Does asymmetric information cause the home equity bias?

The home equity bias is one of the many puzzles existing in international finance. This puzzle is characterized by the concentration of domestic equity in any investor's portfolio, which is in contradiction with the benchmark of full diversification in a world mutual fund. Based on Admati's (1985) and Gehrig's (1993) noisy rational expectation models, the author tries to explain the effect of asymmetric information in the home equity bias puzzle. While asymmetric information helps to explain the puzzle for the case of one domestic, and one foreign equity, this result relies on very restrictive assumptions. Using a model with one domestic asset and two foreign assets, the author illustrates that asymmetries of information are also consistent with home equity bias reversals. One proposition generalizes these results. Simulations corroborate the main theoretical predictions of the model presented by the author.Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Economic Theory&Research,Financial Intermediation,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Environmental Economics&Policies,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Financial Intermediation,Insurance Law

The Emergence of New Successful Export Activities in Latin America: The Case of Chile

This paper surveys overall export growth in Chile and focuses on three case studies of the emergence of successful export activities in Chile: wine, pork and blueberries. Each case study discusses how companies, associations, and governments at various levels have addressed market failures and facilitated the provision of public goods necessary for each activity. The case studies additionally profile first movers in each activity and describe the positive externalities they provide to imitators, particularly diffusion of export knowledge. Also included are counterfactual cases of a less successful firm or activity (an unsuccessful wine exporter, other types of berries, and commodity pork production rather than custom cuts, respectively) and a discussion of policy implications.Exports, Agriculture, Chile

Agriculture and national welfare around the world: causality and international heterogeneity since 1960

Calculations of marginal welfare effects suggest that agricultural development has had important positive effects on national welfare, especially in developing countries. Latin American and Caribbean countries have also benefited from agricultural growth, but non-agricultural production has had marginal welfare effects that are greater in magnitude than those provided by agricultural activities. In contrast, the industrialized, high-income countries experienced marginal welfare gains from non-agricultural activities that are much greater than those derived from agriculture, whose impact is actually negative. These calculations of marginal welfare effects across regions depend on econometric estimates of elasticities linking agricultural and nonagricultural economic activities to four elements in a national welfare function: national GDP per capita, average income of the poorest households within countries, environmental outcomes concerning air and water pollution and deforestation, and macroeconomic volatility. The econometric analyses are motivated by theoretical treatments of key issues. The empirical models are estimated with various econometric techniques that deal with issues of causality and international heterogeneity.Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Health Economics&Finance,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Achieving Shared Growth,Health Economics&Finance

Intellectual property rights, human capital and the incidence of R&D expenditures

Numerous studies predict that developing countries with low human capital may not benefit from the strengthening of intellectual property rights. The authors extend an influential theoretical framework to highlight the role of intellectual property rights in the process of innovation and structural change. The resulting theory is consistent with a stylized fact that appears in the data, namely that countries with poor intellectual-property protection may accumulate human capital without a corresponding increase in research and development investment as a share of national income. The model predicts that without minimum intellectual-property protection, additional education may result in more imitation rather than innovation. The preponderance of the econometric evidence presented in this paper suggests that interactions between human capital and intellectual property rights determine global patterns of research and development effort, and intellectual property rights tend to raise the effect of education on the incidence of research and development.Economic Theory&Research,E-Business,Debt Markets,Labor Policies,Knowledge for Development

The relative richness of the poor? natural resources, human capital, and economic growth

Are natural resources a blessing or a curse? The authors present a model in which natural resources have a positive effect on the level of income and a negative effect on its growth rate. The positive and permanent effect on income implies a welfare gain. There is a growth effect stemming from a composition effect. However, the authors show that this effect can be offset by having a large level of human capital. They test their model using panel data for the period 1970-90. They extend the usual specifications for economic growth regressions by incorporating an interaction term between human capital and natural resources, showing that high levels of human capital may outweigh the negative effects of the natural resource abundance on growth. The authors also review the historical experience of Scandinavian countries, which in contrast to Latin America, another region well-endowed with natural resources, shows how it is possible to grow fast based on natural resources.Capital Markets and Capital Flows,Economic Theory&Research,Decentralization,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Growth,Inequality,Governance Indicators

Remoteness and Real Exchange Rate Volatility

This paper examines the impact of trade costs on real exchange rate volatility. The relationship is examined by constructing a two-country Ricardian model of trade, based on the work of Dornbusch, Fischer, and Samuelson (1977), which shows that higher trade costs result in a larger nontradables sector, in turn leading to higher real exchange rate volatility. We then construct a remoteness index to proxy for trade costs, and provide empirical evidence supporting the channel. Copyright 2006, International Monetary Fund

The Relative Richness of the Poor? Natural Resources, Human Capital and Economic Growth

What is the role of natural resources in economic performance? Are there any special conditions in which natural resources can act as the engine of growth? Are natural resources a curse? In this paper we present a model where natural resources have a positive effect on level of income and a negative effect on its growth rate. However, we show that this effect can be ameliorated by having a large level of human capital. We test our model using panel data for the period 1970-1990. We extend the usual specifications for economic growth regressions by incorporating an interaction term between human capital and natural resources, showing that countries high levels of human capital may more than offset the negative effects of the natural resource abundance on growth. We also review the historical experience of Scandinavian countries, which in contrast to Latin America, another region well endowed with natural resources, which shows how it is possible to grow fast based on natural resources. Overall the em pirical evidence is consistent with the main predictions of the model.

Exploring the Relationship Between R&D and Productivity: A Country-Level Study

Research and development (R&D) has been considered a source of growth in productivity starting from Schultz (1953). Since then, significant research has studied this relationship at the firm, industry and country level. However, at the country level, most of the empirical studies assessing the R&D-productivity relationship often fail to consider the possible simultaneity of these variables. Do more productive countries invest more on R&D or does the higher level of R&D investment that leads to higher levels of productivity? Do both relationships occur at the same time? Using a 65-country panel for the time period of 1960- 2000, this study provides evidence that the relationship is mainly based on investment in R&D and not the reverse. In addition, we found that per capita R&D expenditure is strongly exogenous to productivity. These results suggest that, on average, those countries making the most effort in the R&D sector will be more productive in the future. Finally, we present evidence those points out a strong relationship between R&D and productivity in terms of both magnitude and significance.

Innovation, R&D Investment and Productivity in Chile

This paper uses two sources of information and different methodologies to analyze the causal effect of product and process innovation on productivity in the Chilean manufacturing industry during the past decade. In general, the evidence suggests there is not a contemporaneous effect of product innovation on productivity, but there is a positive effect of process innovation. This notsignificant effect of product innovation contrasts with evidence of studies for other countries. However, the results show the presence of lagged effects product innovation on productivity two years after innovation. Compared with the case of developed countries, this evidence might be consistent with a very slow process of “learning by doing” on the part of Chilean firms with regard to mastering new technologies. These slow and frequently uncertain gains in productivity could help to explain the low levels of investment in research and development (R&D) activities by Chilean firms.Productivity, Innovation, Investment, Research and development, Chile

The Wage Geography of Brazil after the Reforms

What has been the impact of the trade liberalization on the regional and industrial wage structure in Brazil? This paper attempts to shed light on the determinants of the evolution of wages during the period 1986-1999. We approach this question relying on the main insights of the new economic geography of trade and traditional trade theory. The main findings of the paper suggest that there has been significant convergence of wages across regions and industries. Furthermore, we find that wage premia have increased in those regions with higher share of skilled workers or higher average years of schooling. Regarding the role of factor endowments, we find that regions with a higher share of the mining production have increased their wage premia. The impact of the endowment of agricultural land is ambiguous. Finally, we find strong evidence of a decrease in the expected wage-geographical-gradient that should exist towards the economic poles of Mercosur, either Sao Paulo or Buenos Aires. The paper discusses the econometric identification problems faced by the estimation of regression models with fixed effects (by region/industry) with time-invariant regressors, such as the geographic distance of states to Sao Paulo or Buenos AireLederman's Session