Documento de Trabajo

Stock Markets Turmoil: Worldwide Effects of Middle East Conflicts

In this article, we analyze the impact of recent political conflicts in the Middle East on stock markets worldwide. In particular, we study how political instability––mainly due to the war in Iraq––has affected long-term volatility of stock markets. In doing so, we utilize two approaches to detecting structural breakpoints in volatility: Inclan and Tiao’s Iterative

The Dynamics of Earnings in Chile

This paper provides an empirical analysis of individual earnings using data from the Encuesta Suplementaria de Ingresos. We find that the predictable component of income is hump-shaped over the life-cycle, and that there are strong education effects. The unpredictable component of income can be described by a very persistent permanent shock and a transitory shock.

Monopoly Regulation, Chilean Style: The Efficient-Firm Standard In Theory And Practice

This paper analyses the foundations of “efficient-firm” regulation (implemented in Chile for almost two decades), and the formulas that are used to set the prices of water/sanitation companies, electric power distributors and the dominant phone companies. We show that efficient-firm regulation implies setting prices equal to long-run average cost, which is optimal when the firm

Vertical Mergers and Competition with a Regulated Bottleneck Monopoly

Consider a bottleneck monopoly whose access change is regulated above marginal cost and provides access to an oligopoly of downstream firms. Should the monopolist be allowed to vertically integrate into the downstream market? For the general run of oligopolistic market structures, we show that a vertical merger (or any set of vertical restraints that eliminates

Crecimiento Económico Regional en Chile: ¿Convergencia?

La economía chilena ha presentado un rápido crecimiento económico durante más de 12 años, pero la evidencia sugiere que a nivel regional éste no ha sido parejo. Este trabajo analiza por qué existen estos distintos ritmos de crecimiento y si en el futuro persistirán o no estas diferencias a través de las regiones. Para este

Incentives Versus Synergies in Markets for Talent

We study what type of organization will host projects where talented individuals are pivotal. A cash-constrained and talented individual must invest in acquiring a skill essential to execute a project. Skill acquisition may be financed by either a corporation, which inserts the project into its pre-existing organization; or a specialist that finances single-project firms. The

Why is Manufacturing Trade Rising Even as Manufacturing Output is Falling?

For the OECD as whole, as well as for the U.S., manufacturing exports have been rising, while manufacturing output (both expressed as a share of total GDP) has been falling.  We examine the prevalence of this puzzling fact across individual OECD countries, aswell as for particular sub-industries of manufacturing. We then address whether thestandard international

Efectos de la privatización de servicios públicos en Chile: Casos sanitario, electricidad y telecomunicaciones

Este trabajo realiza una evaluación completa de la evolución, regulación, efectos sobre el bienestar, eficiencia y rentabilidad de los servicios públicos privatizados en Chile. Nuestra evaluación general es positiva. La inversión aumentó en los distintos sectores, lo que permitió mejorar la cobertura de los servicios en aquellos casos en que ésta era baja, y aumentar

A Hierarchical Model for Studying Equity and Achievement in the Chilean School Choice System

The aim of this paper is to analyze, using a hierarchical linear model, the degree to which a system of choice, as the one implemented in Chile since the beginning of the 80’s, can promote student achievement and equity in the social distribution of achievement. Using data from a standardized achievement test including 226,860 4tth

Innovations in productivity and plant dynamics

La evidencia empírica reciente muestra que la dinámica de productividad de las plantas industriales es relevante para explicar el crecimiento económico. La entrada y salida de plantas y la reasignación de factores desde plantas menos eficientes hacia plantas más eficientes explica una parte sustancial de los cambios agregados en la productividad total de factores; esta,

Teachers’ Salary Structure and Incentives in Chile

This paper analyses the characteristics of Chilean teachers and the institutional context of teachers’ labor market. Salary trends, from 1990 on, are analyzed to show the effects on the behavior of those applying to study pedagogy; in addition teachers’ salaries are compared to those of other similar workers. The paper also studies the incentives implicit

Estimando la demanda residencial por electricidad en Chile: a doña Juanita le importa el precio (Calculating the residential demand for electricity in Chile: Mrs. Jones does care about the price)

En este trabajo estimamos la demanda residencial por energía eléctrica con un panel de 18 distribuidoras de electricidad con datos mensuales entre enero de 1995 y diciembre de 2001. La elasticidad—precio de la demanda residencial por energía eléctrica es -0 ,0548 en un mes y -0 ,39 en el largo plazo. Vale decir si el precio