Images of Peru: a national cinema in crisis

A brief look at the major trends in the history of the national cinema of Peru suggests that the relationship between the development of the moving image and the onset of modernity in that country has always been awkward. Many have argued that the advent of cinema coincided in most parts of the world with the decades when modernity was already ‘at full throttle . . . a watershed moment in which a series of sweeping changes in technology and culture created distinctive new modes of thinking about and experiencing time and space’. However, the reality for the majority of Latin American countries was quite different. As Ana M. López points out, it simply is not possible to link the rise of cinema in that part of the world to ‘previous large-scale transformations of daily experience resulting from urbanization, industrialization, rationality and the technological transformation of modern life’. Such developments were only just starting to emerge, so that as cinema was launched across the world, modernity in Latin America ‘was above all a fantasy and a profound desire.

The Great Shift: the rise of México and the Decline of Peru in the Spanish American Colonial Empire, 1680-1809

Editada en Fundación Empresa PúblicaA partir de la reconstrucción de las cuentas de la Real Tesorería para las tres principales colonias de Hispanoamérica desde el último cuarto del siglo XVII a la primera década del siglo XIX, el ensayo reconstruye el destino cambiante de los ingresos y gastos reales en estas cruciales economías americamis. Los vicerreinatos de Perú y México y la Audiencia de Charcos fueron las principales fuentes del superávit en las colonias americanas. Hasta 1700, las dos regiones andinas dominaron el sistema colonial hispanoamericano en términos de ingresos reales generados y de plata producida para ser exportada a Europa. Sin embargo, estas regiones comenzaron a declinar en el siglo XVIII. Los diferentes tipos de ingresos y de gastos reales y su evolución son analizados para cada una de estas tres colonias a fin de determinar sus tendencias a largo plazo y su importancia relativa.Using the reconstructed royal treasury records for the trhee principal colonies of Spanish America from the last quarter of the 17th century to the first decade of the 19th century this essay constructs the changin fortunes of royal income and expenditures in these crucial American economies. The viceroyalties of Perú and Mexico an the Audiencia of Charcas were the principal sources of surplus revenues in the American colonies. Until 1700 the two Andean regions dominated the Spanish American colonial system in terms of generating royal income and in producing silver for export to Europe. But these soon declined relative to Mexico wich in the 18th century became to dominant economy and major source of royal income. The various royal revenues and expenditures and their performance over time are analyzed for all trhee colonies to determine the long term trends in dieir growth and relative importance.Publicad

The global crisis and the Peruvian labor market: impact and policy options

After almost 20 years of prudent macro policies, Peru seems in better shape than before to withstand the effects of a financial crisis. Progress, however, has left some policy areas unscathed and the labor market is one of them. In this paper we analyze the potential effects of the crisis on labor market outcomes, and discuss policy options to address short run and structural considerations. We review stylized facts from this and previous crisis to account for potential transmission mechanisms, review policy options and results from past and existing labor market interventions, and build a DSGE model to provide further insight regarding labor market outcomes and the effects of transitory and permanent policy measures. On the countercyclical front, our analysis reveals that the main risk that the policymaker should aim to mitigate is a surge in informality and underemployment. For this, job protection alternatives (as temporary payroll tax holidays already implemented) have to be accompanied by a strengthened and better focalized reemployment service, especially if the shock transpires into the nontradable sector. On the more structural side, policy should aim at the prime drivers of informality in our country: low productivity and high formal labor costs. For the latter, progressive access to labor benefits for small firms (already introduced via a special labor regime) could be complemented by introducing different minimum wage levels according to firm size and a generalized reduction in firing costs. Low productivity issues, on the other hand, can be addressed by strengthening and integrating existing training programs and information networks which have already proven successful in terms of formal job creation. Simulations reveal that permanent non-wage cost reductions (like those introduced via the special labor regime) can increase formal employment and formal GDP participation by 2 percentage points. Structural policy interventions also exhibit a large countercyclical potential due to their permanent nature. This implies that we should not wait for the crisis to be over to start their implementation.Global crisis; labor markets; Peru

Regional financial development and firm growth in Peru

This paper documents the relationship between regional financial development and firm growth in the Peruvian manufacturing sector. In order to control for mutual causality between credit availability and firm growth, industry differences in financial dependence on external funds are exploited. The 1994 and 2008 rounds of the National Economic Census are used, permitting analysis at the firm level as well as the activity level. Results suggest a significant and positive effect of financial deepening on surviving firms` growth. However, this effect is smaller for micro enterprises, suggesting that the cost of external funding decreases with financial development mainly for large firms. The conclusions remain unchanged when entering and exiting firms are included. The paper further finds that credit expansion have encouraged not only firm growth but also firm entry. The results are robust using an alternative measure of financial dependence.

Migrants' Remittances from Italy: International Remittances and Access to Financial Services for Migrants in Turin, Italy

Project Greenback 2.0 is a project led by the World Bank, in partnership with the City of Turin, aimed at fostering the development of an efficient and transparent market for remittances. Within this framework, this survey, conducted by FIERI and Laboratorio R. Revelli between July and September 2013, investigated the demand side of the remittance market in the city of Turin, collecting 480 in-depth interviews of migrants from the Moroccan, Peruvian and Romanian communities. These are the three most numerous communities in the city and the largest in terms of remittances sent to the country of origin. The survey is aimed at describing the economic and financial profile of migrants. Specifically, it investigates the interconnected dimensions of financial behaviors -- patterns of consumption and savings, remittances and investments, and financial needs and aspirations. Strong emphasis is given to remittance services and access to different types of financial products and services