Expansions and Contractions in Some Latin American Countries: A view Throught Non-Linear Models

The study of the asymmetric behavior of macroeconomic variables over the business cycles phases has had a long tradition in economics. In this work we find evidence in favor of the hypothesis of having a Star-type nonlinear asymmetric behavoir of the economy activity, over the last two decades, in four Latin American countries: Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. For Venezuela the null hypothesis of a linear process could not be rejected under the method placed by Granger and Terasvirta (1993). Economic activity is proxied by monthly based industrial production indexes. Except for the case of Mexico we arrive to asymmetric representations of the processes. However, evidence of asymmetric behavoir is found according to the impulse response function analysis for all the countries.Real industrial production index, nonlinearties, STAR models, impulse responses

Recent macroeconomic performance in colombia: what went wrong?

Al finalizar la d�cada anterior la actividad real en Colombia experiment� la m�s aguda recesi�n de los �ltimos 50 a�os. Para explicar este fen�meno, postulamos un modelo VAR estructural no-triangular que describe la din�mica de la producci�n, los precios, el desempleo y los salarios durante las �ltimas dos d�cadas. La evidencia sugiere que, en el largo plazo, la pol�tica monetaria ha sido neutral con respecto al producto y la desempleo, mientras que la principal raz�n para el incremento de �ste �ltimo se explica por la forma en que se han determinado los salarios (formaci�n de expectativas hacia atr�s) y el incremento de los costos no salariales.structural VAR, unemployment, monetary policy, wages, nonwage labour costs, expectations

Recent Behavior of Output, Unemployment, Wages and Prices in Colombia:What went Wrong?

At the end of the last decade, the real activity in Colombia underwent the sharpest recession of the last fifty years. We postulate a non-triangular structural VAR model(Amisano and Giannini, 1997) to describe the dynamics of output, prices, unemployment and wages during the last two decades. The evidence suggests that, in the long-run, monetary policy has been neutral to both output and unemployment while the main reasons for the increase in the latter have been the lack of credibility of monetary policy, the way in which wages are set and the increase in non-wage labor costs.Structural VAR,unemployment,monetary policy, wages, expectations

About a Coincidente Index for the State of the Economy

The construction of coincident indexes for the economic activity of a country is a common practice since the fifties. The methodologies vary from heuristic methods to probabilistic or statistical ones. In this paper, we present a new procedure for estimating a coincient index of the state of the economy which is optimum in a statiscal sense. This procedure is based on state space models that do possess the steady-state property.We apply our methodology for computing a coincident index for the Colombian economy.State of the economy, Coincidente Index, State Space Models.

Sustainability of Latin American Fiscal Deficits: A Panel Data Approach

This paper evaluates the fiscal sustainability hypothesis for eight Latin Americancountries for the period 1960 - 2009: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Paraguayand Uruguay. Using second generation cointegration panel data models, we test whether governmentrevenues and primary expenditures are sustainable in the long run. This methodology allowsfor cross-sectional dependence among countries and is appropriate under the existence of potentialstructural breaks. We found empirical evidence of sustainability of the primary deficit for theseLatin American countries but only in a weak sense.Fiscal Sustainability, Panel Unit Root tests, Panel Cointegration tests, Structural Change.

Forecasting Food Price Inflation in Developing Countries with Inflation Targeting Regimes: the Colombian Case

Many developing countries are adopting inflation targeting regimes to guide monetary policy decisions. In such countries the share of food in the consumption basket is high and policy makers often employ total inflation (as opposed to core inflation) to set inflationary targets. Therefore, central banks need to develop reliable models to forecast food inflation. Our literature review suggests that little has been done in the construction of models to forecast short-run food inflation in developing countries. We develop a model to improve short-run food inflation forecasts in Colombia. The model disaggregates food items according to economic theory and employs Flexible Least Squares given the presence of structural changes in the inflation series. We compare the performance of this new model to current models employed by the central bank. Next, we apply econometric methods to combine forecasts from alternative models and test whether such combination outperforms individual models. Our results indicate that forecasts can be improved by classifying food basket items according to unprocessed, processed and food away from home and by employing forecast combination techniques.Food Inflation, Time Series,

A Leading Index for the Colombian Economic Activity

In this paper,we propose a methodology for calculating a leading index of the economic activity based on a modification of Stock and Watson's (1989, 1991, 1992) approach. We use Kalman filter techniques for estimating the state space representation of the leading index model. The methodology is applied to the Colombian economy and the resulting index leads six months the Melo et al. (2002) coincident index (in semi-annual growt rates). As an intermediate result, we also develop an updating process of the coincident index.Coincident indexes, leading indexes, state space models.

COINTEGRATION VECTOR ESTIMATION BY DOLS FOR A THREE-DIMENSIONAL PANEL

This paper extends the asymptotic results of the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) cointegration vector estimator of Mark and Sul (2003) to a three-dimensional panel. We use a balanced panel of N and M lengths observed over T time periods. The cointegration vector is homogenous across individuals but we allow for individual heterogeneity using different short-run dynamics, individual-specific fixed effects and individual-specific time trends. Both individual effects are considered for the first two dimensions. This paper was motivated by the three-dimensional panel cointegration analysis used to estimate the total factor productivity for Colombian regions and sectors during 1975-2000 by Iregui, Melo and Ramírez (2007). They used the methodology proposed by Marrocu, Paci and Pala (2000); however, hypothesis testing is not valid under this technique. The methodology we are currently proposing allows us to estimate the long-run relationship and to construct asymptotically valid test statistics in the 3D-panel context.Cointegration, Dynamic OLS estimation, panel data in three dimensions. Classification JEL: C13; C33.

A Rationale and Suggested Program for Ministers\u27 Support Groups for Seventh-day Adventist Pastors in Brazil

No Abstract. This Doctor of Ministry Project report falls under the category described in the Seminary Bulletin as Project II, in fulfillment of requirements for an alternate curriculum plan under which the candidate prepares two related papers--a theological position paper addressing some issue or problem in the church theologically, and a professional paper addressing this issue or problem from the standpoint of ministerial practice