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on Central and South America |
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Issue of 2011‒11‒07
eight papers chosen by |
| By: | Franz Hamann; Luis-Fernando Mejía |
| Abstract: | Este trabajo presenta un modelo de equilibrio parcial dinámico de emprendedores que escogen establecerse en el sector formal o en el informal. Esta decisión es el resultado de un análisis de los costos y beneficios estáticos y dinámicos asociados a operar en cada uno de los dos sectores que incluyen los costos salariales, las tasas impositivas, los costos de crear y liquidar una empresa formal y la posibilidad de acceder al sistema financiero. El modelo es calibrado para replicar tanto el promedio como una medida de la dispersión del valor agregado relativo del sector formal versus el sector informal en Colombia para el período 2000-2007. Posteriormente, el trabajo investiga el impacto de diversas políticas de formalización sobre el tamaño relativo del sector formal. Las simulaciones encuentran que reducciones en los costos asociados a operar en el sector formal pueden conducir a aumentos considerables en el tamaño relativo del sector formal. El costo de montar una empresa, en especial, tiene efectos grandes sobre el tamaño de la formalidad. Los resultados sugieren, entonces, que el marco legal de regulación del sector formal en Colombia actúa como una barrera importante para la formalización empresarial. |
| Date: | 2011–10–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000094:009078&r=lam |
| By: | Fabio Alvim Klein |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anp:en2009:70&r=lam |
| By: | MIGUEL NATHAN FOGUEL (IPEA); FERNANDO VELOSO (IBMEC-RJ) |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anp:en2010:129&r=lam |
| By: | Jorge Friedman; Nanno Mulder; Sebastián Faúndez; Esteban Pérez Caldentey; Carlos Yévenes; Mario Velásquez; Fernando Baizán; Gerhard Reinecke |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between wages and levels of trade and FDI openness in twenty-nine sectors of the Chilean economy. Over the last four decades, this country almost fully liberalized its trade and foreign direct investment, which accelerated growth of flows in both areas and contributed to important changes in the labour market. Using cluster analysis, we divide 29 sectors into three groups of high, medium and low levels of trade and foreign direct investment penetration in 2003 and 2008. Subsequently, an average wage equation is estimated for salaried workers in each group based on their characteristics (gender, education, work experience and union membership) using microdata of the Supplementary Income Survey (SIS) database. Differences between average wages of the three groups are decomposed with the Oaxaca-Blinder method. The results confirm that the group of most open sectors pays a “wage premium” to its workers. It is also shown that most of this premium is accounted for by higher levels of labour unionisation compared to other sectors. An alternative grouping of sectors into two categories of tradable and non-tradable sectors based on export intensity only yields similar results. |
| Keywords: | trade, employment, wages, Chile, inclusive growth, openness, unionisation, wage gap, Oaxaca-Blinder method |
| JEL: | F16 |
| Date: | 2011–10–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:traaab:134-en&r=lam |
| By: | Francesca Castellani; Gwenn Parent |
| Abstract: | This paper joins the debate on the size of the middle class in Latin America, analysing its structure and characteristics. The paper investigates inter-class mobility potential and its evolution over time in the case of selected countries. As a result of the estimations, we find that Latin American countries have smaller middle classes than OECD countries. Moreover, this comparison shows that, while middle-class upward mobility potential is not very different, middle class resilience is higher in OECD countries. This suggests that particular attention should be paid to mitigating the impact of economic reversal on middle-class families, as they are more vulnerable to falling into poverty. This analysis provides a tool to identify the features of the middle class that need to be promoted by policy makers to foster middle-class resilience and enhance its stabilising role in society.<BR>Ce papier rejoint le débat sur la taille de la classe moyenne en Amérique Latine, en étudiant sa structure et ses caractéristiques, ainsi que le potentiel de mobilité et son évolution dans le temps dans un groupe de pays de la région. L’analyse démontre que la classe moyenne dans les pays d’Amérique Latine est plus petite que celle des pays de l’OCDE. Néanmoins le potentiel de mobilité à la hausse de la classe moyenne ne montre pas de différences importantes. Malgré cela, elle exhibe un risque plus élevé de retomber dans la pauvreté, dévoilant l’importance d’une politique publique en faveur de la classe moyenne. |
| Keywords: | Latin America, resilience, middle class, social mobility, inequality, vulnerability, Amérique latine, résilience, classe moyenne, mobilité sociale, inégalité, vulnérabilité |
| JEL: | I32 O10 O12 |
| Date: | 2011–10–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:devaaa:305-en&r=lam |
| By: | Caballero, Jorge; O'Connor, Ernesto; Amado, Blanca |
| Abstract: | Latin America is becoming the fastest growing agricultural production region and Brazil has by far the fastest growing agricultural sector. China from being a small agricultural importer (1.4% of world imports in 1990/01), became the fifth largest importer at 5.4% of world imports in 2006/07. China's overall trade with Latin America has expanded substantially during the last two decades -the rate of growth has been greater than any other region in the world since 2005. Most exports from Latin America to China are primary products while Chinese exports to Latin America are mostly industrial products. The Chinese demand for agricultural products is concentrated in food products such as grains and oilseeds. Countries specialised in those commodities -eg. Brazil and Argentina-exhibit a strong orientation on the Chinese market. In turn, growing subsectors in China, like fruits and vegetables, are posing strong competition to some world supplier countries in Latin America such as Chile and Peru. Since China is promoting structural reforms of its agricultural sector, aimed at increasing productivity and improving food security, and is expanding their direct investments overseas to secure provision of raw materials, Latin American governments need to pursue long-run strategic public policies. They need to optimize trade results and promote production efficiency that on one hand contribute to take advantage of the current market situation but at the same time assure the protection of the natural resources and preserve the production capacity and the agricultural diversity. -- |
| Keywords: | Latin America,China,trade,agriculture,soybean,agricultural policies |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iamo11:20&r=lam |
| By: | KENYA VALERIA MICAELA DE SOUZA NORONHA (UFMG/CEDEPLAR); ALBERTO PALLONI (UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON) |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anp:en2010:137&r=lam |
| By: | Rivera Aedo, Edinson; Lakner, Sebastian; Brümmer, Bernhard |
| Abstract: | The reform-process towards a higher world-market orientation has a long tradition in Chile, with all its strengths and weaknesses. The food processing industry is highly competitive on the worldmarket. The following paper investigates the technical efficiency of the Chilean food processing industry between 2001 and 2007. We used a data-set from the 5,941 of firms in food processing industry. The observations are taken of the 'Annual National Industrial Survey'. The method of stochastic frontier analysis is applied; the heteroscedasticity-model is used in order to analyze the determinants of technical efficiency. We included variables capturing different effects before and after the introduction of a liberalization policy in 2004. Raw materials and labor have to largest impact on the output. We could show that technical efficiency is different in the periods before and after 2004. The region with the highest level of efficiency is the metropolitan region around Santiago de Chile. -- |
| Keywords: | Technical Efficiency,Food Processing Industry,Chile |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iamo11:10&r=lam |