Documento de Trabajo

Reformando el sector eléctrico chileno: Diga NO a la liberalización del mercado spot (Reforming the Chilean electricity sector: Just say NO to the Liberation of the spot market)

Este trabajo argumenta que la liberalización del mercado spot de la industria eléctrica chilena no es una alternativa de política recomendable pues existe un amplio potencial para ejercer poder de mercado. En particular, Endesa distorsionaría la asignación in- tertemporal del agua forzando al alza el precio spot, especialmente en períodos en que la demanda que

Uncertainty, Pay for Performance and Adverse Selection in a Competitive Labor Market

This paper develops a new rationale for the emergence of pay-for-performance contracts. The labor market is competitive, workers are risk averse and firms risk neutral. The paper shows that in stable environments more productive workers self-select into pay-for-performance jobs because risk is less costly to them than to their less productive counterparts which prefer fixed-salary

Vertical Integration and Shared Facilities in Unregulated Industries

In this paper we consider a market situation in which initially there is an unintegrated monopoly upstream that owns an important facility and two dowstream firms. Then the market is liberalized allowing upstream entry and vertical integration. The equilibrium entry mode–sharing the incumbent facility or building a new facility– is derived as well as the

Detection of Breakpoints in Volatility

Financial time-series may exhibit breakpoints in unconditional variance due, possibly, to institutional changes. Accounting for such shifts is essential to risk management, forecasting, and hedging. In this article, we test for the presence of structural breaks in volatility by two approaches: the Iterative Cumulative Sum of Squares (ICSS) algorithm and wavelet analysis. We present a

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

Análisis y Recomendaciones para una Reforma de la Ley de Quiebras (Analysis and Recommendations for Reform of the Bankruptcy Law)

Este trabajo presenta una evaluación general del sistema de quiebras en Chile, así como propuestas para mejorar el funcionamiento de éste. El trabajo incluye una comparación del sistema chileno con los sistemas de quiebras de otros países. Por último, presenta antecedentes sobre la tasa de recuperación de créditos; las costas y la duración de los

Trade liberalization in Latin America: The case of Chile

This paper provides an overview and evaluation of trade policies in Chile, as well as the problems facing Chilean trade. It also evaluates the desirability of industrial policy and of a shift away from natural resource based exports.
JEL: F13, F14, F15.

Time-Scale Decomposition of Price Transmission in International Markets

This article focuses on return spillovers in stock markets at different time scales using wavelet analysis. We look at eight stock indices that comprise the G7 countries, Emerging Asia, Europe, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, the Emerging Far East, Latin America, North America, and the Pacific region for the period 1990-2002. Our estimation results

Slow Recoveries

Economies respond differently to aggregate shocks that reduce output. While some countries rapidly recover their pre-crisis trend, others stagnate. Recent studies provide empirical support for a link between aggregate growth and plant dynamics through its effect on productivity: the entry and exit of firms and the reallocation of resources from less to more efficient firms

Una estimación del efecto distributivo de las bandas de precio, 1984-2000 (An estimate of the distributive effects of price bands, 1984-2000)

Entre 1984 y 2000 las bandas de precio del trigo, el azúcar y los aceites comestibles han generado transferencias netas desde los consumidores hacia los productores y el Gobierno, por un total de US$ 1.217 millones. Así, las bandas no sólo han estabilizado precios sino que los han sustentado siendo proteccionistas. Hay tres factores que

Extreme Value Theory: Value at Risk and Returns Dependence Around the World

This paper presents two applications of Extreme Value Theory (EVT) to financial markets: computation of value at risk and assets returns dependence under extreme events (i.e. tail dependence). We use a sample comprised of the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Our main findings are the following. First, on average, EVT gives the most