Volumen y calidad de la infraestructura y la distribución del ingreso: investigación empírica

(Disponible en idioma inglés únicamente) Ofrecemos elementos de juicio sobre el vínculo entre el desarrollo de la infraestructura y la distribución del ingreso durante el período de 1960 a 1995. Para ello empleamos varias variables sustitutivas, tales como vías de comunicación, ferrocarriles, telecomunicaciones y mediciones de energía. El enfoque es amplio, ya que se aplican métodos de varios países y de panel. En el último caso, aplicamos métodos de panel dinámico GMM, para poder minimizar los problemas de endogeneidad. Tanto la cantidad de infraestructura como la calidad de la misma guardan una vinculación negativa con la desigualdad del ingreso. El vínculo cuantitativo tiende a ser más fuerte en países en desarrollo que el vínculo cualitativo. Estos hallazgos se verifican cuando se emplean otros métodos econométricos y con la mayoría de las mediciones de infraestructura. .

¿Fomentan las democracias conductas de procura de rentas?

(Disponible en idioma inglés únicamente) Empleando datos históricos institucionales objetivos, ponemos a prueba el vínculo existente entre el alcance, la duración y la transparencia en las democracias y las conductas de procura de rentas, empleando enfoques de series temporales y datos de panel. En este trabajo nos concentramos en el caso de Uruguay, un país étnicamente homogéneo. Obtuvimos tres resultados principales. En primer lugar, los regímenes democráticos guardan una vinculación negativa con las acciones de procura de rentas. En segundo lugar, mientras más tiempo haya durado una democracia, menos conductas de procura de rentas exhibirá la sociedad. En tercer lugar, la legislación promulgada con mayor transparencia guarda una correlación negativa con conductas de procura de rentas. Nuestros resultados son valederos con el uso de diversos métodos econométricos y con las pruebas de validez básica, y se corresponden con las teorías imperantes.

Rent Seeking and Democracy in Latin America: What Drives What?

Drawing on previously unused objective institutional data, we provide evidence for the causal link between rent-seeking behavior and democracy in Uruguay, a country where both rent-seeking behavior and political shifts have varied widely in the last 80 years, but where ethnolinguistic heterogeneity and income inequality have remained historically low. The latter helps better identify some “pure” political interactions and how they are linked with rent-seeking outcomes. We find that the presence and duration of democratic regimes appear to have been conducive to a decrease in rent-seeking actions in Uruguay, although the reduction in rent seeking does not appear to have had a bearing on the quality of democratic regime in the country. While the duration of democratic regime may impact rent-seeking behavior, rent seeking also displays a causal link to democratic duration.

Does Foreign Aid Help Reduce Income Inequality?

The aim of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the link between foreign aid and income inequality for the period 1973-2002. Since simple cross-country regressions cannot be taken as `true` time series findings, we also focus on dynamic panel data techniques, which allow accounting for potential simultaneity and heterogeneity problems. We do not find very robust evidence that foreign aid is conducive to the improvement of the distribution of income, even when the quality of institutions is taken into account. This finding is consistent with recent empirical research on aid and growth that shows that such a link is weak at best.

Institutional Enforcement, Labor-Market Rigidities, and Economic Performance

This paperstudy the issue of institutional enforcement of regulations by focusing on labor-market policies and their potential link to economic performance. It test the different impacts of enforceable and non-enforceable labor regulations by proxying non-enforceable labor rigidity measures using data on conventions from the International Labor Organization (ILO). It has been argued that non-enforceable conventions -that is, those that exist on paper and are simply de jure regulations -appear to be more distortionary and tend to be the least enforced in practice (Squire and Suthiwart-Narueput, 1997). According to Freeman (1993), these conventions reflect the ideal regulatory framework from an institutionalist perspective and cover a variety of labor market issues, from child labor to placement agencies. Whereas in theory, a country`s ratification of ILO conventions gives the country legal status and thus supersedes domestic regulations relating to those issues, in practice the degree of labor-market rigidity depends on how the conventions are enforced. It is the outcome of the regulations that matters, rather than their number.

ON NON-LINEARITIES BETWEEN EXPORTS OF MANUFACTURES AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

Building up human capital and other complementarities may be important in the link between exports of manufactures and economic growth. On the other hand, managerial strategies that push for export promotion may be important, too. Though both may yield non-linearities in the link between exports and growth, the associated patterns differ. In this paper we take an aseptic, empirical view in the link between these two variables and the possible non-linear links. Since direct testing for non-linearities in panel data may yield non-significant results although they may actually be present, we propose a very simple method that may serve as a first approximation to uncover such non-linearities. We also take into consideration endogeneity and reverse causality problems (Arellano and Bover, 1995), and definitional problems in our variable of interest. In fact, we use a panel of 96 countries for the period 1960-1995 and find evidence consistent with the presence of non-linearities. We apply formal sensitivity analysis and confirm the results.growth; exports; dynamic panel data; endogeneity

Labor Market Regulations and Income Inequality: Evidence for a Panel of Countries

This paper presents evidence on the impact of labor regulations on income inequality using two recently published databases on labor institutions and outcomes (Rama and Artecona, 2002; Botero, Djankov, La Porta, López-de-Silanes and Shleifer, 2003) and different cross-section and panel data analysis techniques for a sample of 121 countries over the 1970-2000 period. When we consider the techniques most likely to be robust, we find that: (i) de jure regulations do not improve income distribution; (ii) relative compliance with existing regulations improves income distribution; (iii) de facto regulations are weakly associated with improving income inequality. This result partly reflects the fact that regulations are endogenous and, more interestingly, different regulations have quite distinct effects. In particular, we find that any redistributive effect of labor regulations may come from trade union membership, public employment and mandated benefits (proxied by maternity leave).

Trade Intensity and Business Cycle Synchronization: Are Developing Countries any Different?

Some key criteria in the optimal currency area literature are that countries should join a currency union if they have closer international trade links and more symmetric business cycles. However, both criteria are endogenous. Frankel and Rose (1998) find that trade intensity increases cycle correlation among industrial countries. We study whether the same result holds true for the case of developing countries, as their different patterns of international trade and specialization may lead to cyclical asymmetries among them and between industrial and developing countries. We gather annual information for 147 countries for 1960-99 (33,676 country pairs) and find: (i) countries with higher bilateral trade exhibit higher business cycle synchronization, with an increase of one standard deviation in bilateral trade intensity raising the output correlation from 0. 05 to 0. 09 for all country pairs; (ii) countries with more asymmetric structures of production exhibit a smaller business cycle correlation; (iii) the impact of trade integration on business cycles is higher for industrial countries than both developing and industrial-developing country pairs; (iv) a one standard deviation increase in bilateral trade intensity leads to surges in output correlation from 0. 25 to 0. 39 among industrial countries, from 0. 08 to 0. 10 for our sample of industrial-developing country pairs, and from 0. 03 to 0. 06 among developing countries; (v) the impact of trade intensity on cycle correlation is smaller the greater the production structure asymmetries between the countries.

Assessing the Deterioration of Pennsylvania Marble in William Strickland\u27s Mechanics\u27 Bank

Pennsylvania marble, a moderately metamorphosed and polishable calcareous stone, was the most desirable building material in early-nineteenth-century Philadelphia, gracing structures that ranged from federal institutions to hundreds of rowhouse stoops and grave markers. While changes in architectural taste and a poor performance under pollution made it an obsolete material by the early twentieth century, its major role in the historic fabric of the city justifies research into its deterioration and conservation. The Mechanics’ Bank was erected on Philadelphia’s Third Street in 1837 by William Strickland, one of the country’s leading Greek Revival architects. The marble-clad Corinthian building is, in spite of its small size, one of the finest structures built in the city in the early nineteenth century; however, a history of private ownership and frequent changes in use has resulted in very little research on the building and scant, poorly documented, and often misguided maintenance. This thesis seeks to document the marble façade of the Mechanics’ Bank and gain an understanding of its micro- and macroscopic behavior through condition surveying and mapping, non-destructive evaluation methods, and laboratory analysis of samples including polarized light microscopy. The knowledge gathered through these means will be used to establish hypotheses for the causes of deterioration; compare the building with other Pennsylvania marble structures in Philadelphia; and test and refine previous findings on the relationship between the microstructure of Pennsylvania marble and its performance

Estrategias tarifarias y desestimulación del uso del vehículo particular por medio del pico y placa en Medellín

Se realizó una encuesta para analizar el pico y placa en Medellín utilizando los métodos de preferencias declaradas (MPD), que se refieren a una familia de técnicas, las cuales consisten en el establecimiento de respuestas individuales acerca de las preferencias en diferentes opciones de transporte. Se eligió para el estudio de los MPD el barrio Laureles, ya que es uno de los barrios con mayor posesión de automóviles en la ciudad y, por lo tanto, contribuye en gran medida a la congestión de tráfico en general. Se encontró que a los usuarios del vehículo particular no les gusta la idea del pico y placa, pero al aplicarla se mejora la situación de caos del transporte en la ciudad, preferiblemente escogerían la opción de irse con otra persona en carro, si la tiene (48%) por la comodidad del vehículo particular, luego escogerían la opción del bus (37%), ya que es un servicio bueno aunque con un poco de inseguridad. El 9% iría a su lugar de destino sólo en taxi por la comodidad y seguridad que se tiene y el 6% restante se iría en taxi y metro aunque eso implicara trasbordo ya que les exige desplazarse grandes distancias