Most developing-country governments lack resources to undertake urgent highway construction programs. This has led to the suggestion that private firms should be given franchises to build, finance, operate and transfer (BOT) highways in exchange for toll revenues. We build a conceptual framework...

Financial time-series may exhibit breakpoints in unconditional variance due, possibly, to institutional changes. Accounting for such shifts is essential to risk management, forecasting, and hedging. In this article, we test for the presence of structural breaks in volatility by two approaches:...

Este trabajo estudia formalmente si la ley eléctrica contenía precios suficientes para administrar sin cortes y eficientemente caídas drásticas de la cantidad ofrecida de energía y daba los incentivos correctos para invertir en capacidad de reserva. También analizamos en detalle las...

In several countries (Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and Peru, among others), power plants are dispatched according to merit order, i.e., based on the marginal operating costs of the plants. In this scheme, the plant with the highest marginal cost sets the spot price at which firms trade the energy...

El propósito de este artículo es establecer los principios económicos que deben regir el cálculo de las tarifas de transmisión de energía cuando se utiliza el modelo tradicional de peak-load pricing para tarificar la energía y la potencia. Los sistemas de transmisión cumplen tres...

During the past decade most Latin American countries reformed and liberalized their electric sectors. This paper examines these reforms, providing a critical examination of the effects. Late reformers learnt from the experience of earlier reforming countries, and in particular from the Chilean...

Este trabajo analiza los aspectos laborales de los acuerdos de integración; en particular, se compara la legislación laboral de los países del MERCOSUR, incluyendo a Chile ya que partir de 1996, este país se ha asociado a través de un acuerdo de libre comercio con el MERCOSUR. El trabajo...

Americans who are caught evading taxes in one year may be audited for prior years. While the IRS does not disclose its method of selecting tax returns for audit, it is widely believed that a taxpayer´s probability of being audited is an increasing function of current evasion is a decreasing...

En este trabajo se examina el efecto de la protección contingente sobre el comportamiento estratégico de las firmas. Este tipo de protección consiste en la introducción de potenciales castigos -tasas compensatorias, cuotas, valores aduaneros mínimos u otros- a la firma extranjera cuando un...

There are many industries in which potentially competitive segments require services provided by natural monopoly bottlenecks (essential facilities). Since it is difficult to regulate these facilities, developing countries are using Demsetz auctions, where the facility is awarded to the firm...