The macroeconomic experiences of five South American nations —Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru— are examined since the 1990s. Common features in reforms and macroeconomic policies as well as common cyclical breaking points are stressed, which overcome some relevant differences...

Financial contagion and Suden Stops of capital inflows experienced in emerging-markets crises may originate in an explosive mix of lack of policy credibility and world capital market imperfections that afflict emerging economies with national currencies. Hence, this paper argues that abandoning...

This note argues that in Mexico and Latin America some sectors of civil society still consider that the higher the public expenditure, the higher the economic rate of growth. It is argued that this action has only short term effects. Instead, it proposes to target the public expenditure to...

This study analyzes the incidence of educational expenditure on the actual delivery of public education. The study employs a social planner and interest group model to test the determinants of public expenditure of education along with the production of education. The model is tested for Mexico...

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...

The Chilean private pension system is of Defined Contribution, and hence the future pension of its affiliates is uncertain. In this paper we study two factors that influence the level of pensions that an affiliate can expect to receive at retirement: temporal unemployment (and consequent lack of...

The document evaluates the importance of the credit market condition on the investment of firms that trade in the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores. The analysis shows that the degree of liquidity constraints that such firms face has increased since 1995. In addition, it is found that the degree of...

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...

It has been widely believed that Mexico’s rapid economic growth during the 1934-1956 period was only possible through an expansionary economic policy financed by inflationary means. Hence its contrast with the Stabilizing Development policy of the 1960’s, considered the golden age of rapid...

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...