This paper exploits unique features of a recently introduced tariff schedule for natural gas in Buenos Aires to estimate the short-run impact of price shocks on residential energy utilization. The schedule induces a non-linear and nonmonotonic relationship between households' accumulated...

Tax evasion is a pervasive problem in many countries. In particular, some developing countries do not collect even half of what they would if taxpayers complied with the written letter of the law. The academic literature has not been oblivious to the need to explain why people pay (or do not...

For many in Latin America, the increasing participation of China and India in international markets is seen as a looming shadow of two mighty giants on the region's manufacturing sector. Are they really mighty giants when it comes to their impact on manufacturing employment? This paper attempts...

The literature has identified that countries with higher levels of openness tend to present a larger government sector as a way to reduce the risks to the economy that openness entails. This paper argues that there are a number of policies that can mitigate trade-induced risks, many of which do...

Behavioral biases often lead to suboptimal decisions, a vulnerability that extends to policymakers who operate under conditions of fatigue, stress, and time constraints and with significant implications for public welfare. While behavioral economics offers strategies like default adjustments to...

Predominant views on the political economy of Latin America and the Caribbean tend to emphasize that elite domination helps to understand the high levels of inequality. The contemporary fiscal version of that assertion goes something like 'the rich are powerful and they dont like taxes, hence we...

Can societies be nudged to adopt beneficial behaviors? Publicizing how people behave on average-descriptive-norms nudging-has emerged as a key tool for increasing the adoption of desirable behaviors. While nudging, by describing social norms, has proven effective in one-shot interventions in...

As the measurement of public opinion and attitudes toward gender issues has gained increasing attention in gender policy and research, the accurate design, implementation, and analysis of survey data has become paramount. In this paper, we examine the impact of the gender of the interviewer on...