How does trade liberalization affect the wage gap between skilled workers and unskilled workers? The Heckscher-Ohlin (HO) trade model gives a prediction about the relation between wages and prices. However, its simple Stolper-Samuelson (SS) and Specific-Factors (SF) versions make opposite...

It has been shown that the social security system and other sorts of government transfers have helped poor elderly people, such as widows, to live alone in the U. S. This paper investigates whether government financial support contributed to the increase in the probability of the vulnerable...

This paper presents evidence on the relationship between economic shocks to relative male wages and changes in household consumption in Mexico during the 1990s, which is a period characterized by high volatility. In addition to performing this type of analysis for Mexico for the first time, the...

This paper surveys Mexico`s economic weaknesses and provides related policy recommendations. Current problems include weak international financial links and external conditions, a recurrent credit crunch and financial underdevelopment problem, with particularly fragile banks, a weak fiscal...

Over the last 20 years, Mexico redefined the role of the state in its economy through an ambitious program to liberalize trade, promote efficiency and reduce the size and scope of the state-owned sector. In Mexico, privatization led to a significant improvement in firm performance, as...

Non-compliance of firms with tax regulations is a major constraint on state capacity in developing countries. We focus on an arguably under-appreciated dimension of non-compliance: under-reporting of wages by formal firms to evade payroll taxes. We develop a simple partial-equilibrium model of...

In this paper we contrast the impact of the income gap between formal and informal sector on Mexico's income inequality to alternative explanations. Unlike previous studies we take a time series approach to analyze the determinants of income inequality for the period 1987-1999. We find that an...

Ist Südostasien anders? Dieser Frage geht Rainer Schweickert in der Kieler Studie 306 nach. Seine Analyse der Leistungsbilanzen, ihrer Teilkomponenten und ihrer Determinanten seit Anfang der 70er Jahre sowie der krisenhaften Entwicklungen in den 90er Jahren weist nach, dass diese Vermutung in...

The fiscal and financial reforms carried out in Mexico in 2000 have encouraged a widespread presence of rating agencies and have allowed several States and Municipalities to raise funds through bond offerings in the capital market. Any local government in Mexico intending to access credit and...