In the estimation of proportions using simple random sampling, the maximum value of the variance can be used to compute the sample size when there is no information of the variable of interest. We extend this result to the estimation of proportions under two-stage cluster sampling with equal...

The estimation of the sample size is a crucial part of the planning process of a survey and it can be accomplished in different ways, some of them require information not available or that may be obtained with a substantial cost. The estimation of the sample size can be done by using the design...

We study experimentally the protection of property in five widely distinct countries-Austria, Mexico, Mongolia, South Korea and the United States. Our main results are the correlations between experimental choices with indicators regarding the security of property, trust and the quality of...

The present study calculates the proportional liquidity usage of the Mexican Real Time Settlement Payment System, SPEI, during a one month period. In particular, our interest is to get insights on how different is the liquidity level at the settlement in real time of low and large value payment...

In this paper we study the causal effect of a large expansion of publicly provided health insurance on children's academic performance using the case of Mexico. In general, access to free health insurance could improve education outcomes directly by making household members healthier or...

Optimal tax theory has difficulty rationalizing high marginal tax rates at the upper end of the income distribution. In this paper, I construct a model of optimal income taxation in which agents’ preferences are interdependent. I derive a simple expression for optimal taxes that accommodates...

This paper examines the effect of macroeconomic releases on stock market volatility through a Poisson-Gaussian-GARCH process with time varying jump intensity, which is allowed to respond to such information. It is found that the day of the announcement, per se, has little impact on jump...

This study models high and low frequency variation in global equity correlations using a comprehensive sample of 43 countries that includes developed and emerging markets, during the period 1995-2008. These two types of variations are modeled following the semi-parametric Factor-Spline-GARCH...

Combination of forecasts from survey data is complicated by the frequent entry and exit in real time of individual forecasters which renders conventional least squares regression approaches to estimation of the combination weights infeasible. We explore the consequences of this for a variety of...

We analyze inflation's persistence in the 1980-2006 period for the ten largest Latin American economies using univariate time-series techniques. Although the estimated degree of inflation persistence appears to be different across countries, for the region as a whole the persistence seems to be...