Regulatory governance in the latinamerican telecommunications sector

Empezando con Chile a comienzos de 1980, los países de América Latina han profundizado la reforma a las telecomunicaciones para crear un entorno regulatorio que incentive la inversión privada, en particular la inversión extranjera. En este artículo, trabajo las tendencias regulatorias en el sector telecomunicaciones de 24 países latinoamericanos y del caribe durante el período 1980-1997 y construyo un índice basado en : autonomía, rendición de cuentas, claridad de las funciones y objetivos, transparencia y participación, y el tipo de mandato legal que crea el ente regulador. El índice muestra que, en promedio, la mayoría de los países llevaron a cabo fuertes reformas regulatorias en la dirección sugerida por expertos e investigadores. El índice también se correlación bien con varias variables políticas, de riesgo, económicas y de telecomunicaciones. *********************************************************************** Starting with Chile in the early 1980s, Latin American countries have pushed telecommunications reform to create regulatory environments that encourage private investment, especially foreign investment. I look at regulatory trends in telecommunications in 24 Latin American and Caribbean countries during 1980-97 and construct an index based on the following aspects: autonomy, accountability, clarity of roles and objectives, transparency and participation, and the type of legal mandate that creates a regulatory body. The index shows clearly that, in general, most countries embraced strong regulatory reforms along the lines recommended by experts and practitioners. The index also correlates well with main political, risk, economic and telecommunications variables. JEL Class: ,Telecommunications, regulation, regulatory governance and privatization

An approximation to the digital divide among low income people in Colombia, Mexico and Perú: two composite indexes

This study examines the determinants of information and communications technology(ICT) use and access of low-income people in three developing countries: Colombia,Mexico and Peru. We focus on cross-country differences and similarities in ICTs use acrossgender, age, education and income, using two composite indicators of ICT. The mainsimilarity across the countries is that education is by far the single most important factorlimiting the digitalization of low-income people. The impact of income was low althoughpositive. There is not apparently a gender gap in Colombia and Mexico but one in Peru.Our findings also suggest that when using a composite indicator that only include the`advanced ICTs´, disadvantage people among the low-income people can be moreconstrained in the use and access of more advanced information and communicationstechnologies.****El estudio analiza los determinantes de uso y acceso a las tecnologías de información ycomunicación en personas de bajos ingresos en pasases como Colombia, México y Perú. Elpunto central esta en analizar las diferencias entre países de acuerdo a diferentes variablessocioeconómicas. Se encuentra que la variable que más explica el nivel de acceso digital esla escolaridad. De otro lado no se encuentra una brecha por género sino en Perú. Losresultados también indican que cuando solo se tienen en cuenta las tecnologías más`avanzadas´, las diferencias entre la población son más notorias.Digital divide, ICT, gender gap, Internet

Firm Entry, Productivity Differentials and Turnovers in Import Substituting Markets: A study of the petrochemical industry in Colombia

This paper analyses plant entry, total factor productivity growth, average productivity level differentials and turnovers across Colombia's petrochemical industry for the 1974-1998 period. Results show that successful entrants shaped industry productivity and induced plant restructuring among incumbent plants. There is consistent plant heterogeneity across plant cohorts as well as across sub-markets within petrochemicals. Entry flows were steady increasing within plastics regardless of trade policy regimes. Survival rates are remarkably high and consistent over time in medium-size plants meaning that entrants adopted competitive post-entry strategies. Total factor productivity growth decomposition shows that the incumbent effect dominates the turnover effect. Market share reallocation among continuing plants constitutes an important source of productivity growth. Econometric results suggest that barriers to entry associated with plant technology licensing and dependence of imported raw materials deter entry while complementary market variables such as industry productivity levels, growth in housing construction, and fringe competition induce firm entry.Entry, Turnover, Total Factor Productivity, Petrochemical Industry

Testing for stock market integration in a developing economy: Colombia

This paper examines the linkage between two parallel stock exchanges trading the same shares in Colombia, namely the Bogotá Stock Exchange and the Medellín Stock Exchange. We provide empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that these two markets can be best described as fully integrated over a period of almost four decades, which is consistent with the view that arbitrage opportunities are only possible in the short but not in the long run. In addition, we find evidence that the location of a company´s headquarters appears to matter in stock price formation.Stock market, cointegration, arbitrage, Colombia

Telecommunications and economic growth: an empirical analysis of sub-saharan Africa

We examine the effect on economic growth of mobile cellular phones in sub-Saharan Africa where a marked asymmetry is present between land-line penetration and mobile telecommunications expansion. This study extends previous ones along two important dimensions. First, we allow for the potential endogeneity between economic growth and telecommunications expansion by employing a special linear generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator. Second, we explicitly model for varying degrees of substitutability between mobile cellular and land-line telephony, so that greater expansion of mobile telecommunications can have a different impact whenever the level of land-line penetration differs. We find that mobile cellular phone expansion is an important determinant of the rate of economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, we find that the contribution of mobile cellular phones to economic growth has been growing in importance in the region, and that the marginal impact of mobile telecommunication services is even greater wherever land-line phones are rare. Given the low cost of mobile telecommunications technology relative to other broad infrastructure projects, especially land-line infrastructure, we advocate that mobile telecommunication services be encouraged in the area.