Micro-foundations of individual preferences for protectionism in Canada and Uruguay

Even when the majority of economists agree on the benefits of free trade, everywhere we turn to,trade is restricted. In contexts where politicians offer different policy options and voters demand them based on their individual preferences, one may ask what determines personal preferences on trade policy; which economic, cultural, social elements shape them. The goal of this paper is to answer these questions in the case of two different economies: Canada and Uruguay. The data source is the module on National Identity (2003) which was carried out in accordance with the International Social Survey Program. Based on probit models, the main conclusion of this paper is that the evidence does not support the conclusions on preference formation of the Hecksher-Ohlin trade model, while elements such as religion, political preferences, and nationalism, as well as demographic characteristics, have a significant impact on trade policy preferences.Preferences, micro-foundations, protectionism, rationality, ISSP

Anomalous Transport in Holographic Chiral Superfluids via Kubo Formulae

We study anomalous conductivities in Chiral Superfluids in the framework of two different holographic models, by means of Kubo formulae. In addition, we point out the existence of an anomalous transport phenomenon that consists in the presence of a charge density when the superfluid velocity is aligned with a magnetic field. It has been pointed out recently that certain chiral conductivities in holographic superfluids exhibit universal behavior at zero temperature. We show that anomalous conductivities always stabilize at low temperatures in our setup. Even though the particular value they acquire is model-dependent, it seems to be robust and determined solely by the interplay between the broken symmetries and the anomalies.Comment: 23 pages, 22 figures. v2: references added, minor typos corrected. v3: footnotes added; published versio

A cross-country analysis of the risk factors for depression at the micro and macro level

Past research has provided evidence of the role of personal characteristics as risk factors for depression. However, few researches examined jointly the impact of each characteristic and whether country attributes change the probability of being depressed. This is due to the use of single-country databases. Our aim is to extend previous findings by employing a much larger dataset and including the above-mentioned country effects. We estimate probit models with country effects and we also explore linkages between specific environmental factors and depression. The dataset for this research comes from the 2007 GALLUP Public Opinion Poll that allows us to consider a large and widely heterogeneous set of micro-data. Findings indicate that depression is positively related to being a woman, adulthood, divorce, widowhood, unemployment and low income. Moreover, we provide evidence of the significant association between economic performance and depression. Inequality raises the probability of being depressed, specially, for those living in urban areas. Finally, some population’s characteristics facilitate depression (age distribution and religious affiliation).depression, health, well-being, cross-country research

Has the origin of capitals a relevant impact on implementing corporate social responsibility? The Uruguayan case.

We assess whether being socially responsible is influenced by the origin of capitals and we examine the different views of the firms regarding CSR, in the case of a small open economy, Uruguay. Our dataset comes from the 2007 Corporate Social Responsibility Survey. The contributions of this research are threefold. Firstly, while a great part of the research on this issue is based on special cases, we employ and draw conclusions from a representative survey. Secondly, we deal with an unexplored issue: the incidence of the origin of capitals in motivating social responsible behavior. Finally, we highlighted the need of strengthening the communication channels between the firms and the public.corporate social responsibility, being socially responsible, Urugua

Permissiveness toward illegal actions in Uruguay Are Belief in God, income and education relevant?

This paper assesses the willingness to justify illegal actions and whether this attitude has changed between 1995 and 2005. Our dataset are 1995 and 2005 waves of World Values Survey. Permissiveness or the willingness to justify illegal actions is a cultural phenomenon that can be defined in several ways depending on societies and people. Hence, we consider firstly the four dimensions available (accepting bribes, evading taxes, etc.), and we estimated multivariate regressions. Secondly, from principal component analysis, we generated a new variable "willingness to justify” as a weighted average of the previous dimensions. We find that socio-demographic variables such as age and education reduce permissiveness, political affiliation with the Center hikes it, being employed full time reduces permissiveness while income has the opposite effect, even when religiosity reduces permissiveness, beliefs in God do not matter, living in Montevideo reduces permissiveness and finally, between 1995 and 2005 the permissiveness among Uruguayans has changed, the model show that the probability of being permissive is significantly higher in 2005 than in 1995permissiveness, illegal action, microeconomic behavior, Uruguay.

A Cross-Country Analysis of the Risk Factors for Depression at the Micro and Macro Level

Past research has provided evidence of the role of some personal characteristics as risk factors for depression. However, few studies have examined jointly their specific impact and whether country characteristics change the probability of being depressed. In general, this is due to the use of single-country databases. The aim of this paper is to extend previous findings by employing a much larger dataset and including the country effects mentioned above. The paper estimates probit models with country effects and explores linkages between specific environmental factors and depression using data from the 2007 Gallup Public Opinion Poll. Findings indicate that depression is positively related to being a woman, adulthood, divorce, widowhood, unemployment and low income. Moreover, there is evidence of the significant positive association between inequality and depression, especially for those living in urban areas. Finally, some population’s characteristics facilitate depression (age distribution and religious affiliation).Depression, Health, Well-being, Cross-country research

Perception of corruption in Uruguay: the effects of the sector of employment, life-course adjustments and education

In 2004, Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index ranks Uruguay at 28, seven positions higher than in 2001, scores changed from 5.1 to 6.2 (a higher score means less perceived corruption). In addition, there were no relevant corruption scandals in that period. Hence, we should ask: what are the foundations of corruption perception? We assess this at the micro-level. Our dataset is the module on Citizenship of the International Social Survey Program (that was carried out in 2004) and we estimate ordered a probit model. We find that some economic variables are significant. In particular we show that those who work in private enterprises tend to perceive higher levels of corruption as do unemployed people. Hence those who may be on the supply side of the bribe “market” perceive a higher level of corruption than those on the demand side (civil servants). In addition, our main contribution to the existence literature is showing that socio-demographic variables play a relevant role. We show that those who belong to the youngest group, who took, at least, high school studies and those who belong to a religious group are more likely to perceive a higher level of corruption.corruption, public opinion, microeconomic behavior, ISSP, Uruguay.

Public opinion’s involvement and interests on environmental issues

The aim of this study is to extend previous findings by showing that involvement in environmental issues is shaped by personal attributes such as education and the subjective income but also by country characteristics. The dataset for this research comes from the 2005 World Value Survey and the 2008 Latin-barometer survey that allow us to consider a large and heterogeneous set of countries. The contributions of the paper are three-fold. Firstly, we provide clear evidence that the economic performance plays a relevant role, one direct consequence of this finding is that policies that change the macroeconomic arena would also change people’s attitudes. Secondly, we find that environmental quality could be considered as a luxury good by richer people because people’s attitudes depend not only on their income but also on the economic performance. Finally, richer people are aware of the availability of resources and of the quality of the institutions, hence their behavior changes depending on the characteristics of the country: in relatively poorer countries (where there are fewer resources), they tend to participate more than richer people that live in relatively richer countries.environmental economics, environmental quality, income, human development, cross-country research