The international financial crisis of 2008-09 exposed the strengths and weaknesses of the current paradigm of development in Latina America, a paradigm based on liberalized capital accounts and significantly improved macroeconomic conditions. This paper presents lessons derived from the crisis,...

This paper shows that the evolution of the level of Mexico real and real per capita output between 1895 and 2008 can be adequately described through a trend stationary model, affected by 4 structural breaks, which ocurred at dates that seem to coincide with domestic institutional arrangements,...

We develop a model where investment in infrastructure complements private investment. We then provide time series evidence for Mexico on both the impact of public infrastructure on output, and on the optimality with which levels of infrastructure have been set. In particular, we look at the...

This paper decomposes labor force participation, the unemployment rate, and the employment shares of self-employment, and of the formal and informal salaried sectors into age, cohort, and time effects. The life cycle patterns of labor force participation and formal employment follow a standard...

This paper presents a procedure for estimating potential output and the total factor productivity (TFP), to be applied to Peruvian economy. On the basis of potential output series the economic cycle is then calculated to demonstrate that the output gap includes the TFP gap and the unemployment...

This article documents a negative aggregate response in the attainment of postsecondary education (more than 12 years of schooling) in Mexico to the recession of 1982-83 and the stagnation that followed. The response was not homogeneous across genders, regions or family backgrounds. Males...

Is liberalization in developing countries good for growth even if it leads to crises? The answer is a clear yes. But then, how can we explain the less-than-stellar growth performance of Mexico, a prominent liberalizer and member of NAFTA? In this paper we address these questions by analyzing the...

We propose a structural breakpoint resampling method that allows us to draw reliable conclusion from Markov chain analysis of GDP growth series, and apply it to Mexico and the U.S. According to our findings, the “structural” probability of a real GDP contraction in the U.S. in 2008 is only...

In this document we analyze the dynamics of per capita value added in manufacturing as a proxy of per capita income in Mexico’s municipalities and US counties. Specifically we seek to determine if there is convergence (absolute or conditional), divergence or stratification. A dynamic panel...

This paper advocates that although an absolute notion of poverty should remain an essential ingredient in the evaluation of the standard of living in developing and transition economies, it is time that relative poverty begins to be systematically estimated for those same economies. This...