Gobierno Electrónico en América Latina. Estudio Comparativo de Portales Web de Administraciones Locales de México, Chile, Colombia y Uruguay

Comparar por medio del modelo evolutivo los portales de gobiernos locales de 4 países de América Latina es el objetivo de esta investigación, es decir, observar y analizar el grado de avance del gobierno electrónico en la esfera local mediante la revisión de los portales web de 16 municipios distribuidos en México, Chile, Colombia y Uruguay. Con ello se pretende resolver la interrogante sobre qué tan desarrollados están los portales municipales en Latinoamérica y si es que influyen los gobiernos nacionales en el desarrollo del gobierno digital. La hipótesis que guía esta investigación es: actualmente en América Latina el gobierno electrónico y en concreto los portales web mejoran la gestión local, la hacen más efectiva y cercana, y por medio del modelo evolutivo se comprueba el avance; aunque este progreso no depende del gobierno nacional, de las condiciones sociodemográficas municipales o de la mera adopción de tecnología, pues sólo es un medio, el avance obedece al gobierno local mismo, es decir, a la voluntad de llevar a cabo estrategias digitales que logren eficiencia, eficacia, transparencia y comunicación directa entre administración y ciudadanos

Diffeomorphisms from higher dimensional W-algebras

Classical W-algebras in higher dimensions have been recently constructed. In this letter we show that there is a finitely generated subalgebra which is isomorphic to the algebra of local diffeomorphisms in D dimensions. Moreover, there is a tower of infinitely many fields transforming under this subalgebra as symmetric tensorial one-densities. We also unravel a structure isomorphic to the Schouten symmetric bracket, providing a natural generalization of w_\infty in higher dimensions.Comment: 10 page

Sustainability of EU public finances

We use a policy rule framework and focus on the response of the primary surplus to accumulated public debt to test a sufficient condition for sustainability. The evidence we report suggests that sustainability was prevalent in many EU countries before Maastricht, but also that the Maastricht impulse induced the shift towards sustainability in some of them. Additionally, although a clear distinction emerges in terms of the visibility of the Maastricht stress between the euro bloc, on the one hand, and the non-euro EU countries, the US and Japan, on the other, there is no evidence of bloc differences in terms of the long term soundness of public finances. On the basis of our analysis and results, we highlight the potential policy relevance of the reaction of the primary surplus to accumulated debt in the debate on the proper balance between fiscal stabilization and discipline in EMU.Stability and Growth Pact, public debt, sustainability, Maastricht, fiscal stabilization, accumulated debt, public finances, sustainability, Ballabriga, Martinez-Mongay

Technological Progress, Obsolescence and Depreciation

We construct a vintage capital model à la Whelan (2002) with both exogenous embodied and disembodied technical progress, and variable utilization of each vintage. The lifetime of capital goods is endogenous and it relies on the associated maintenance costs. We study the properties of the balanced growth paths. First, we show that the lifetime of capital is an increasing (resp. decreasing) function of the rate of disembodied (resp.embodied) technical progress. Second, we show that both the use-related depreciation rate and the scrapping rate incease when embodied technical progress accelerates. However, the latter drops when disembodied technical progress accelerates while the former remains unaffected. A key feature of our model is that the age-related depreciation rate does depend on the obsolescence rate in sharp contrast to the neoclassical model.Vintage capital; operation costs; embodied technical progress; age-related depreciation; obsolescence

Global economy dynamics? Panel data approach to spillover effects

Over the past year, there has been considerable debate about how the slowing of the United States and other major developed economies affects output growth across the world. The main purpose of this paper is to establish relevant conclusions on how the U.S., Euro Area and Japan gross domestic product growth affect international business cycle fluctuations, with the objective of identifying the main factors that influence spillovers into other countries. Using panel data regression, we conclude that output growth in the U.S. and Euro area are significant in explaining output growth across countries. Depending on the specifications, trade linkages play a significant role while financial linkages with respect to the three regions does not (except in one particular specification). There are signs of potential omitted variable bias in some regression indicating that some relevant variables have not been taken into account. There is also clear evidence of a structural change in the transmission mechanism of shocks after 1985 – since when shocks have become more country-specific.Output Growth, Trade and Financial Linkages, Structural Break, Cross- Section Panel Data.