Productive Development Policies in Argentina

In contrast to the limited impact of aggregate-level productive development policies (PDPs) in Argentina, micro-level PDPs in several sectors have proven highly successful. This study seeks to understand how these PDPs succeeded in a challenging environment, what kinds of mechanisms were generated to ensure adaptation and learning, and how these PDPs evolved. Of importance is not only policy design and implementation, but also the policymaking. Following a historical overview of PDP in Argentina, the paper presents three case studies: i) the Argentine Technology Fund (FONTAR), a horizontal PDP; ii) the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), a vertical PDP; and iii) the application of both horizontal and vertical PDPs to the biotechnology sector. Lessons learned and conclusions are presented in a final section.Productive Development Policies, Industrial Policy, Policymaking, Argentina

Impact of Technical Barriers to Trade on Argentine Exports and Labor Markets

While tariff and quota barriers in agricultural, food and manufactured products have been declining due to the proliferation of multilateral trade agreements, there is increasing debate regarding the impact of product and process standards and technical regulations, since they may have become a subtler form of protection. One of the possible effects of increasing standards in developing countries is that it may affect the size of the exporting sector, with adverse effects on labor markets. We test such effect for the case of Argentina using firm level data for the manufacturing sector. We find evidence of a reduction in export shares due to an increase in standard stringency. Moreover, there is an increase in the skill ratio for exporting firms. The overall effect of standard stringency on average wages of exporting firms is negative, supporting the idea that lower net producer prices, due to a higher cost of standard compliance, are passed on to workers.

The Emergence of New Successful Export Activities in Argentina: Self-Discovery, Knowledge Niches, or Barriers to Riches?

This paper examines the emergence of three new successful export activities in Argentina: biotechnology applied to human health, blueberries and chocolate confections. The main interest lies in ascertaining why these sectors/products were targeted, on which previously accumulated capabilities they were built upon, and what type of hurdles they faced and how they were overcome. In the absence of government support for discovery, these new exports emerged because the pioneers could introduce permanent or dynamic barriers to entry to compensate for the knowledge externalities they generated. When they could only introduce temporary barriers to entry, laissez faire investment in experimentation was suboptimally small. These new exports emerged in sectors where there were entrepreneurs with superior planning and networking skills and/or there were larger firms that could self-provide the required public goods and solve coordination failures by themselves.

Entendiendo los niveles de productividad, crecimiento y dispersión en el sector textil argentino

We use case study techniques to analyze the determinants of the marked productivity decline experienced by the textiles sector in Argentina since 1996. We find that, given the observed complementarity in the qualities chosen by different firms in this sector, low productivity results from a failure to coordinate in the investment in quality upgrading technologies by all firms. The sector was pushed to a poor productivity equilibrium by adverse financial shocks that combined with capital wedges to prompt some firms to invest in lower quality or to exit the market, propagating to the other firms through the quality complementarity.Este trabajo analiza los determinantes del colapso en productividad del sector textil en Argentina desde 1996, empleando técnicas de estudio de caso. Dada la complementariedad encontrada en la elección de calidad por distintas empresas, la baja productividad resulta de una falla de coordinación para invertir en tecnologías que mejoren la calidad. El sector fue empujado hacia un equilibrio de baja productividad por una combinación de shocks financieros adversos junto con imperfecciones crediticias que llevaron a algunas empresas a invertir en calidad inferior o a dejar el mercado, propagándose a las demás empresas a través de la complementariedad en calidades.&nbsp

Regulatory chill? Why TTIP could inhibit governments from regulating in the public interest

On 10 June a key debate in the European Parliament on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was suspended. As Gabriel Siles-Brügge and Nicolette Butler write, much of the criticism of TTIP has focused on its impact on public healthcare systems and the role of ‘corporate tribunals’. They argue that this overlooks one of TTIP’s central purposes: a series of provisions that could make it more difficult for governments to regulate in the public interest for the sake of promoting regulatory convergence between the EU and the US

Association Between High Perceived Stress Over Time and Incident Hypertension in Black Adults: Findings From the Jackson Heart Study.

Background Chronic psychological stress has been associated with hypertension, but few studies have examined this relationship in blacks. We examined the association between perceived stress levels assessed annually for up to 13 years and incident hypertension in the Jackson Heart Study, a community-based cohort of blacks. Methods and Results Analyses included 1829 participants without hypertension at baseline (Exam 1, 2000-2004). Incident hypertension was defined as blood pressure≥140/90 mm Hg or antihypertensive medication use at Exam 2 (2005-2008) or Exam 3 (2009-2012). Each follow-up interval at risk of hypertension was categorized as low, moderate, or high perceived stress based on the number of annual assessments between exams in which participants reported "a lot" or "extreme" stress over the previous year (low, 0 high stress ratings; moderate, 1 high stress rating; high, ≥2 high stress ratings). During follow-up (median, 7.0 years), hypertension incidence was 48.5%. Hypertension developed in 30.6% of intervals with low perceived stress, 34.6% of intervals with moderate perceived stress, and 38.2% of intervals with high perceived stress. Age-, sex-, and time-adjusted risk ratios (95% CI) associated with moderate and high perceived stress versus low perceived stress were 1.19 (1.04-1.37) and 1.37 (1.20-1.57), respectively (P trend<0.001). The association was present after adjustment for demographic, clinical, and behavioral factors and baseline stress (P trend=0.001). Conclusions In a community-based cohort of blacks, higher perceived stress over time was associated with an increased risk of developing hypertension. Evaluating stress levels over time and intervening when high perceived stress is persistent may reduce hypertension risk

Magnetic flows on Sol-manifolds: dynamical and symplectic aspects

We consider magnetic flows on compact quotients of the 3-dimensional solvable geometry Sol determined by the usual left-invariant metric and the distinguished monopole. We show that these flows have positive Liouville entropy and therefore are never completely integrable. This should be compared with the known fact that the underlying geodesic flow is completely integrable in spite of having positive topological entropy. We also show that for a large class of twisted cotangent bundles of solvable manifolds every compact set is displaceable.Comment: Final version to appear in CMP. Two new remarks have been added as well as some numerical calculations for metric entrop

Impact of technical barriers to trade on Argentine exports and labor markets

Este trabajo documenta los cambios en la distribución del ingreso de Argentina desde mediados de los setenta hasta mediados de los años 2000. La desigualdad aumentó significativamente durante este período, con dos tipos de episodios que dieron forma a este perfil creciente: crisis macroeconómicas profundas y períodos de repentina e intensa liberalización económica. El considerable aumento en la desigualdad durante los noventa aparece asociado a reasignaciones en contra de los sectores intensivos en el uso de trabajo no calificado y al cambio tecnológico sesgado a favor del trabajo calificado, ambos factores estimulados por el proceso de integración económica. La profundidad y la velocidad de las reformas, junto con la escasez de políticas públicas para facilitar la transición, contribuyeron a la severidad de los cambios distributivos. Las crisis macroeconómicas y las recuperaciones posteriores contribuyeron a la volatilidad de la desigualdad a lo largo de esta tendencia creciente. La crisis de 2001/02 disparó los niveles de desigualdad, aunque estos retornaron a los niveles previos a la crisis con la rápida recuperación de la economía y la implementación de grandes programas de transferencias monetarias.Trabajo publicado en Lucas, R. E. B.; Srinivasan, T.N. y Squire, L. (eds.). Global Economic Institutional, Intellectual, Religious Interactions: A Historical Sketch. Edward Elgar Publishers, 2009.Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS