This paper presents a gravity model for trade flows between the Central American countries, which include the levels of past exports as explanatory variables. Results indicate that past exports are estimated including indexes of human capital in place of the corresponding countries’ GDP, with...

The paper draws macroeconomic policy lessons by contrasting the developing countries experience in the 2000s —including their performance in the recent global crisis— with the previous three decades of financial globalization. The main lesson is the crucial role of macroeconomic policies in...

This paper applies econometric estimation methods to improve the level of precision and detail in the measurement of welfare in Mexico, and specifically to estimate household incomes. As is the case in other countries, Mexico has had, on the one hand, household surveys that provide high...

This paper analyzes economic development through a co-evolutionary process where formal institutions linked to the rule of law are transformed jointly with cultural values. This type of dynamic makes possible to attain multiple equilibriums and, hence, economic backwardness is explained by the...

In the international economic debate, the southern Indian state of Kerala has been considered during the last three decades as a “model” of relative social wellbeing despite her low economic growth. In recent years the situation has changed with a strong economic acceleration that bear out a...

In this model, monetary policy follows an inflation targeting scheme, using the interbank interest rate as the instrument of policy, while the money supply remains endogenous. On the other hand, a limit for the fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP is set as the rule for fiscal policy, public...

The tax system combining a flat tax rate with an exempt minimum income has been largely debated in recent years. Detractors argue that tax systems with these characteristics are less progressive and, hence, they tend to lower the degree of redistribution. In contrast, supporters brandish its...

This paper identifies and analyses the fundamental structural shocks that have explained the short run fluctuations of the Venezuelan economy in its recent history. For this purpose, we estimate a dynamic factor model (GDFM) with a panel of 115 variables and evaluate the effects of a monetary...

The AK endogenous growth model with elastic labor supply and useful government expenditures of Turnovsky (2000) is specially calibrated for the Mexican economy in order to perform a series of fiscal reform exercises. Available taxes include lump-sum, consumption and factor income taxes. For all...

This paper reviews the social policies implemented in Chile after the return to democracy in 1990. Social policies during this period are characterized by their contribution to reduce poverty in half and by a significant increase in public resources to fund the social programmes. At the same...