Neighborhood feedbacks, endogenous stratification, and income inequality

This paper explores the evolution of the cross-section income distribution in economies where endogenous neighborhood formation interacts with positive within-neighborhood feedback effects. We study an economy in which the economic success of adults is determined by the characteristics of the families in the neighborhood in which a person grows up. These feedbacks take two forms. First, the tax base of a neighborhood affects the leveI of education investment in offspring. Second, the effectiveness of education investment is affected by a neighborhood's in come distribution, reflecting factors such as role model or labor market connection effects. Conditions are developed under which endogenous stratification, defined as the tendency for families wi th similar incomes to choose to form common communities, will occur. When families are allowed to choose their neighborhoods, wealthy families will have an incentive to segregate themselves from the rest of the population. This resulting stratification is supported by house price differences between ricli and poor communities. Endogenous stratification can lead to pronounced intertemporal inequality as different families provide very different interaction environments for offspring. When the transformation of human capital into in come exhibits constant retums to scale, cross-section in come differences may also grow across time. As a result, endogenous stratification and neighborhood feedbacks can interact to produce long run inequality.

Effects on school enrollment and performance of a conditional transfers program in Mexico

We study the effects of a conditional transfers program on school enrollment and performance in Mexico. We provide a theoretical framework for analyzing the dynamic educational decision and process inc1uding the endogeneity and uncertainty of performance (passing grades) and the effect of a conditional cash transfer program for children enrolled at school. Careful identification of the program impact on this model is studied. This framework is used to study the Mexican social program Progresa in which a randomized experiment has been implemented and allows us to identify the effect of the conditional cash transfer program on enrollment and performance at school. Using the mIes of the conditional program, we can explain the different incentive effects provided. We also derive the formal identifying assumptions needed to provide consistent estimates of the average treatment effects on enrollment and performance at school. We estimate empirically these effects and find that Progresa had always a positive impact on school continuation whereas for performance it had a positive impact at primary school but a negative one at secondary school, a possible consequence of disincentives due to the program termination after the third year of secondary school.

Indexing stock portfolios in Brazil: tracking the IBOVESPA and the FGV 100

Indexing is a passive investment strategy in which the investor weights bis portfolio to match the performance of a broad-based indexo Since severaI studies showed that indexed portfolios have consistently outperformed active management strategies over the last decades, an increasing number of investors has become interested in indexing portfolios IateIy. Brazilian financiaI institutions do not offer indexed portfolios to their clients at this point in time. In this work we propose the use of indexed portfolios to track the performance oftwo ofthe most important Brazilian stock indexes: the mOVESPA and the FGVIOO. We test the tracking performance of our modeI by a historical simulation. We applied several statistical tests to the data to verify how many stocks should be used to controI the portfolio tracking error within user specified bounds.

Estrutura a termo da volatilidade em mercados de juros e futuros: características gerais e o mercado futuro de DI

São dois os objetivos deste artigo. O primeiro constitui-se em formalizar e formatar a resposta à questão acerca de como se comporta a volatilidade dos preços de titulos, futuros e derivativos de forma geral ao loogo do tempo. Com isto mostra-se que a abordagem empírica tradicional usada para analisar-se o comportamento estatístico de uma série de futuros não é apropriada para economias "instáveis" onde os prazos são curtos (ou para qualquer economia onde haja liquidez nos contratos próximos da maturidade, caso até hoje do Brasil). O segundo objetivo é analisar o mercado futuro de depósitos intemnanceiros (DIfuturo)-- um dos mais importantes mercados financeiros da economia brasileira. Provar-se-á que, do ponto de vista de apreçamento de ativos, este mercado COI'J1>Orta-se exatamente da mesma forma que um mercado à vista detitulos, ao invés de futuro de juros. Analisam-se as implicações empíricas desta constatação no que diz respeito à estrutura a termo da volatilidade, tema da primeira parte do artigo. É um artigo exclusivamente teóric.o, sobre qual deve ser a abordagem empírica correta para mercados de juros e futuros. Na verdade, ele faz parte de um artigo mais amplo, que incorpora, dentre outras análises, urna aplicação empírica.; São dois os sentidos em que esta versão é ampliada no trabalho original (embora esteja-se com o commtário a seguir fugindo do escopo do artigo ora apresentado, julgase tal comentário pertinente para que o leitor especializado possa situar melhor o trabalho na literatura e requisitar o trabalho original caso se interesse). O primeiro tem como objetivo provar que a hipótese de Samuelson -de que a volatilidade dos futuros aumenta a medida que se aproxima de sua maturida~ inconsistente com a ausência de arbitragem em mercados completos (no entanto, como esta é uma hipótese relevante na prática., propêie-se urna forma de fonnalizá-la através de Modelos de Deformação do Tempo). O segundo consiste na aplicação empirica propriamente dita. Discute-se um trabalho empírico (Milooas( 1986) que testa a hipótes de Samuelson para diversos mercados futuros americanos~ e adapta-o para o mercado futuro de Dl.

Job destruction and propagation of shocks

We develop and quantitatively implement a dynamic general equilibrium model with labor market matching and endogenous deterllÚnation of the job destruction rate. The mo deI produces a elose match with data on job creation and destruction. Cyelical fluctuations in the job destruction rate serve to magnify the effects of productivity shocks on output; as well as making the effects much more persistent. Interactions between the labor and capital markets, mediated by the rental rate of capital, play the central role in propagating shocks.

Hedging options in a garch environment: testing the term structure of stochastic volatility models

This paper develops a methodology for testing the term structure of volatility forecasts derived from stochastic volatility models, and implements it to analyze models of S&P500 index volatility. U sing measurements of the ability of volatility models to hedge and value term structure dependent option positions, we fmd that hedging tests support the Black-Scholes delta and gamma hedges, but not the simple vega hedge when there is no model of the term structure of volatility. With various models, it is difficult to improve on a simple gamma hedge assuming constant volatility. Ofthe volatility models, the GARCH components estimate of term structure is preferred. Valuation tests indicate that all the models contain term structure information not incorporated in market prices.

Informal labor contracts: an analysis of the Brazilian experience

For representing an expressive souree of labor absorption, the jobs with informal labor eontraet have been reeeiving a eonsiderable attention among the speeialists in the Brazilian labor rnarket. This paper presents, eoneisely, some stylized faets about this labor rnarket segment, as well as some oftheir most eommon interpretations. We argue that sue h interpretations are, in general, not very integrated and a model trying to make them eompatible is developed. The model ineorporates both segmentation and workers with heterogeneity in qualifieation. The results of the analysis are shown to be eompatible with most of the observed faets.

Perspectivas de longo prazo da economia brasileira: uma análise exploratória

Este trabalho busca exanúnar as perspectivas de longo prazo da economia brasileira a luz dos ensinamentos da teoria econômica moderna, tomando como referência principal, mas não única, a chamada Teoria do Crescimento Endógeno. Desta forma, estudaremos a situação no Brasil daquelas variáveis onde já há algum consenso de sua importância para o processo de desenvolvimento. Defendemos no artigo ser pouco provável que o país volte a crescer - ao menos de forma sustentável e duradoura - a taxas próximas daquelas dos anos 50 a meados de 80. Isto enquanto possuirmos um dos piores sistemas educacionais da América Latina, reservas de mercado (de fato ou tarifária) e outras barreiras ao comércio internacional e à adoção tecnológica, infra-estrutura insuficiente e cara e sistema tributário distorcivo e concentrado. Entretanto, dada a enorme demanda reprimida por infra-estrutura, a extensão do programa de desestatização a estes setores pode significar enorme aporte de investimentos no curto e médio prazo de forma que não seria inteiramente inesperado um surto temporário de crescimento provocado pelo aumento dos investimentos em capital fisico. Uma condição necessária, mas não suficiente, é a ~tabilidade dos preços .

Monopoly power and trade protection: cross- industry evidence

This paper investigates the impact of industry concentration on trade policy. Annual panel-databases of Brazilian industries for the years 1988 through 1994 were used. The regressions reported here are robust to openness indicator. concentration index, control variables and sample size, and suggest that the higher the concentration of a given industry the higher its leveI of trade protection. In the period of study the country experienced a major trade liberalization, but the results in the paper show that the reduction in protection was smaller in more concentrated sectors. Assuming that concentration is ;1 gCl()d proX\' for mOllopoh' po\\'er as it reduces the free-rider problem in coordinating a lobby the results in this paper indicates that interest groups with control over specific markets in fact are able to obtain policy advantages that reduce (international) competition.

Infrastructure privatization in a neoclassical economy: macroeconomic impact and welfare computation

In this paper a competi tive general equilibrium model is used to investigate the welfare and long run allocation impacts of privatization. There are two types of capital in this model economy, one private and the other initially public ("infrastructure"), and a positive extemality due to the latter is assumed. A benevolent governrnent can improve upon decentralized allocation intemalizing the extemality, but it introduces distortions in the economy through the finance of its investments. It is shown that even making the best case for public action - maximization of individuais' welfare, no operation inefficiency and free supply to society of infrastructure services - privatization is welfare improving for a large set of economies. Hence, arguments against privatization based solely on under-investment are incorrect, as this maybe the optimal action when the financing of public investment are considered. When operation inefficiency is introduced in the public sector, gains from privatization are much higher and positive for most reasonable combinations of parameters.

Convergence in Brazil: recent trends and long run prospects

This paper applies to the analysis of the interstate income distribution in BraziI a set of techniques that have been widely used in the current empirical literature on growth and convergence. Usual measures of dispersion in the interstate income distribution (the coefficient of variation and Theil' s index) suggest that cr-convergence was an unequivoca1 feature of the regional growth experience in BraziI, between 1970 and 1986. After 1986, the process of convergence seems, however, to have sIowed down almost to a halt. A standard growth modeI is shown to fit the regional data well and to expIain a substantial amount of the variation in growth rates, providing estimates of the speed of (conditional) J3-convergence of approximateIy 3% p.a .. Different estimates of the long run distribution implied by the recent growth trends point towards further reductions in the interstate income inequality, but also suggest that the relative per capita incomes of a significant number of states and the number of ''very poor" and "poor" states were, in 1995, already quite c10se to their steady-state values.

Barriers to trade: barriers to growth

We study the cxtent to which differences in international trade policies contribute to the significant cross-country disparities in macroeconomic performance. In particular, wc concentrate on the effect of protectionism on generating differences in leveIs (of income and of measured total factor productivity), in growth rates (of output, productivity and inputs), in volatility and in trends (or development traps). We document that these rclationships are strong in cross country data, integrate a Hecksher-Ohlin mode! of international trade into the standard macroeconomic modcl to derive those rclationships analytically, and to quantify them. Our results suggest that a large fraction of the cros::; country variations can be attributed to trade policy.