This paper documents the maturity structure of firms` debt in Ecuador and discusses how it has been affected by government intervention in credit markets and by financial liberalization. Using firm-level panel data, we then investigate the determinants of access to long-term debt. Finally, we...

This paper analyzes the causes, effects and policy alternatives associated with the recent international food price crisis in the Andean region. Additionally, the document makes a first approach to the policy options utilized to confront the crisis, discussing the mix of policies and their...

This paper analyzes various dimensions of the quality of life in Montevideo. The paper finds that satisfaction with various public goods and services at the neighborhood level play a minor role in the overall reported well-being of individuals and in the satisfaction of life domains, such as...

This paper studies the effects of water sector privatization on consumers’ welfare in 46 municipalities in Colombia. First, the privatization process is described. Second, the paper evaluates the impact of privatization on access, price, and quality of water as well as health outcomes using...

This paper proposes an extension of the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition from two to a continuum of comparison groups. The proposed decomposition is then estimated for the case of racial wage differences in urban Peru, exploiting a novel data set that allows the capturing of mestizaje (racial mixtures).

El presente trabajo tiene como propósito presentar los principales resultados del análisis de la relación entre la existencia de mecanismos organizacionales tendientes a promover la transparencia y rendición de cuentas en los hospitales públicos de Costa Rica y el nivel de corrupción...

(Disponible en idioma inglés únicamente) Baumol (1967) demostró que la tasa de crecimiento de una economía decrece si un sector tiene una productividad menor que otros y la demanda entre bienes es inelástica. En este trabajo se señala que el comercio es equivalente al progreso tecnológico...

En este trabajo se analiza el efecto de los niveles de escolaridad sobre las brechas de sexo en el mercado laboral chileno. Se emplea un nutrido conjunto de datos sobre los resultados del mercado laboral, el logro académico y el rendimiento académico, así como las variables que caracterizan...

This paper presents a series of experiments on discrimination in urban Lima, Peru. The experiments exploit degrees of information on performance as a way to assess how personal characteristics affect how people sort into groups, and the results show that behavior is not correlated with personal...

This paper analyzes the consequences of alternative financial structures for financial efficiency and stability. The focus is on the organizational structure of banks. Alternative bank structures range from `narrow banks` to broad `universal banks. ` Each banking structure is assessed in its...