This paper characterizes a class of multivariate distributions that includes the multinormal and is contained in the exponential family. The wide range of possible applications of these distributions is suggested by some of the characteristics germane to them: First, they maximize Shannon's...

This note warns about the careless computation of poverty indexes when the welfare of each household is measured by its net income, since this can be negative. As is illustrated in the case of Mexico, even if only a handful of households report negative incomes, the resulting poverty aggregates,...

This document analyzes the effects of recent oil shocks on the economies of Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The general results are as follows. First, oil demand responded elastically to economic activity, and was almost perfectly inelastic to its...

The purpose of this paper is to make an appraisal of the tax reforms that took place in Mexico in the eighties and the beginning of the nineties, putting emphasis on their macroeconomic consequences. The paper also examines the pattern of government expenditures along the last three presidential...

This paper provides omnibus tests for multivariate normality of both observations and residuals. They are derived by considering as the alternatives to the multivariate normal a class of maximum-entropy distributions studied elsewhere by the author. The tests, being Lagrange multiplier...

This paper proposes a new real exchange rate index for the Mexican economy. Unlike the methodology currently being employed by the Bank of Mexico, the new index reflects the changing patterns of trade between the country and the rest of the world. The index is calculated on a quarterly basis...

This paper evaluates the indirect tax reforms that took place in Mexico in 1995 and 1998, focusing on their impact on welfare at the household and social levels. The empirical analysis is based on the estimation of an Almost Ideal Demand system, using its correct nonlinear version and by means...

This work surveys possible tributary schemes that might complement or substitute part of the fiscal structure that currently exists in Mexico. Some of the schemes are audacious, as it is the case of the progressive consumption tax, and other reasonable and plausible ones, as it is the case of...

El propósito de este trabajo es analizar, mediante el ejemplo del triplay indonesio importado a México en los noventa, una práctica desleal de comercio que es disfrazada. A saber, el subsidiar de manera indirecta la exportación de una mercancía mediante barreras al comercio de los insumos...

This paper contains a GAUSS program that can be used, among other things, to find equilibria for computable general equilibrium models, and fix-price equilibria for general non-Walrasian models. Simple applications for those two cases, as well as for linear and quadratic programming, are also...