Ecologia e Capital : quando a teoria não esquece o mundo

Enrique LEFF, Ecologia, capital e cultura. A territorialização da racionalidade ambienta

Fiscal Policy and Income Distribution : Argentina 1995-2010

This paper studies the effect of consolidate –national and provincial– fiscal policy in Argentina on income distribution, building a novel panel data for 1995-2010 considering the 24 jurisdictions and quintile groups within provinces. We allocate expenditures, taxes and transfers among provinces and among people within provinces, according to benefit and incidence principles, avoiding double accounting, and build three measures of income: ex ante, interim, and ex post (or extended) income. We find that i) personal income inequality increased between 1995 and 2002, and then reverted the trend; ii) the trends in income inequality have a parallel with the different macroeconomic regimes nested in the sample (convertibility between 1995 and 2001 and post convertibility since 2002); iii) the effect of fiscal policy is a reduction in the Gini coefficient of 6 points in 1995, 5 points in 2002 and 10 points in 2010; iv) the mix of instruments to redistribute income changed with time towards cash transfers and against in-kind expenditures; iv) provincial budgets contribute strongly to progressivity; v) social expenditure is the most important redistribution tool, but economic services have grown in size between sub-periods, pushed by government subsidies in energy and transport, and vi) the paper measures the distribution of budget but leave aside the distribution of results (e.g., expenditure performance).Facultad de Ciencias Económica

Impuesto a los ingresos brutos: "Ave fénix" de la estructura tributaria subnacional

The tax structure includes two aspects: the composition of the public resources and the structure of the taxes in particular. In this paper both questions are studied for the own revenues of the Buenos Aires province. The composition has experienced a notable change throughout the time. Gross receipts taxes replaced the other provincial taxes, especially the property tax. The tax has had important changes along the time and exhibits nowadays a complex structure of tax-rates that is studied theoretical and empirically.La estructura de un sistema tributario comprende dos aspectos: la composición de los recursos públicos y la estructura de los impuestos en particular. En este trabajo se estudian las dos cuestiones para los recursos propios de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. La composición ha experimentado un cambio notable a lo largo del tiempo. Ingresos Brutos ha sustituido a los otros tributos provinciales, especialmente a los que gravan la propiedad inmueble. El impuesto ha tenido cambios importantes a lo largo del tiempo y exhibe actualmente una compleja estructura de alícuotas que se estudia teórica y empíricamente

Regional income redistribution and risk-sharing: lessons from Argentina

This paper estimates redistribution and risk-sharing across provinces in Argentina during the 1995–2010 period as a result of the national budget. We find that the aggregate national budget (expenditure, transfers and their corresponding revenues) reduces differences in the per capita provincial Gross Geographic Product by 5% in the long term, and stabilizes such differences by 10%. The redistributive tool is national expenditure, while automatic intergovernmental transfers are almost neutral and tax revenues amplify regional disparities. The quantitative effects are somewhat modest in comparison with those achieved in developed countries. Regressive taxation is the key difference with developed countries.Facultad de Ciencias Económica

Regional income redistribution and risk-sharing: lessons from Argentina

This paper estimates redistribution and risk-sharing across provinces in Argentina during the 1995–2010 period as a result of the national budget. We find that the aggregate national budget (expenditure, transfers and their corresponding revenues) reduces differences in the per capita provincial Gross Geographic Product by 5% in the long term, and stabilizes such differences by 10%. The redistributive tool is national expenditure, while automatic intergovernmental transfers are almost neutral and tax revenues amplify regional disparities. The quantitative effects are somewhat modest in comparison with those achieved in developed countries. Regressive taxation is the key difference with developed countries.Facultad de Ciencias Económica

A Ecologia Política na América Latina: a reapropriação da natureza, a reinvenção dos territórios e a construção da racionalidade ambiental

Political ecology is the disciplinary and political field regarding the encountering of different rationalities for the social appropriation of nature and the construction of a sustainable future. This historical purpose demands the deconstruction of theories and practices built on the foundations of scientific, economic, technological and political modern rationality, inscribed in national and international institutions of the globalized world and rooted in the life-worlds of the people, to establish new socio-environmental relations. Political ecology operates this deconstruction not only in theory, but through emancipation practices of those people engaged in struggles for the reinvention of their identities and the re-appropriation of their bio-cultural territories. Environmental rationality deconstructs the economic rationality by constructing an eco-technological-cultural paradigm of production founded on the principle of negentropic productivity. The conditions of life of diverse cultures, registered on people’s imaginaries and practices, reemerge today in the re-signification and re-affirmation of cultural identities in their struggles for the re-appropriation of nature and re-territorialization of their life-worlds.A ecologia política é o campo disciplinar e político do encontro de diferentes racionalidades na apropriação social da natureza e na construção de um futuro sustentável. Este propósito histórico demanda a desconstrução das teorias e práticas edificadas sobre os fundamentos da racionalidade científica, econômica, tecnológica e política da modernidade, inscritas nas instituições nacionais e internacionais do mundo globalizado e arraigadas nos mundos de vida das pessoas, para construir novas relações socioambientais. A ecologia política não só opera esta desconstrução na teoria, mas também por meio das práticas de emancipação dos povos nas suas lutas pela reinvenção de suas identidades e pela reapropriação de seus territórios bioculturais. A racionalidade ambiental desconstrói a racionalidade econômica dominante por meio da construção de um paradigma eco-tecnológico-cultural de produção fundado no princípio da produtividade neguentrópica. As condições de vida das diferentes culturas, registradas nos imaginários e práticas dos povos, reemergem hoje na ressignificação e na reafirmação de suas identidades culturais, em suas lutas pela reapropriação da natureza e pela reterritorialização de seus mundos de vida

Regional unemployment in Argentina

In this paper we study the regional evolution of unemployment in Argentina for the period 1980-1997. We show that its regional unemployment structure is not very persistent. We then apply panel data unit root tests to show that unemployment itself is not highly persistent. Indeed, we reject the null of a unit root in the unemployment series. Finally, we model the conditional means of regional unemployment. We adopt a dynamic two way fixed effects error component model specification. We measure the persistence of unemployment to shocks based on our conditional model. We believe this provides us with a better measure of persistence than the commonly used in the literature. We find a low degree of unemployment persistence to shocks. Finally, we also find regional factors that explain regional unemployment differences and whose changes may account for the low persistence of the regional unemployment structure.Departamento de Economí