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on Central and South America |
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Issue of 2011‒10‒01
three papers chosen by |
| By: | Roberto Meurer (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina) |
| Abstract: | The effects of changes in foreign portfolio investment flows on Brazilian GDP and investment during the financial crisis of 2008 are evaluated through impulse-response functions, parsimonious models, and out of sample forecasts. Impulse-response functions results show a positive relation between fixed income flows and GDP and investment, but this relation is not as strong between the real variables and equity flows, although these flows anticipate GDP and investment behavior. Expectations seem to have an important role in explaining GDP and investment, which also have an influence on flows. The reduced vulnerability of the Brazilian economy consequently lessened the effect of the crisis when compared with previous crisis episodes. |
| Keywords: | foreign portfolio investment, growth, investment, crisis, Brazil |
| JEL: | F32 E32 E22 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fup:wpaper:0117&r=lam |
| By: | Luis Fernando Gamboa; Blanca Zuluaga |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to provide an estimation and decomposition of the motherhood wage penalty in Colombia. Our empirical strategy is based on the matching procedure designed by Ñopo (2008) for the case of gender wage gaps. This is an alternative procedure to the well-known Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method. The cross-section data of the Colombian Living Standard Survey allows us to decompose the wage gap in four components, according to the characteristics of mothers and non-mothers. We found that mothers earn, in average, 1:73% less than their counterparts without children and that this gap slightly decreases as the group includes older women. Taking into account that this procedure is sensitive to the set of variables included in the matching, several specifica- tions are tested. The main result of the paper is obtained when considering schooling as a matching variable. Once schooling is included, the unex-plained part of the gap considerably decreases and turns non significant.Thus, we do not find evidence of wage discrimination against mothers in the Colombian labor market. |
| Date: | 2011–09–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:008980&r=lam |
| By: | Paola La Guardia Zorzin (Sebrae-MG); Simone Wajnman (Cedeplar/UFMG); Cássio Maldonado Turra (Cedeplar/UFMG) |
| Abstract: | We examine how Social Security affects the distribution of resources between racial groups in Brazil. To do this, we apply two methodological perspectives. Using a life-cycle perspective, we compare contributions and benefits accrued over the life cycle of representative individuals of each racial group. From a period or cross-sectional perspective, we compare social security transfers in a specific year. The goal is to measure how differences in age composition affect transfers between groups, each period. The results show that the social security perform three important roles that are inextricably linked: in the life cycle perspective, recourses are transferred from whites to blacks, buffering the effects of racial labor income differences during active years; in the cross-sectional perspective, social security transfers reduce income inequality and poverty among black and balance the participation of both racial groups in the social security budget, despite the larger proportion of young people among blacks. |
| Keywords: | ocial security, population aging, race disparities. |
| JEL: | H50 J11 J15 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td448&r=lam |