Machine Replacement, Technology Adoption and Convergence

In this paper, we introduce adoption costs in a canonical vintage capital model. Adoption costs take the form of a direct loss in production during a fixed period of time. We explicitly characterize the optimal machine replacement policy as a function of the adoption period. Using an explicit numerical method, we study the dynamics of the model. In particular, we find that while an increase in the adoption costs lowers the long run level of output, it also rises the magnitude of short run fluctuations and decreases the convergence speed to the steady states.Machine replacement; Technology adoption; Optimal scrapping; Fluctuations; Convergence

The Development problem under embodiment

We study technology adoption in an optimal growth model with embodied technical change. The economy consists of the final good sector, the capital sector, and the technology sector whose role is the imitation of exogenous innovations. Labor resources are scarce. They are freely allocated to the technology and final good sectors. The final good is freely allocated to consumption and to the capital sector. We analytically characterize the optimal allocation decisions in the long run. Using a calibrated version of the model, we find that an acceleration in the rate of embodied technical change should not be responded by an immediate and strong adoption effort. Instead, adoption labor should decrease in the short run, and the optimal technological gap is shown to increase either in the short or in the long run. The state of the institutions and policies around the technology sector is key in the design of the optimal adoption timing.Embodiment, Technology adoption, Technological gap, Transition dynamics

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

The Dialectics of the Community: Mexican Production of Death

This work attempts to provide a discussion of the current waves of violence present in the northern border of Mexico. The country became a neoliberal state during the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The external debt and the historical corruption of the Mexican government placed Mexico in a vulnerable stage leaving its sovereignty with a fissure before the eyes of international circles of power. The adoption of a neoliberal economic system has impacted all the social tissue. The euphoric discourse of advancement and opportunity was spread by ideological apparatus, and people in constant need accepted positively the system. The arrival of transnationals to the northern border were then presented as job and advancement opportunities. However, the results were more complex. The shift to a neoliberal state, and the support from the government to the transnational rather than the domestic affairs have led to an unmanageable crisis of the state. This crisis in the sovereign has allowed for the emergence of a parallel state that is able to govern the country with their own law. There is not an official line of legal and illegal, people live under the law of mere survival. The system has brought other circumstance besides jobs in the assembly lines. There has been a rapid and unplanned urbanization, low wages, uprooted peasants migrating to the north due to the impossibility to compete with international market. The lives of these people have been reduced to their minimum, to bare life. This work then seeks to rethink the discourse of the Mexican Revolution as a platform of the state to build a myth of nationalism, and cultural identity. There has never been emancipation or inclusion of the subalterns, but the state has developed contemporary forms of slavery and oppression under a discourse of democracy. Therefore, this study will discuss the possibilities of the aesthetics in late capitalism, whether they are still a genuine form of resistance or if they contribute to the naturalization and production of death and violence. It will include a debate of the commodification of the aesthetics, but also of their political work

Global dynamics and imbalance effects in the Lucas Uzawa model : further results

In this paper we use a new analytical approach to the Lucas-Uzawa model (Boucekkine and Ruiz-Tamarit, 2007) to extend the existinc results on the dynamics and notably on the imbalance effects arising in the model. The approach does not only allow to extend the traditional analysis to any initial conditions for all variables in level, but it also permits a more general investigation of imbalance effectsLucas-Uzawa; hypergeometric functions; imbalance effects; global dynamics

Global dynamics and imbalance effects in the Lucas-Uzawa model: further results

In this paper we use a new analytical approach to the Lucas-Uzawa model (Boucekkine and Ruiz Tamarit, 2007) to extend the existing results on the dynamics, and notably on the imbalance effects arising in the model. The approach does not only allow to extend the traditional analysis to any initial conditions and for all variables in level, but it also permits a more general investigation of imbalance effects.Lucas-Uzawa, hypergeometric functions, imbalance effects, global dynamics

Inversión Crecimiento y Desarrollo de la Económia de Nicaragua : Opciones de financiamiento de las MYPYMES en el sector textil del dstrito VI de Managua 2012-2015

El presente trabajo de investigación pretendió analizar y precisar las cantidades adecuadas de financiamiento requeridas por las Micro, Pequeñas y Medianas Empresas (MIPYMES), según las condiciones económicas del país. Los resultados indican que las MIPYMES se encuentran restringidas financieramente, y que ni las Instituciones Micro-financieras, ni el Sistema Bancario formal constituyen fuentes adecuadas de financiamiento. La importancia de las MIPYMES en Nicaragua es que representa la mayoría de las empresas nicaragüenses, convirtiéndose en generadoras de empleos y cuentan con gran flexibilidad en sus procesos productivos. Debido al impacto económico y social que tienen las MIPYMES en el sector empresarial y en la economía nacional es necesario un apoyo más directo del gobierno, tal como se ha venido ejecutando a través de diferentes programas que se impulsan como: “HAMBRE CERO” en el caso rural y los créditos otorgados por USURA CERO. Las MIPYMES se han convertido en una alternativa de desarrollo en la economía nacional y en la reducción de pobreza. A pesar de los obstáculos financieros que enfrentan por ser empresas pequeñas, han mejorado su mecanismo de trabajo. Las MIPYMES no son un fenómeno reciente, éstas han pasado por diferentes dificultades hasta el punto de tener conflicto con las grandes empresas. Desde el 2009 las MIPYMES han venido desarrollándose y creciendo cada vez más logrando un crecimiento económico de 5% anual y aportan al producto interno bruto entre el 35 y 40%. Las MIPYMES representan el 87.45% (106,619) del total de empresas que existen en Nicaragua. Nicaragua, ha demostrado ser el país que más desarrollo ha tenido en Centro América en los últimos cincos años, con mayor presencia en el comercio nacional y la incursión que realiza en el mercado internacional. Las MIPYMES tienen menor probabilidad de usar financiamiento bancario y otras fuentes de recursos externos. Mientras que el 30 por ciento de las grandes empresas usan financiamiento bancario para nuevas inversiones, sólo el 12 por ciento de las pequeñas empresas lo hacen. Entre las debilidades de la MIPYMES en este sector del Distrito VI de Managua son: las faltas de financiamiento, carecen de tecnología, altos costos de producción. Por otro lado el financiamiento de crédito por una micro financiero es muy caro y ha sido uno de los principales tropiezos que ha tenido dicho sector. Operan con capital privado, estos talleres no pasan a veces de ser una casa-taller, donde trabajan las mujeres de una familia. En algunas ocasiones reúnen hasta 25 empleadas. Se contrata a estas mujeres para hacer parte de un trabajo mayor que se hace en la maquiladora. En Managua, los rótulos que anuncian "maquilados y confecciones", indican la ubicación de estos talleres. Esto implica que las MIPYMES pierden el potencial de transformarse en grandes empresas, con su consiguiente impacto en el desarrollo y empleo. Es decir, las fallas institucionales y de mercado (restricción de financiamiento) crean un entorno competitivo desigual entre empresas de diferente tamaño. Uno de los factores de éxito de los pequeños negocios en Nicaragua es el acceso al capital, el acceso al financiamiento resulta decisivo a la hora de poner en marcha o expandir una pequeña o mediana empresa. El problemas de los prestamos está atado a garantías hipotecarias y líquidas y no todas las MIPYMES tienen los documentos de sus propiedad además que por ser una economía de pequeña o mediana empresa no todas las personas tiene acceso al financiamiento, porque también tienen bajos ingresos, también las empresas tiene escasez de activos y por esos se limitan a realizar un préstamo

The Impact of Tax and Expenditure Policies on Income Disttribution: Evidence from a Large Panel of Countries

This paper focuses is on the potential role that taxation and public expenditure policies play in general in affecting income distribution. We find that progressive personal income taxes and corporate in-come taxes reduce income inequality. However, the effect of corporate income taxes seems to be eroded away in open or globalized economies. We also find that general consumption taxes, excise taxes and customs duties have a negative impact on income distribution. On the expenditure side, we find that higher shares of GDP on social welfare, education, health and housing public expenditures have a positive impact on income distribution

The Impact of Tax and Expenditure Policies on Income Distribution: Evidence from a Large Panel of Countries

The main focus of this paper is on the potential role that taxation and public expenditure policies play in general in affecting income distribution. We find that progressive personal income taxes and corporate income taxes reduce income inequality. The effect of corporate income taxes seems to be eroded away in open or globalized economies. We also generally find that general consumption taxes, excise taxes and customs duties have a negative impact on income distribution. On the expenditure side, we find that higher shares of GDP on social welfare, education, health and housing public expenditures have a positive impact on income distribution

Technological convergence and the connections between adoption, maintenance and investment activities

This paper explores the interactions between maintenance, adoption and investment activities when labor is heterogeneous. We consider that adoption activities are intensive in human capital whereas capital maintenance requires unskilled labor. Among the main results, we find that the optimal skilled and unskilled labor allocation are independently determined. Hence, maintenance (adoption) activities are not affected by changes in the efficiency of adoption (maintenance) parameters. We next simulate the model in order to study the convergence speed to the long run technological gap and the role of human capital in the process of catching-up.Technology adoption, Maintenance activities, Technological convergence