Documento de Trabajo

Estimación de la evasión en el impuesto a las empresas en Chile (Estimates of tax evasion for Chilean companies)

Este trabajo estima la evasión en el impuesto a las empresas en Chile. La recaudación potencial del impuesto se estima realizando diversos ajustes al Excedente de Explotación del Sistema de Cuentas Nacionales. La evasión estimada para 1997 es de $604.223 millones (unos US$1.440 millones), lo que representa un 41,7% de la recaudación teórica. Asimismo, los

El modelo económico y la cuestión social (The economic model and the social question)

En este artículo hay una revisión de la discusión conceptual respecto a la interrelación entre mercado y desigualdad. ¿El sistema capitalista genera inevitablemente una distribución inequitativa? La meritocracia sería el argumento central para justificar dicha situación. Pero, ¿existe en Chile una sociedad meritocrática? ¿Hasta qué punto las condiciones iniciales condicionan la trayectoria individual de cada

Subsidies in Chilean Public Utilities

Chile es uno de los países con peor desigualdad del ingreso de América Latina e incluso del mundo. Al mismo tiempo, durante la última década, el «modelo chileno» ha sido considerado como un ejemplo paradigmático que debiera ser imitado por los países en desarrollo y en particular, por los países latinoamericanos. ¿Cómo se concilian estos

A Debt Puzzle

Over 60% of US households with credit cards are currently borrowing |i.e., paying interest |on those cards (Gross and Souleles 2000). We attempt to reconcile the high rate of credit card borrowing with observed levels of lifecycle wealth accumulation. We simulate a lifecycle model with five properties that create demand for credit card borrowing. First,

Hyperbolic Discounting, Wealth Accumulation, and Consumption

Laboratory and field studies of time preference find that discount rates are much greater in the short-run than in the long-run. Hyperbolic discount functions capture this property. This paper presents simulations of the savings and asset allocation choices of households with hyperbolic preferences. The behavior of the hyperbolic households is com-pared to the behavior of

How to Auction a Bottleneck Monopoly when Underhand Vertical Agreements are Possible

In recent years a number of seaport facilities have been awarded in Demsetz auctions to the operator that bidding the lowest cargo-handling fee. A major concern is that the port operator may integrate into shipping and sabotage competitors, thereby rendering the competitive auction irrelevant. The standard policy recommendation to mitigate this problem, is to ban

Estructura de tasas de interés en Chile: ¿Qué tan buen predictor de crecimiento e inflación? (Interest rates structure in Chile: how well does it predict growth and inflation?)

Based upon Granger causality and Pesaran-Shin’s generalized impulse-response functions, this paper studies the link between the term structure and economic growth, and the link between the term structure and actual and expected percent changes of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in Chile. Our measure of economic growth is the percent variation in the Monthly Indicator

Franchising of Infrastructure Concessions in Chile: A Policy Report

This report describes and evaluates the present state of the Chilean infrastructure concessions program. This program is leading to a complete upgrade of Chile`s highway system and has been recently extended to seaports. The main principles underlying the economics of franchising are examined and used to evaluate the programof privatizations of highways and seaports. Compared

Decisions to Replace Consumer Durables Goods: An Econometric Application of Wiener and Renewal Processes

Current sales of most consumer durable goods are accounted for by replacements. However, only in recent years has the economic literature provided a more rigorous analysis of replacement purchases by incorporating elements of dynamic programming and of the theory of stochastic processes. This paper is an empirical study of household replacement decisions modeled as an

Regulating the Electricaly Sector in Latin America

During the past decade most Latin American countries reformed and liberalized their electric sectors. This paper examines these reforms, providing a critical examination of the effects. Late reformers learnt from the experience of earlier reforming countries, and in particular from the Chilean experience. This evolutionary process has meant less regulation of segments that are or

Determinación de factores explicativos de los resultados escolares en educación media en Chile (Determining factors that explain high school results in Chile)

El objetivo de este estudio es indagar sobre las variables educativas, institucionales y sociales que están a la base de los logros educativos de los liceos de enseñanza media en Chile y de las diferencias de resultados entre ellos.Utilizando datos de la prueba SIMCE de Segundo Año de Enseñanza Media del año 1998 e información

Regulatory Governance and Chile

In the early eighties Chile completely reformed its electricity sector, introducing a regulatory framework that became extremely influential in the rest of the world. In 1998 and 1999, however, when the La Niña phenomenon brought one of the worst droughts on record, the price system collapsed. Random outages and three-hour long rotatingelectricity cuts occurred.This paper