"This paper proposes that individuals care about the relative income of proximate reference groups. Making use of self-reported life satisfaction as a proxy for unobservable utility, the relative income of siblings is tested for relevance as a reference point for new sample data from Venezuela....

"This program evaluation estimates the effects on standardized test scores of graduating from the Fe y Alegria private school system in Venezuela. The authors find an Average Treatment Effect on the order of 0.1 standard deviations (approximately 16 percent of the average score), using a control...

"Patrinos and Sakellariou use a nationally representative household survey to estimate returns to schooling in Venezuela from instrumental variables based on a supply-side intervention in the education market. These estimates apply to a subgroup of liquidity-constrained individuals, in the...

"Preliminary evidence suggests that the rates of return to education in Venezuela have been declining since the 1970s. Patrinos and Sakellariou rigorously estimate the returns to education in Venezuela for the period 1992-2002 and link them to earlier available estimates from the 1980s. They use...

Real GDP and oil prices are decomposed into common stochastic trend and cycle processes using structural time series models. Potential real GDP is represented by the level of the trend component of real GDP. The potential rate of growth of real GDP is represented by the stochastic drift element...

Using structural time series models, Cuevas estimates common stochastic trends of real GDP and imports in Venezuela from 1974–2000. The real imports trend drifts upward at almost twice the rate of growth of GDP. This highlights the powerful structural tendency toward increasing imports in...