Firm Dynamics and Real Exchange Rate Fluctuations: Does Trade Openness Matter? Evidence from Mexico´s Manufacturing Sector.

In this paper we study the effect of NAFTA on the responsiveness of the Mexican economy to real exchange rate shocks. We argue that, by opening the U.S. and Canadian markets to Mexican goods, NAFTA made it easier for domestic producers to take advantage of the opportunities brought by the depreciation of the real exchange rate. To identify this mechanism, we use plant-level data and compare the behavior of employment, production and investment after two big real exchange rate shocks: the first observed in the mid 1980s, the second the Tequila Crisis of 1994-1995. The evidence indicates that after passage of NAFTA exporting firms exhibited higher growth rates of employment, sales, and investment vis-à-vis non-exporters. We confirm our results by analyzing the behavior of a control group of firms, that had complete access to the U.S. market during both devaluations, and we show that they responded in a similar way in both events. Finally, we also provide direct evidence on the relationship between exports and tariff reductions brought about by NAFTA. Our results support the view that NAFTA has allowed Mexican producers to respond more quickly to real exchange rate shocks.

Firm Dynamics and Real Exchange Rate Fluctuations: Does Trade Openness Matter? Evidence from Mexico’s Manufacturing Sector

In this paper we study the effect of NAFTA on the responsiveness of the Mexican economy to real exchange rate shocks. We argue that, by opening the U.S. and Canadian markets to Mexican goods, NAFTA made it easier for domestic producers to take advantage of the opportunities brought by the depreciation of the real exchange rate. To identify this mechanism, we use plant-level data and compare the behavior of employment, production and investment after two big real exchange rate shocks: the firrst observed in the mid 1980s, and the second the Tequila Crisis of 1994-5. The evidence indicates that after the passage of NAFTA exporting firms exhibited higher growth rates of employment, sales, and investment vis-á-vis non-exporters. We confirm our results by analyzing the behavior of a control group of firms, that had complete access to the U.S. market during both devaluations, and we show that they responded in a similar way in both events. Finally, we also provide direct evidence on the relationship between exports and tariff reductions brought by NAFTA. Our results support the view that NAFTA has allowed Mexican producers to respond more quickly to real exchange shocks.

Firm Dynamics and Real Exchange Rate Fluctuations: Does Trade Openness Matter? Evidence from Mexico’s Manufacturing Sector

In this paper we study the effect of NAFTA on the responsiveness of Mexican economy to real exchange rate shocks. We argue that, by opening the U.S. and Canadian markets to Mexican goods, NAFTA made it easier for domestic producers to take advantage of the opportunities brought by the depreciation of the real exchange rate. To identify this mechanism, we use plant-level data and compare the behavior of employment, production and investment after two big real exchange rate shocks: the first observed in the mid 1980s, the second the Tequila Crisis of 1994-5. The evidence indicates that after passage of NAFTA exporting firms exhibited higher growth rates of employment, sales, and investment vis-á-vis non-exporters. We confirm our results by analyzing the behavior of a control group of firms, that had complete access to the U.S. market during both devaluations, and we show that they responded in a similar way in both events. Finally, we also provide direct evidence on the relationship between exports and tariff reductions brought by NAFTA. Our results support the view that NAFTA has allowed Mexican producers to respond more quickly to real exchange shocks.NAFTA, RER Shocks, Tequila Crisis, external adjustment, firm-level evidence of effects of RER Shocks

SME Policy and Firms’ Productivity in Latin America

Very little is known about the effectiveness of SME policies, and a careful look at the structure, mechanisms and incentives provided by these policies suggest caution in their implementation and, most importantly, the need to carefully and closely monitor their results. This paper relies on the microeconometric analysis of a homogeneous dataset of sixteen Latin American and Caribbean countries to analyze the magnitude and determinants of the productivity gap between large and SME firms and to simulate of the impact on productivity of various policy scenarios.SMEs, SME policy, productivity, Latin America

Building in an Evaluation Component for Active Labor Market Programs: A Practitioner's Guide

The guide outlines the main evaluation challenges associated with ALMP’s, and shows how to obtain rigorous impact estimates using two leading evaluation approaches. The most credible and straightforward evaluation method is a randomized design, in which a group of potential participants is randomly divided into a treatment and a control group. Random assignment ensures that the two groups would have had similar experiences in the post-program period in the absence of the program intervention. The observed post-program difference therefore yields a reliable estimate of the program impact. The second approach is a difference in differences design that compares the change in outcomes between the participant group and a selected comparison group from before to after the completion of the program. In general the outcomes of the comparison group may differ from the outcomes of the participant group, even in the absence of the program intervention. If the difference observed prior to the program would have persisted in the absence of the program, however, then the change in the outcome gap between the two groups yields a reliable estimate of the program impact. This guideline reviews the various steps in the design and implementation of ALMP’s, and in subsequent analysis of the program data, that will ensure a rigorous and informative impact evaluation using either of these two techniques.active labor market programs, policy evaluation, randomized trials, difference in difference, average treatment effect on the treated, development effectiveness

The importance of writing as a method of creating identity in feminist Chicana literature: Terri de la Peña’s margins.

The stronghold of the struggle of the Chicana, in general, as well as that of the Chicana writer in particular, has been that of eradicating all the prejudices which have misdescribed them as compliant women. Stereotypes had been created and sustained by their male counterparts throughout the years, becoming instrumental in the assimilation and “passive ” acceptance by the Chicanas of these deleterious preconceived ideas. The Chicana lesbian writer Terri de la Peña has endeavoured to abolish all the prejudices that had constrained the existence of the Chicanas in general, and that of the Chicana lesbians in particular, as well as the taboos they had been forced to assimilate and transmit. By means of writing, Verónica, protagonist of de la Peña´s Margins, abandons the “margins ” of her story to take a central position in the development of her new life, in which she fights to renegotiate her space within her community as well as to re-educate its members into a more tolerant, integrative understanding of life

On Identity, Place, Dignity, and Honor: The Madonnas of Echo Park (2010) by Brando Skyhorse

Brando Skyhorse’s first novel, The Madonnas of Echo Park, set in Echo Park, Los Angeles, portrays the lives, thoughts and feelings of eight different and diverse characters. All of them expose their direct link to the space they inhabit: the barrio. Parting from the premise that the link between space and identity is inextricable, and the fact that the general living conditions and access to different resources is scarce in many U.S. Latino quarters, the aim of this essay is to observe whether the way the characters experience this space affects their personal identity and relation to dignity and honor. Particularly, the way barrio life affects and shapes the personality of male characters. For this purpose, we will employ Alfredo Mirandé’s conceptualization of Chicano masculinity, characterized by a strong sense of honor, dignity and pride, among other things. We thus will observe whether a tough environment produces tough men.This essay is part of a project financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (code: FFI2011-23598) and the European Regional Fund (ERDF). It was also completed under the auspices of the research group REWEST funded by the Basque Government (Grupo Consolidado IT608-13) and the University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU (UFI 11/06)

Cash transfers, poverty, and inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean

We assess the non-contributory cash transfer systems in 17 Latin American and Caribbean countries to identify factors that keep them from reducing poverty and inequality. To perform this assessment, we analyze three dimensions of size (number of beneficiaries, size of transfer per beneficiary, and size of total budget) and three dimensions of targeting (coverage, leakage, and quality of demographic targeting). We identify 67 programs, which fall into three broad categories: conditional cash transfers, non-contributory pensions, and other transfers. We use an international poverty line of 6.85 dollars PPP per day (similar to the average national poverty line of upper middle-income countries), and adjust survey weights to correct for the fact that household survey data often underestimates the official number of transfer beneficiaries compared to administrative sources. We show that two key factors limit the effect of cash transfer programs on poverty and inequality: the small size of their transfers and their historic undercoverage of the population living in poverty. Transfers represent approximately 33% of the poverty gap. Additionally, only 55% of the population in poverty benefits from these programs. Forty-one percent of people living in households that receive at least one non-contributory transfer are above the poverty line. Children and Indigenous people are underrepresented, relative to their poverty rate, in the rosters of beneficiaries. Brazil, Suriname, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, and Uruguay consistently earn the highest scores across the assessment categories. Our policy recommendations include: (i) intensifying efforts to increase coverage among the poor, using modern poverty mapping techniques along with active, on-the-ground searches and (ii) recertifying eligibility for transfer programs more frequently by using highly interoperable administrative data and social registries. Both efforts are needed to create more efficient income protection systems that address both structural and transient poverty

On having/being a mother Yxta Maya Murray's portrayal of motherhood and barrio girls

La naturaleza patriarcal de la cultura chicana y mejicana y la importancia de la familia como institución fundamental para el grupo, ha perpetuado la creencia de que la capacidad reproductiva de las mujeres era la única que poseían. A pesar de los innumerables logros del Feminismo Chicano, el grupo de las adolescentes de los barrios más desfavorecidos entiende la maternidad como el mejor modo de sobrevivir en una sociedad que les niega unos derechos básicos. Este trabajo observa el modo en el que las obras de Yxta Maya Murray Locas (1997) y What it Takes to Get to Vegas (1999) reflejan la maternidad, con unas protagonistas caracterizadas por una situación social extremadamente complicada, así como por una gran dependencia del género masculino.The marked patriarchal essence of Mexican and Chicano culture and the relevance of the family as a foundational institution, has «relegated» Chicana women to being perceived mainly through their reproductive and childrearing functions. Despite the innumerable achievements of the Chicana Feminist Movement, there is still a group of young, uneducated women who understands motherhood as an ultimate act of survival within a society that denies them their basic rights. This essay observes the way motherhood and mothering are portrayed in Yxta Maya Murray’s Locas (1997) and What it Takes to Get to Vegas (1999), whose protagonists’ lives are determined by a difficult social situation and an unbreakable dependence upon men