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on Central and South America |
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Issue of 2016‒04‒23
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Arnildo da Silva Correa; Myrian Beatriz S. Petrassi; Rafael Santos |
| Abstract: | Price surveys became popular after the seminal work of Blinder (1991) exploring the price-setting practices of the US firms, which filled some blanks left by the simple observation of prices charged by firms. The present paper reports the findings of a survey conducted by the Central Bank of Brazil with local firms. The sample covered 7,002 firms, the entire country and 3 economic sectors: manufacturing, services and commerce. The collected answers suggest important features about price-setting behavior in Brazil, such as: (i) the cost of reviewing price are low, but there is important nominal rigidity – firms report that change prices 3.6 times per year –, (ii) state-dependent rules seem to be more frequent than time-dependent behavior, (iii) markup pricing appears to be the dominant strategy, and (iv) the two most important factors driving price changes are the cost of intermediate goods and the inflation rate. A complete description of the results is found throughout the paper and summarized in the final section. The paper also discusses some policy implications from the results |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcb:wpaper:422&r=lam |
| By: | Fructuoso Borrallo (Banco de España); Ignacio Hernando (Banco de España); Javier Vallés (Banco de España) |
| Abstract: | This paper offers an empirical analysis of the way in which US unconventional monetary policy has affected Latin American countries. First, we estimate the effects of US monetary policy announcements on sovereign bond interest rates, exchange rates and stock market indices for a set of emerging countries, including five Latin American economies. We find that QE announcements in 2008/2009 and the “tapering talk” in 2013 generated sizable sovereign yield and exchange rate fluctuations. We further find some excess response of Latam asset prices that disappear once we take into account their country characteristics. In the second part of the paper we estimate a simple model that measures the influence of country-specific macroeconomic fundamentals on the transmission of US financial disturbances. An estimated model including the inflation rate, the CDS spread, the ratio of official reserves and market capitalisation explains some of the observed cross-country heterogeneity of spillovers from US monetary policy announcements. Under this model, a greater impact from the normalisation of US monetary policy can be expected in Latin America relative to other emerging economies |
| Keywords: | unconventional monetary policy, spillovers, emerging economies, event study |
| JEL: | E52 F32 G11 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:1606&r=lam |
| By: | Sean Higgins (Tulane University); Nora Lustig (Tulane University); Whitney Ruble (Tulane University); Timothy Smeeding (University of Wisconsin at Madison) |
| Abstract: | We perform the first comprehensive fiscal incidence analyses in Brazil and the US, including direct cash and food transfers, targeted housing and heating subsidies, public spending on education and health, and personal income, payroll, corporate income, property, and expenditure taxes. In both countries, primary spending is close to 40 percent of GDP. The US achieves higher redistribution through direct taxes and transfers, primarily due to underutilization of the personal income tax in Brazil and the fact that Brazil’s highly progressive cash and food transfer programs are small while larger transfer programs are less progressive. However, when health and non-tertiary education spending are added to income using the government cost approach, the two countries achieve similar levels of redistribution. This result may be a reflection of better-off households in Brazil opting out of public services due to quality concerns rather than a result of government effort to make spending more equitable. |
| Keywords: | inequality, fiscal policy, taxation, social spending |
| JEL: | D31 H22 I38 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:ceqwps:1316&r=lam |
| By: | Leonardo Villar; Natalia Salazar Ferro; Mary Simpson; Martha Delgado; Roberto Steiner; Juan Gonzalo Zapata; Orlando Gracia; Carlos Antonio Mesa |
| Abstract: | El objetivo general de este trabajo es analizar diferentes aspectos del Sistema General de Participaciones para el sector educación. En primer lugar, el trabajo compara las remuneraciones de los docentes con las de otras profesiones en Colombia y con las que reciben los profesores en otros países, en el contexto de los requerimientos que se generan a raíz del acuerdo con los docentes y FECODE a comienzos de 2015. Un segundo propósito consistió en cuantificar los recursos del SGP para educación en el período 2016-2020 bajo diferentes escenarios macroeconómicos y teniendo en cuenta que este año se termina la transición del Acto Legislativo 04 de 2007 que modificó el sistema de transferencias del Gobierno Nacional a las regiones. |
| Keywords: | Educación, Calidad de la Educación, Salarios Docentes, Sistema General de Participaciones, Financiamiento de la Educación, Colombia, América Latina |
| JEL: | I21 I22 I28 |
| Date: | 2016–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000124:014442&r=lam |
| By: | Pedro da Motta Veiga; Sandra P. Rios |
| Abstract: | O texto analisa, para o caso brasileiro, a estrutura e a dinâmica de duas cadeias de valor baseadas em recursos naturais: a cadeia de carnes de frango e a de móveis de madeira. O estudo mostra que, no caso dos setores analisados, há diferentes modelos de organização das cadeias e que tais diferenças contribuem para explicar o desempenho das empresas brasileiras que delas participam, bem como as possibilidades de upgrade destas empresas dentro das cadeias. This article analyzes, for the case of Brazil, the structure and the dynamics of two natural resources-based value chains: the poultry and wood furniture chains. The study shows that, in the sectors analyzed, there exist different models of organization of the value chains. Those differences are one of the factors accounting for the performance of the Brazilian firms in the value chains they participate, as well as the possibilities of upgrade of the firms within these chains. |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipe:ipetds:2173&r=lam |