomenon can bring and their relevance to payment platforms

Efficacy and safety of dasatinib vs. Imatinib in Latin american subpopulation from the dasision trial in patients with newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in chronic phase (CP)

sem informação100120th Congress of European-Hematology-Associationsem informaçã

Letter Grading Government Efficiency

We mailed letters to non-existent business addresses in 159 countries (10 per country), and measured whether they come back to the return address in the United States and how long it takes. About 60% of the letters were returned, taking over six months, on average. The results provide new objective indicators of government efficiency across countries, based on a simple and universal service, and allow us to shed light on its determinants. The evidence suggests that both technology and management quality influence government efficiency, just as they do that of the private sector.Economic

Retail Bank Interest Rate Pass-Through: Is Chile Atypical?

This paper investigates empirically the pass-through of money market interest rates to retail banking interest rates in Chile, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and five European countries. Overall, Chile’s pass-through does not appear atypical. Based on a standard errorcorrection model, we find that, as in most countries considered, Chile’s measured pass-through is incomplete. But Chile’s pass-through is also faster than in many other countries considered and is comparable to that in the United States. While we find no significant evidence of asymmetry in Chile’s pass-through across states of the interest rate or monetary policy cycle, we do find some evidence of parameter instability, around the time of the Asian and Russian crises. However, we do not find evidence that the switch to a more flexible exchange rate regime in 1999 and the “nominalization” of Chile’s interest rate targets in 2001 have affected significantly the pass-through process.

Does the Mortality Decline Promote Economic Growth?

This paper analyzes qualitatively and quantitatively the e ects of declining mortality rates on fertility, education and economic growth. The analysis demonstrates that if individuals are prudent in the face of uncertainty about child survival, a decline in an exogenous mortality rate reduces precautionary demand for children and increases parental investment in each child. Once mortality is endogenized, population growth becomes a hump-shaped function of income per capita. At low levels of income population growth rises as income per capita rises leading to a Malthusian steady-state equilibrium, whereas at high levels of income population growth declines leading to a sustained growth steadystate equilibrium.Malthus, Survival Probability, Fertility, Education, Population Growth