El impacto de la privatización del sector eléctrico en la salud pública

Este informe utiliza información a nivel provincial en Argentina para probar la relación casual entre la distribución de electricidad y la salud. Examina el impacto de la privatización en dos medidas: incidencia en los índices de nacimientos de bajo peso y mortalidad infantil causada por envenenamiento de comida. La privatizacion mejora la cobertura del servicio que, a través del uso de refrigeradoras puede mejorar la ración nutricional. La privatización también tiene por resultado la reducción en la frecuencia de interrupciones eléctricas, y así reducir la probabilidad del envenenamiento de la comida. A pesar que la evidencia indica que la privatización reduce el índice de nacimientos de bajo peso y mortalidad infantil causados por el envenenamiento de la comida, los resultados no son lo suficientemente fuertes para enriquecer el debate de políticasrespecto a los beneficios de la privatización para el bienestar de los pobres.

Ageing, Government Budgets, Retirement, and Growth

We analyze the short and long run effects of demographic ageing—increased longevity and reduced fertility—on per-capita growth. The OLG model captures direct effects, working through adjustments in the savings rate, labor supply, and capital deepening, and indirect effects, working through changes of taxes, government spending components and the retirement age in politico-economic equilibrium. Growth is driven by capital accumulation and productivity increases fueled by public investment. The closed-form solutions of the model predict taxation and the retirement age in OECD economies to increase in response to demographic ageing and per-capita growth to accelerate. If the retirement age were held constant, the growth rate in politico-economic equilibrium would essentially remain unchanged, due to a surge of social security transfers and crowding out of public investment.

Ageing, Government Budgets, Retirement, and Growth

We analyze the short and long run effects of demographic ageing—increased longevity and reduced fertility—on per-capita growth. The OLG model captures direct effects, working through adjustments in the savings rate, labor supply, and capital deepening, and indirect effects, working through changes of taxes, government spending components and the retirement age in politico-economic equilibrium. Growth is driven by capital accumulation and productivity increases fueled by public investment. The closed-form solutions of the model predict taxation and the retirement age in OECD economies to increase in response to demographic ageing and per-capita growth to accelerate. If the retirement age were held constant, the growth rate in politico-economic equilibrium would essentially remain unchanged, due to a surge of social security transfers and crowding out of public investment.ageing, government budgets, retirement, growth

Economic and Politico-Economic Equivalence of Fiscal Policies

We extend “economic equivalence” results, like the Ricardian equivalence proposition, to the political sphere where policy is chosen sequentially. We derive conditions under which a policy regime (summarizing admissible policy choices in every period) and a state are “politico-economically equivalent” to another such pair, in the sense that both pairs give rise to the same equilibrium allocation. We apply the conditions in the context of politico-economic theories of government debt as a means to i) deliver intergenerational transfers or ii) smooth tax distortions. We find that certain politico-economic models of social security or variants thereof can be re-interpreted as novel politico-economic theories of debt while other models cannot, possibly explaining the political conflict surrounding social security reform. We also find that in environments with distorting taxes, economic equivalence relations between policies with different levels of debt do not extend to the political sphere.equivalence, social security, government debt, social security reform

Sustaining Social Security

This paper analyzes the sustainability of intergenerational transfers in politico-economic equilibrium. Embedding electoral competition for the votes of old and young households in the standard Diamond (1965) OLG model, we find that intergenerational transfers naturally arise in a Markov perfect equilibrium, even in the absence of altruism, commitment, or trigger strategies. Not internalizing the negative effects of transfers for future generations, the political process partially resolves the distributive conflict between old and young voters by shifting some of the cost of social security to the unborn. As a consequence, transfers in politico-economic equilibrium are higher than what is socially optimal. Standard functional form assumptions yield closed-form solutions for the politico-economic equilibrium as well as the equilibrium supported by the Ramsey policy. The model predicts population ageing to lead to larger social security systems, but eventually lower benefits per retiree. Under realistic parameter values, it predicts a social-security tax rate close to the actual one, but higher than the Ramsey tax rate. Closed-form solutions for the case with endogenous labor supply, tax distortions, and multiple policy instruments prove the results to be robust.social security, intergenerational transfers, probabilistic voting, Markov perfect equilibrium, saving, labor supply

Financial Innovation, Market Participation and Asset Prices

This paper theoretically investigates the pricing effects of financial innovation in an economy with endogenous participation and heterogeneous income risks. The introduction of non-redundant assets can endogenously modify the participation set, reduce the covariance between dividends and participants’ consumption and thus lead to lower risk premia. This mechanism is demonstrated in a tractable exchange economy with a finite number of macroeconomic factors. Agents can freely borrow and lend, but must pay a fixed entry cost to invest in risky assets. Security prices and the participation structure are jointly determined in equilibrium. The model is consistent with several features of financial markets over the past few decades: substantial financial innovation; a sharp increase in investor participation; improved risk management practices; a slight increase in interest rates; and a reduction in risk premia

Financial Innovation, Market Participation and Asset Prices

This paper theoretically investigates the pricing effects of financial innovation in an economy with endogenous participation and heterogeneous income risks. The introduction of non-redundant assets can endogenously modify the participation set, reduce the covariance between dividends and participants’ consumption and thus lead to lower risk premia. This mechanism is demonstrated in a tractable exchange economy with a finite number of macroeconomic factors. Agents can freely borrow and lend, but must pay a fixed entry cost to invest in risky assets. Security prices and the participation structure are jointly determined in equilibrium. The model is consistent with several features of financial markets over the past few decades: substantial financial innovation; a sharp increase in investor participation; improved risk management practices; a slight increase in interest rates; and a reduction in risk premia

Financial Innovation, Market Participation and Asset Prices

This paper theoretically investigates the pricing effects of financial innovation in an economy with endogenous participation and heterogeneous income risks. The introduction of non-redundant assets can endogenously modify the participation set, reduce the covariance between dividends and participants’ consumption and thus lead to lower risk premia. This mechanism is demonstrated in a tractable exchange economy with a finite number of macroeconomic factors. Agents can freely borrow and lend, but must pay a fixed entry cost to invest in risky assets. Security prices and the participation structure are jointly determined in equilibrium. The model is consistent with several features of financial markets over the past few decades: substantial financial innovation; a sharp increase in investor participation; improved risk management practices; a slight increase in interest rates; and a reduction in risk premia

Financial Innovation, Market Participation and Asset Prices

This paper theoretically investigates the pricing effects of financial innovation in an economy with endogenous participation and heterogeneous income risks. The introduction of non-redundant assets can endogenously modify the participation set, reduce the covariance between dividends and participants’ consumption and thus lead to lower risk premia. This mechanism is demonstrated in a tractable exchange economy with a finite number of macroeconomic factors. Agents can freely borrow and lend, but must pay a fixed entry cost to invest in risky assets. Security prices and the participation structure are jointly determined in equilibrium. The model is consistent with several features of financial markets over the past few decades: substantial financial innovation; a sharp increase in investor participation; improved risk management practices; a slight increase in interest rates; and a reduction in risk premia