- I am Professor at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, and Independent Researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investig... moreI am Professor at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, and Independent Researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cienctíficas y Técnicas. I hold a Ph.D. in Economics from The University of Nottingham, and my areas of expertise are international trade, regional economic integration, and labor markets.edit
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MERCOSUR’s role on the regional patterns of imports of its country members: a dynamic panel data approach by
Unilateral trade liberalisation and the
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Bajo la presión de una creciente salida de capitales, a fines del año 2013 el gobierno argentino implementó lo que se conoció como el impuesto a los "autos de lujo". Aunque no declarado explícitamente, el objetivo principal era... more
Bajo la presión de una creciente salida de capitales, a fines del año 2013 el gobierno argentino implementó lo que se conoció como el impuesto a los "autos de lujo". Aunque no declarado explícitamente, el objetivo principal era reducir las importaciones de los automóviles más caros para reducir el déficit comercial del sector automotriz, que contribuía de manera importante al déficit de la cuenta de capital. Más allá del hecho de que la política podría calificarse de "exitosa" en cuanto a la reducción de un déficit de USD 4.500 millones en 2013 a uno de poco más de USD 700 millones en 2014, tuvo un impacto devastador y duradero en el mercado interno, que apenas un año antes, en 2013, había alcanzado un récord de ventas. Los resultados muestran que durante el primer año de la aplicación del impuesto, el impacto global en las ventas de los modelos alcanzados por el mismo fue del 53,7%. A pesar de algunas diferencias, el impacto negativo se produjo a lo largo todo e...
This paper aims to analyse the job satisfaction of recent graduates that finished their studies at the Facultad de Ciencias Economicas of the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. Using a database specially designed for this project, we first... more
This paper aims to analyse the job satisfaction of recent graduates that finished their studies at the Facultad de Ciencias Economicas of the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. Using a database specially designed for this project, we first look at the relationship between overall job satisfaction and its subdomains. Second, we inquiry on the relationships of overall job satisfaction and some of its subdomain with the degree of matching between the graduate’s education and skills with those required by his/her job, controlling by a set of variables related with individual characteristics, relationship statuses, personality traits, household context, human capital background, occupational context, institutional background, and job status. Finally, we look at the recent graduates’ job satisfaction by differentiating specific subgroups: by gender and matched/mismatched job statuses. The evidence shows that eight subdomains are positively associated with overall job satisfaction; they are satisfaction with pay, fringe benefits, general work environment, relationship with supervisors, intellectual challenge, job responsibilities, the possibility of professional development, and working hours. Additionally, the econometric analysis shows that overall job satisfaction and its subdomains are affected differently by individual characteristics, social and economic context, personality traits, occupational context, job status, among others. Importantly, a better match between formal education and job requirements impact positively on job satisfaction and its subdomains. These results give support to the approach of splitting overall job satisfaction into different dimensions to identify the sources of the values of job satisfaction differences.
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a infraestructura de transporte en Argentina tiene un diseno que pone en desventaja a las regiones mas alejadas del aglomerado portuario Rosario-Buenos Aires. La mayoria de las inversiones fisicas y los servicios se encuentran... more
a infraestructura de transporte en Argentina tiene un diseno que pone en desventaja a las regiones mas alejadas del aglomerado portuario Rosario-Buenos Aires. La mayoria de las inversiones fisicas y los servicios se encuentran concentrados en el centro-este del territorio, con ramales extendidos hacia el Litoral, el oeste y, en menor medida, el noroeste del pais. De manera similar, las ventas al exterior se encuentran fuertemente concentradas en el centro-este, donde se localizan las principales aduanas. Esto toma mayor relevancia para el caso de las exportaciones de Productos Primarios y Manufacturas de Origen Agropecuario, rubros que explican gran parte de las ventas al exterior de la mayoria de las jurisdicciones. Este trabajo busca, a traves de un ejercicio de simulacion, aproximar los efectos que una mejora en la tecnologia de transporte tendria sobre los costos totales de transporte y, por lo tanto, en la competitividad internacional de las distintas provincias argentinas. Enc...
Se examina la relación entre transferencias federales, la existencia de un premio salarial en el sector público y sus efectos sobre los salarios privadosen Argentina. El análisis empírico se basa en la presunción teórica que las... more
Se examina la relación entre transferencias federales, la existencia de un premio salarial en el sector público y sus efectos sobre los salarios privadosen Argentina. El análisis empírico se basa en la presunción teórica que las transferencias fiscales desde el gobierno federal se utilizan para financiar mayor empleo público desincentivando la actividad privada. Los resultados sugieren que el sector público paga un premio salarial. Este premio escreciente en el nivel de transferencias por habitante. No hay evidencia deun efecto agregado positivo sobre los salarios privados. Sin embargo se encuentra una relación positiva y significativa entre transferencias y los salarios pagados a trabajadores con menor educación, para trabajos que requieren una calificación técnica ó profesional la relación es negativa. Los resultados apoyan, en general, la hipótesis que el sector privado enfrenta una mayor competencia en los mercados de trabajo en aquellas provincias que reciben mayores transferen...
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We analyze the impact on welfare of an increase in commodity prices in Uruguay. Given that this country has a large share of households with low and medium-low income, a positive shock on commodity prices has the potential to hurt a... more
We analyze the impact on welfare of an increase in commodity prices in Uruguay. Given that this country has a large share of households with low and medium-low income, a positive shock on commodity prices has the potential to hurt a sizable part of the population through the rise in the cost of the consumption basket. However, the pass through on domestic prices would be alleviated by positive changes in labor income that middle-income households experience as the wages also respond to hike of international commodity prices. We find that in Uruguay households at the upper end of the distribution would benefit with the increase of the international prices of agricultural commodities, with low-income households losing as much as 7.5%. In terms of poverty, the increase would be 34%, while increases in indigence would be lower: 19%. Also, the results show that households in a situation of indigence and/or poverty, would move in average further away from the threshold lines, meaning that...
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This paper empirically explores whether trade preferences can be used as a substitute for industrial policy and help countries achieve their industrialization objectives at the expense of other regional members. Results show that Mercado... more
This paper empirically explores whether trade preferences can be used as a substitute for industrial policy and help countries achieve their industrialization objectives at the expense of other regional members. Results show that Mercado Comun del Sur (MERCOSUR) preferences obtained by Brazilian exporters have led to an increase in exports of relatively sophisticated products in which Brazil does not enjoy a global comparative advantage. On the contrary, smaller members of MERCOSUR export to the region products in which they have strong comparative advantages and with relatively low levels of sophistication. This suggests that MERCOSUR has helped Brazil achieve its industrialization objectives, but has not contributed to the industrialization of its smaller members.
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This paper empirically explores whether trade preferences can be used as a substitute for industrial policy and help countries achieve their industrialization objectives, at the expense of other regional members. It illustrates the... more
This paper empirically explores whether trade preferences can be used as a substitute for industrial policy and help countries achieve their industrialization objectives, at the expense of other regional members. It illustrates the heterogeneity that may exist in terms of reaching industrialization objectives with the help of preferential trade between small and large members of these trade agreements. The focus is on Brazil’s regional preferences within MERCOSUR. Results show that MERCOSUR preferences obtained by Brazilian exporters have led to an increase in exports of relatively sophisticated products where Brazil does not enjoys a global comparative advantage, whereas the smaller members of MERCOSUR are more likely to export within the region products in which they have a strong comparative advantage and with rela-tively low levels of sophistication. Thus, MERCOSUR has helped large members achieve their industrialization objectives.
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This paper empirically explores whether trade preferences can be used as a substitute for industrial policy and help countries achieve their industrialization objectives, at the expense of other regional members. It illustrates the... more
This paper empirically explores whether trade preferences can be used as a substitute for industrial policy and help countries achieve their industrialization objectives, at the expense of other regional members. It illustrates the heterogeneity that may exist in terms of reaching industrialization objectives with the help of preferential trade between small and large members of these agreements. Results show that MERCOSUR preferences obtained by Brazilian exporters have led to an increase in exports of relatively sophisticated products where Brazil does not enjoys a global comparative advantage. Smaller members of MERCOSUR also exports to the region products in which they have strong comparative advantages and relatively low level of sophistication. Thus, MERCOSUR contributes to large members, in particular Brazil and to a less extent Argentina, to achieve their industrialization objective.
En la ultima decada se ha producido un intenso desarrollo de los modelos comerciales con el fin de explicar los determinantes del comercio bilateral. Un aporte teorico y metodologico fundamental es Anderson y van Wincoop (2003), que... more
En la ultima decada se ha producido un intenso desarrollo de los modelos comerciales con el fin de explicar los determinantes del comercio bilateral. Un aporte teorico y metodologico fundamental es Anderson y van Wincoop (2003), que introdujeron el concepto de resistencia multilateral y gravedad estructural. Sin embargo, todavia existe una brecha importante entre los desarrollos teoricos del modelo de gravedad estructural y sus aplicaciones empiricas. Las dos cuestiones principales son: la presencia de ceros en el comercio bilateral y el problema de la falta de datos de produccion propia orientada al mercado interno. La presencia del comercio cero ha sido abordada por Santos Silva y Tenreyro (2006) y Helpman, Melitz y Rubinstein (2008), pero los efectos de la falta de las transacciones internas en la estimacion del modelo de gravedad no han sido muy estudiados, aun cuando su relevancia puede considerarse de mayor importancia, debido a la gran heterogeneidad entre paises en cuanto a ...
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We analyse regional convergence between Argentine provinces in well-being indicators for the period 1970-2001. More specifically, we examine the role of regional public policy in reducing the development gap between the provinces. We find... more
We analyse regional convergence between Argentine provinces in well-being indicators for the period 1970-2001. More specifically, we examine the role of regional public policy in reducing the development gap between the provinces. We find strong evidence of conditional convergence in well-being indicators. However, we find no evidence that redistributive transfers from the federal government to the provinces have had a positive effect on convergence in these indicators. In fact, we find that for some schooling, health and housing measures, the effect of federal transfers on improvement rates might have been contrary to what was expected.
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International trade in services has shown an important dynamism increasing by almost five times in la last twenty years. Among the different types of services, financial services experienced growth rates above the average. Like it is the... more
International trade in services has shown an important dynamism increasing by almost five times in la last twenty years. Among the different types of services, financial services experienced growth rates above the average. Like it is the case with trade in goods, trade in services, and in particular financial services, are highly concentrated in developed economies, but showing a declining tendency. For the case of South America countries, service exports have increased substantially, but not enough to maintain they shares in world trade. Using the well-known and extensively used "gravity equation", we study the determinants of financial services exports, and estimate the export potential for ten South-American countries.
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Economic activity in Argentina shows a high degree of concentration, in 1993 almost 46% of GDP was generated in an area representing just 0.14% of the country. When looking at the manufacturing sector the concentration is still higher.... more
Economic activity in Argentina shows a high degree of concentration, in 1993 almost 46% of GDP was generated in an area representing just 0.14% of the country. When looking at the manufacturing sector the concentration is still higher. The new economic geography models developed since the early nineties explain the location of economic activity across regions as the result of two opposite forces, centripetal and centrifugal. As trade costs are reduced, the relative strength of these two forces changes, such that we might also expect changes in the regional structure of production and wages. How trade liberalising policies might have affected the structure of production and wages across regions is the topic we try to make a contribution. The evidence points out that the further reduction of trade barriers during the nineties might have had a small effect on the regional structure of employment and wages across counties, at least in the short-run.
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Most of the literature dealing with the regional effects of trade liberalisation considers that each country or region engaged in the process is internally homogeneous (e.g. Krugman, 1991; Krugman and Venables, 1995 and 1996; Venables,... more
Most of the literature dealing with the regional effects of trade liberalisation considers that each country or region engaged in the process is internally homogeneous (e.g. Krugman, 1991; Krugman and Venables, 1995 and 1996; Venables, 1996; Helpman, 1998; etc.). A related, but to some extent different question, is what would be the potential effects on the regional economic structure when a country opens or reduces barriers to external trade. Does the promotion of trade intensify or reduce regional disparities inside the country? Are these effects the same across agents in each region, or will there be different responses? Here the analysis is much more limited, some exceptions being Hanson (1994), Krugman and Livas Elizondo (1996) and Fujita, Krugman and Venables (1999).
We examine the relationship between federal transfers, the existence of a wage premium for the public sector and its effects on private wages in Argentina. The empirical analysis is based on the theoretical presumption that federal fiscal... more
We examine the relationship between federal transfers, the existence of a wage premium for the public sector and its effects on private wages in Argentina. The empirical analysis is based on the theoretical presumption that federal fiscal transfers to the different regions are being used to finance more public employment therefore discouraging private activity. The results suggest that the public sector pays a wage premium relative to the private sector. This premium is increasing in the level of per capita federal transfers. There is no evidence of an overall positive effect on wages in the private manufacturing sector. However, we find a significant positive relationship between federal transfers and wages paid to workers with less formal education; for jobs requiring a technical or profesional qualification the relationship is negative. These results broadly support the hypothesis that the private sector faces harder competition in the labour market in provinces which receive lar...
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September 6, 2012 Extending Martin and Rogers’ FCM including non-tradable goods and public employment we analyse the effect on economic activity location that follows to changes on the regional distribution of transfers. An increase in... more
September 6, 2012 Extending Martin and Rogers’ FCM including non-tradable goods and public employment we analyse the effect on economic activity location that follows to changes on the regional distribution of transfers. An increase in the share of transfers a region receives positively affects the production of manufactures the higher are: transaction costs of goods produced under increasing returns to scale; the share of transfers that goes directly to consumers instead of local governments; the elasticity of substitution between differentiated goods; the share of consumers’ expenditure on manufactures via-as-vis on non-traded goods.
We assess redistribution in the Argentinean pension and unemployment insurance programs on a lifetime basis. Using household surveys, we simulate lifetime declared labor income and flows of contributions and benefits, and compute the... more
We assess redistribution in the Argentinean pension and unemployment insurance programs on a lifetime basis. Using household surveys, we simulate lifetime declared labor income and flows of contributions and benefits, and compute the expected present values of income and net flows. We find that the PAYG-DB system in Argentina appears to be regressive, specially in the case of women working in the private sector. Under an alternative scenario that assume a weak enforcement of the law and different discount rates, the results change and the system becomes less regressive or even slightly progressive.
We assess redistribution in the Argentinean and Mexican pension and unemployment insurance programs on a lifetime basis. Using household surveys, we simulate lifetime declared labor income and flows of contributions and benefits, and... more
We assess redistribution in the Argentinean and Mexican pension and unemployment insurance programs on a lifetime basis. Using household surveys, we simulate lifetime declared labor income and flows of contributions and benefits, and compute the expected present values of income and net flows. We find that the Mexican mandatory individual account social security system is almost neutral in terms of income redistribution, while this is not the case for PAYG-DB system in Argentina that appears to be regressive, with an overall increase in the Gini coefficient of around 1.4pp (2.5%). Under alternative scenarios that assume a weak enforcement of the law and different discount rates, the results change and the system becomes less regressive or even slightly progressive.
Uno de los problemas que es mas debatido a nivel pais resulta ser todo lo que atane a la balanza de pagos. Sin embargo, lamentablemente esta preocupacion se abandona cuando bajamos a los niveles provinciales. El problema en concreto surge... more
Uno de los problemas que es mas debatido a nivel pais resulta ser todo lo que atane a la balanza de pagos. Sin embargo, lamentablemente esta preocupacion se abandona cuando bajamos a los niveles provinciales. El problema en concreto surge a nivel provincial como consecuencia de que efectivamente, en el largo plazo, la Balanza de Pagos Regional (BPR) debe estar equilibrada, por lo que en los casos en que las provincias atraviesen por una situacion de deficit cronicos (que revelan desequilibrios), tal situacion se cubre con capitales extraprovinciales. Como es consenso, para salvar esos deficit cronicos las economias deben alcanzar un estadio de crecimiento autogenerado (es decir, financiado con su propio ahorro), que permita un nivel suficiente de PBG, y para ello debera operar un "proceso de convergencia" respecto a las areas mas desarrolladas. Sin embargo, los estudios demuestran que no se observa tal proceso de convergencia en las provincias argentinas. Surge la pregunta...
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Argentina has an important system of vertical transfers with a compensatory aim including the convergence across sub-national regions. However, there still exist high levels of asymmetries among the country provinces. Extending Martin and... more
Argentina has an important system of vertical transfers with a compensatory aim including the convergence across sub-national regions. However, there still exist high levels of asymmetries among the country provinces. Extending Martin and Rogers’ FCM including non- tradable goods and public employment we analyse the effect on economic activity location that follows to changes on the regional distribution of transfers. An increase in the share of transfers a region receives positively effect the production of manufactures the higher are: transaction costs of goods produced under increasing returns to scale; the share of transfers that goes directly to consumers instead of local governments; the elasticity of substitution between differentiated goods; the share of consumers’ expenditure on manufactures via-as-vis on non- traded goods.
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Economic activity in Argentina shows a high degree of concentration, in 1993 almost 46% of GDP was generated in an area representing just 0.14% of the country. When looking at the manufacturing sector the concentration is still higher.... more
Economic activity in Argentina shows a high degree of concentration, in 1993 almost 46% of GDP was generated in an area representing just 0.14% of the country. When looking at the manufacturing sector the concentration is still higher. The new economic geography models developed since the early nineties explain the location of economic activity across regions as the result of two opposite forces, centripetal and centrifugal. As trade costs are reduced, the relative strength of these two forces changes, such that we might also expect changes in the regional structure of production and wages. How trade liberalising policies might have affected the structure of production and wages across regions is the topic we try to make a contribution. The evidence points out that the further reduction of trade barriers during the nineties might have had a small effect on the regional structure of employment and wages across counties, at least in the short-run.
Argentina, like other land abundant country, benefited greatly from the increase in the prices of agricultural commodities. However, and in despite of the benefits at the macro level, with a large share of the population with low and... more
Argentina, like other land abundant country, benefited greatly from the increase in the prices of agricultural commodities. However, and in despite of the benefits at the macro level, with a large share of the population with low and medium-low incomes, the increase in agricultural commodity prices has the potential to hurt an important part of the population through a raise in the prices of the consumption basket of households, especially those that constitute the food-basket. The ex-ante evidence shows that this is expected to be the case. A less obvious channel, through changes in factor incomes would be more beneficial to the middle income households. Overall, losses range between 5.5 and 10% of initial household expenditure, with poorer households being the most negatively affected.
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Purpose Brazil, a large developing economy whose main exports consist of primary commodities, benefited greatly from the boom in commodity prices during the first decade of the current century. However, with a large share of its... more
Purpose Brazil, a large developing economy whose main exports consist of primary commodities, benefited greatly from the boom in commodity prices during the first decade of the current century. However, with a large share of its population with low and very low incomes, there is a potential for some adverse redistributive effects. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue by simulating the ex ante effects using a mixed endogenous–exogenous social accounting matrix (SAM) price model. Design/methodology/approach The methodology consists of two parts. First, using a mixed endogenous–exogenous SAM price model, the authors obtain the elasticities of domestic prices (goods, services and factors) in response to the increase in international prices of three types of commodities: agricultural, oil/gas and minerals. Second, the authors run micro-simulations at the household level on welfare effects, as well as on some distributive indices. Analysis at the regional level is also carri...
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In the last decade, there has been an intense development in trade models aiming to explain the determinants of bilateral trade. A seminal theoretical and methodological contribution is Anderson and van Wincoop (2003), who introduced the... more
In the last decade, there has been an intense development in trade models aiming to explain the determinants of bilateral trade. A seminal theoretical and methodological contribution is Anderson and van Wincoop (2003), who introduced the concept of multilateral resistance and structural gravity. However, there is still an important gap between the theoretical developments of the structural gravity model and its empirical applications. Two main issues come from the presence of zeros in bilateral trade and missing data for internal trade flows (own production oriented to the own market). The presence of zero trade flows has been considered in Santos Silva and Tenreyro (2006) and Helpman, Melitz, and Rubinstein (2008). The consequences of omitting internal transactions have not been much studied, even when its relevance may be greater due to a significant heterogeneity across countries’ openness. The objective of the paper is to analyze and characterize the consequences from omitting internal trade in the estimation of trade proximities (inverse trade costs) and on the values of multilateral resistances, which in turn will affect the comparative statics effects derived from different trade policy measures.
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This paper aims to analyse the job satisfaction of recent graduates that have finished their studies at the Facultad de Ciencias Económicas of the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Firstly, we study the relationship between graduates’... more
This paper aims to analyse the job satisfaction of recent graduates that have finished their studies at the Facultad de Ciencias Económicas of the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Firstly, we study the relationship between graduates’ overall job satisfaction and its different subdomains. Secondly, we look at the relationships between overall job satisfaction, and each subdomain, and a set of explanatory variables related with individual characteristics, relationship statuses, personality traits, household context, human capital background, occupational context, institutional background, job status and job matching. The evidence shows that eight subdomains are positively associated with overall job satisfaction; they are satisfaction with pay, fringe benefits, general work environment, relationship with supervisors, intellectual challenge, job responsibilities, the possibility of professional development, and working hours. Additionally, the econometric analysis shows that overall job satisfaction and its subdomains are affected differently by individual characteristics, social and economic context, personality traits, occupational context, job status, among others. Importantly, a better match between formal education and job requirements impact positively on job satisfaction and its subdomains. These results give support to the approach of splitting overall job satisfaction into different dimensions to identify the sources of the values of job satisfaction differences.