This study shows that financing municipalities in Mexico is a segmented market. On the one hand, metropolitan and large municipalities have access to funds through the traditional, though efficient, channels such as commercial banking loans or the money-bond-market. In this sense these...

Non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs) are amongst the principal burdens of disease in both developed and underdeveloped countries. The main causes of these illnesses are well known. They are tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol. The prevalence of...

Electricity transmission has become the pivotal industry segment for electricity restructuring. Yet, little is known about the shape of transmission cost functions. Reasons for this can be a lack of consensus about the definition of transmission output and the complexity of the relationship...

We study the problem of an investor that buys an equity stake in a entrepreneurial venture, under the assumption that the former cannot monitor the latter’s operations. The dynamics implied by the optimal incentive scheme is rich and quite different from that induced by other models of...

In this document we analyze the dynamics of per capita value added in manufacturing as a proxy of per capita income in Mexico’s municipalities and US counties. Specifically we seek to determine if there is convergence (absolute or conditional), divergence or stratification. A dynamic panel...

I analyze a problem of assigning heterogeneous agents (tenants) to heterogeneous principals (landlords), where partnerships are subject to moral hazard in effort choice. The agents differ in wealth endowment and the principals differ in land quality. When the liability of each agent is limited...

Drawing on four generations of poverty measurement, this paper uses panel data from the 2002-2007 period to analyze rural poverty in Mexico. The results show that almost three fifths of the surveyed households experienced poverty at least once, while one fifth was persistently poor. While these...

This paper presents a preliminary evaluation of the distribution at the household level of benefits from the Sistema de Protección Social en Salud (SPSS), or Seguro Popular, in its initial phase of operations. This health protection scheme was introduced in 2003, through a mayor reform of the...

Human development and urban development play essential and intimately interacting roles in economic development. The availability and cost of the basic inputs in health, education, work and housing depend on the urban-rural context. On the other hand urban growth is shaped by the cumulus of...

In this article we use a joint framework to investigate the effects on profit and size of Mexican microfirms from moving from the informal to the formal sector of the economy. Our analysis uses a multivariate Roy model, which allows us to study simultaneously the interaction between the...