FDI flows to developing countries surged in the 1990s, to become their leading source of external financing. This rise in FDI volume was accompanied by a marked change in its composition: investment taking the form of acquisition of existing assets (M&A) grew much more rapidly than investment in...

This paper provides a critical analysis of Kaminsky and Reinhart (1999) (KR), perhaps the most prominent empirical paper on causes of currency crises. After dealing with problems present in this paper, it proposes an aggregate leading indicator of crisis. The proposed indicator performs better...

This paper assesses selected revenue, efficiency, and equity aspects of Chile’s major taxes, i.e., the income tax, the value-added tax (VAT), and excises. Chile’s present overall tax burden, at about 20 percent of GDP, is in line with that in its neighboring countries. Whether any change...

Fear of floating” is one of the central empirical characteristics of exchange rate regimes in emerging markets. However, while some view “fear of floating” in terms of the optimal ex post monetary response to external shocks, protecting balance sheets and avoiding inflation, others have...

The main goal of the present paper is to estimate the equilibrium real exchange rate path for Chile using a simple model for the 1977.I – 2003.III period. Using cointegration techniques, we find a cointegrating relationship between the real exchange rate (RER) and its fundamentals —that is,...

Latin American has lost substantial ground relative to other developing and developed regions in terms of the quality and quantity of infrastructure over the last two decades. For instance, Latin America’s infrastructure gap in infrastructure growth relative to that of the seven successful...

This paper studies a congestion effect operating in most search processes in which applicants are allowed to fill multiple applications. Increases in the number of one agent applicant decrease the probability faced by other searchers of a successful match, generating the congestion effect, The...

The purpose of this paper is to test empirically whether the Central Bank of Chile (CBC) has a monetary policy reaction that changes depending on the actual state of the economy. For that, we estimate a threshold model for the CBC’s policy rule that allows the existence of two policy regimes...

Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models are a powerful economic tool for multidimensional/multisectoral analysis. They improve traditional input-output analysis generating quantities and prices endogenously and reflecting market incentives. They complement partial equilibrium analysis with a...

A pesar del esfuerzo de reformas de las décadas pasadas, el desempeño económico y social de los países de América Latina durante los noventa fue bastante pobre. La excepción fue Chile, que creció a tasas promedio de 7% durante la mayor parte de la década y redujo significativamente su...