The Elasticity of Substitution in Demand for Non-Tradable Goods in Costa Rica

Using quarterly (annual) information on consumption and prices of non-tradable goods for the period 1980-2002 (1981-2001), this paper estimates the elasticity of substitution in demand for non-tradable goods in Costa Rica. The unit root and cointegration properties of the time series are tested, and then controlling for exogenous variables, the elasticity of substitution belonging to the interval [1. 46, 2. 14] ([ 0. 22, 0. 28]) is estimated. These results are statistically robust.

Gobierno Corporativo en Costa Rica

(Disponible en idioma inglés únicamente) En este trabajo se analizan las prácticas de conducción empresarial en Costa Rica. En primer lugar, se calculan las medidas de conducción empresarial constitutivas empleando datos específicos de 87 compañías costarricenses, y se analizan sus efectos en su desempeño; aquí, la media de la conducción empresarial constitutiva de compañías cotizadas en bolsa es igual a 56. 14. En segundo lugar, se presentan nuevos elementos de juicio sobre las medidas constitutivas de la conducción empresarial de jure y de facto al nivel de compañía y sobre sus repercusiones en el desempeño de las mismas. Los resultados indican que la conducción empresarial de facto es mejor que la conducción empresarial de jure. Estos resultados sugieren que las compañías deben aplicar un conjunto de medidas adicionales para compensar la debilidad del entorno jurídico. Además, se presentan indicios de que una mejor gestión de conducción empresarial y medidas constitutivas se vinculan con un desempeño superior de la empresa. En tercer lugar, en este trabajo se analizan los factores que controlan en última instancia a las empresas cotizadas y no cotizadas en bolsa, y se establecen vínculos entre ellas y sus políticas de dividendos. Las empresas familiares son corrientes en Costa Rica y no necesariamente se vinculan con un mejor desempeño empresarial. En cuarto lugar, se estudia la evolución de la propiedad de compañías en Costa Rica. Por último se analizan cambios del Código de Comercio desde el punto de vista de la buena conducción empresarial.

How to face the rising costs of healthcare?

Fil: Arce, Hugo E. Instituto Universitario de Ciencias de la Salud. Fundación Barceló; Argentina.In view of the uncontrolled increase in the costs of therapeutic innovations, the health systems face serious difficulties in maintaining the sustainability of their funding sources. In Argentina, one alternative is the implementation of a reinsurance for “low incidence and high cost” diseases classified as “catastrophic”. So far, the healthcare systems managed by trade unions and compulsory social insurance have only implemented this reinsurance for specifically-defined diseases and treatments. The cost estimate of a universal reinsurance premium for all forms of coverage requires very complex calculations, whose structure is exemplified. Another approach is the analysis of the scientific consistency of therapeutic innovations, as performed by health technology assessment agencies, whose examples in Europe and Latin America are mentioned. However, the prospects are difficult for all countries, in view of the demands for legalization expected to be presented by beneficiaries of protection systems and the arguments interposed by those responsible for providing the claimed benefits

Bailouts in Costa Rica as a Result of Government Centralization and Discretionary Transfers

This paper investigates the inter-relation between the central government and the municipalities in Costa Rica. It examines episodes in which the central government has bailed out the local governments from their obligations. We employ empirical and descriptive methods to show how discretionary grants relate to the degree of fiscal discipline of the municipality to produce hidden bailouts. Political, demographic, and economic variables explain the allocation of these discretionary transfers. We illustrate the effects of the high concentration of decision-making of the central government on the fiscal performance of the municipalities. The municipalities play a limited role and its functioning largely depends upon the central government. We argue that the national administration would face a high political cost if it did not bail out the local government in several of the episodes studied. Using panel data from 1982-1997 on 81 cantones, we find that the fiscal effort of the local government is reduced by the presence of discretionary grants. The local governments finance local expenses with these discretionary transfers according to our empirical results. As expected from the centralization issue, political variables such as the affiliation of the local administration have significant effects on the resources received by the municipalities.

A Bubbling Nearby Molecular Cloud: COMPLETE Shells in Perseus

We present a study on the shells (and bubbles) in the Perseus molecular cloud using the COMPLETE survey large-scale 12CO(1-0) and 13CO(1-0) maps. The twelve shells reported here are spread throughout most of the Perseus cloud and have circular or arc-like morphologies with a range in radius of about 0.1 to 3 pc. Most of them have not been detected before most likely as maps of the region lacked the coverage and resolution needed to distinguish them. The majority of the shells are coincident with infrared nebulosity of similar shape and have a candidate powering source near the center. We suggest they are formed by the interaction of spherical or very wide-angle winds powered by young stars inside or near the Perseus molecular cloud -a cloud that is commonly considered to be mostly forming low-mass stars. Two of the twelve shells are powered by high-mass stars close to the cloud, while the others appear to be powered by low or intermediate mass stars in the cloud. We argue that winds with a mass loss rate of about 10^-8 to 10^-6 M_sun/yr are required to produce the observed shells. Our estimates indicate that the energy input rate from these stellar winds is similar to the turbulence dissipation rate. We conclude that in Perseus the total energy input from both collimated protostellar outflows and powerful spherical winds from young stars is sufficient to maintain the turbulence in the molecular cloud. Large scale molecular line and IR continuum maps of a sample of clouds will help determine the frequency of this phenomenon in other star forming regions.Comment: 48 pages in total: 16 pages of text and references; 2 pages of tables; 30 figures (one page per figure). Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

The COMPLETE Survey of Outflows in Perseus

We present a study on the impact of molecular outflows in the Perseus molecular cloud complex using the COMPLETE survey large-scale 12CO(1-0) and 13CO(1-0) maps. We used three-dimensional isosurface models generated in RA-DEC-Velocity space to visualize the maps. This rendering of the molecular line data allowed for a rapid and efficient way to search for molecular outflows over a large (~ 16 sq. deg.) area. Our outflow-searching technique detected previously known molecular outflows as well as new candidate outflows. Most of these new outflow-related high-velocity features lie in regions that have been poorly studied before. These new outflow candidates more than double the amount of outflow mass, momentum, and kinetic energy in the Perseus cloud complex. Our results indicate that outflows have significant impact on the environment immediately surrounding localized regions of active star formation, but lack the energy needed to feed the observed turbulence in the entire Perseus complex. This implies that other energy sources, in addition to protostellar outflows, are responsible for turbulence on a global cloud scale in Perseus. We studied the impact of outflows in six regions with active star formation within Perseus of sizes in the range of 1 to 4 pc. We find that outflows have enough power to maintain the turbulence in these regions and enough momentum to disperse and unbind some mass from them. We found no correlation between outflow strength and star formation efficiency for the six different regions we studied, contrary to results of recent numerical simulations. The low fraction of gas that potentially could be ejected due to outflows suggests that additional mechanisms other than cloud dispersal by outflows are needed to explain low star formation efficiencies in clusters.Comment: Published in The Astrophysical Journa