In this paper I explore the relationship between the sales tax rate and the tax treatment of food in American states. One of the main difficulties in the empirical estimation of this relationship is that state governments set the two tax policy variables. This produces a potential endogeneity...

Despite success in reducing poverty over the last twenty years, inequality in Chile has remained virtually unchanged, making Chile one of the least equal countries in the world. High levels of inequality have been shown to hamper further reductions in poverty as well as economic growth, and...

Determinar los potenciales efectos de una fusión en el grado de competencia en un mercado es una tarea compleja. La decisión de las instituciones que defienden la libre competencia respecto a aprobar o rechazar una fusión es, por lo tanto, difícil, y genera incertidumbre en las empresas que...

Before 1978, most of the U.S. domestic copper production and an important fraction of the imports were traded at a price set by the major U.S. producers. Simultaneously, the rest of the world was trading copper at prices determined in auction markets. This two-price system ended in 1978, when...

Durante los últimos años, varios países de América Latina han bajado las tasas de impuesto a las utilidades de las empresas, entre otras razones, con el objetivo de atraer más Inversión Extranjera. Sin embargo, dicha política sólo puede tener resultados significativos si la elasticidad...

En general, las viviendas que por su ubicación tienen mejores accesos tienen un valor de mercado superior respecto a viviendas de características similares con peores accesos. Esta diferencia se debe a los menores costos de transporte hacia los principales mercados laborales y comerciales de...

In September 2005, the Chilean Competition Authority filed a lawsuit against the 5 largest private health insurance providers for violation of antitrust laws, specifically accusing them of collusion in the coverage of the plans offered to consumers between March 2002 and March 2003. In fact,...

This paper uses a model of strategic interaction among firms – that set discriminatory and nonlinear prices – together with public information on prices of the plans marketed by the three major mobile phone companies, to assess the extent to which on-net and off-net price differentials in...

In Chile, where demand for energy is constantly growing and which faces a stochastic energy supply, it is important to identify the determinants of household demand for electric energy. In particular, it is necessary to precisely identify its price elasticity with the goal of implementing...