Documento de Trabajo

Competition in or for The Field: Which is Better?

In many circumstances, a principal, who wants prices to be as low as possible, must contract with agents who would like to charge the monopoly price. This paper compares a Demsetz auction, which awards an exclusive contract to the agent bidding the lowest price (competition for the field) with having two agents provide the good

Equity and Educational Performance

In this paper, we review the main issues under discussion in the field of economics of education, with a special focus on Latin America. We seek to organize the debate about educational policies by showing how these policies respond to different models based on different assumptions and hypotheses about how the educational system functions. Methodological

Bank Lending and Relationship Banking: Evidence from Chilean Firms

In this paper we empirically study bank-client relationships using a sample of manufacturing Chilean firms. We examine whether concentration and the duration of bank-firm relationships affect the terms of bank financing, evaluating both the volume of bank lending and bank loan costs. Our results indicate that lower concentration, measured by the number of banks a

How Sensitive is Volatility to Exchange Rate Regimes?

It is usually conjectured that the nominal exchange rate should be more volatileunder a free float than under a dirty float regime. This paper examines this issue for theChilean economy. Specifically, in September 1999 the Central Bank of Chile eliminated the floating band for the nominal exchange rate, which operated since 1984, and established a

Could Higher Taxes Increase the Long-Run Demand for Capital?: Theory and Evidences for Chile

Is a tax increase always detrimental for capital formation? This paper estimates a long-run demand for capital in Chile, and studies the responsiveness of firms’ desired capital stock to variations in tax rates. We combine the neoclassical model with a cointegration argument to obtain a long-run demand for capital that is valid for a general

Why Do We Need Antidumping Rules?

We show that the inclusion of antidumping (AD) and countervailing subsidy (CVD) regulations can increase the range of feasible preferential trade agreements (PTA), given that governments are sensitive to pressure groups defending import competing industries. AD and CVD regulations serve as an «escape valve» for pressure groups affected by the PTA in some states of

Método de selección y resultados académicos: Escuela de Ingeniería, Universidad de Chile (Selection Method and Academic Results: Engineering School, University of Chile)

Estudiamos la capacidad predictiva del rendimiento académico de las distintas componentes del sistema de selección a las universidades para los alumnos de la Escuela de Ingeniería de la Universidad de Chile. Nuestros resultados indican que las notas de educación media y las pruebas específicas de física y matemáticas tienen una capacidad predictiva importante y estable,

Análisis Económico-Descriptivo de las Regiones Chilenas (Economic-descriptive analysis of the regions of Chile)

Este trabajo proporciona un análisis económico-descriptivo de las regiones de Chile, en términos de Producto Interno Bruto Regionalizado, exportaciones y población, para el período 1985-1999.Los principales resultados observados son los siguientes:a. Hay un notorio diferencial en el nivel del PIB per cápita de las regiones. El PIB per cápita de la II Región -la de

El Rol de las Exportaciones en el Crecimiento Económico Regional (The Role of Exports on Regional Economic Growth)

Varios estudios han encontrado que las exportaciones juegan un rol fundamental en la economía chilena,pero ¿cómo es este rol a nivel específico en cada una de las regiones del país?, ¿cuál es el efecto empírico en términos de crecimiento económico, el hecho de que una región se oriente en mayor grado al mercado externo? El

Privatizing roads: An “old” new approach to infrastructure provision

During most of the twentieth century, highways, tunnels and bridges were viewed as public goods that had to be provided by the government.By the end of the century, however, chronic budgetary problems had led governments to allow participation of private firms in financing, building,and operating infrastructure projects. For example, worldwide private invest-ment in transport infrastructure

El Cobre Chileno y la Política Minera (Chilean Copper and Mining Policy)

En este artículo se proporciona una breve síntesis histórica de este tema para conectar la discusión presente con la del pasado. En la primera parte hay una revisión compacta del debatehistórico. Esto incluye la interrogante permanente sobre la importancia del cobre para Chile; esto se complementa con las estadísticas pertinentes sobre el rol del cobre

The Effects of Privatization on Firms and on Social Welfare

In this study we analyze the Chilean privatization process as a whole. Since it has been a wide-ranging process, we examine its different aspects. After a historic review of the privatization pro-cess,we study the 37 Chilean State Owned Enterprises (SOE’s) that were privatized during the period 1981-2000 and for which pre-privatization and post-privatization financial, employment