Maximo Torero

Labor Market Reforms and Their Impact on Formal Labor Demand and Job Market Turnover: The Case of Peru

This paper analyzes the effects of several aspects of labor legislation that were modified through successive waves of reform since 1991. Firing costs diminished sharply through the progressive elimination of job security regulations, the introduction of temporary contracts and changes in the severance payment structure. Simultaneously, non-wage labor costs increased. To assess the effect of these changes on the level of formal employment, we estimate labor demand functions. We use a pseudo-panel data set for ten formal sectors observed bimonthly between 1987 and 1997 and panel data sets at the establishment level for three sub-periods. Both at the sector and establishment level, labor costs have a negative and significant effect on labor demand. The coefficient of our measure of firing costs, the expected severance payments, is negative and significant, and its magnitude decreases in the post reform period. After the reforms, the price and output elasticities are larger and there is evidence of a speedier labor demand adjustment. To assess the effect of regulations changes on turnover we use a series of repeated cross sections household surveys for Metropolitan Lima and calculate mean tenure using censored data. We find evidence that mean tenure fell since 1992. The fall is larger and more statistically significant for formal salaried workers than for informal workers. Using censored and complete employment spells from the Peruvian Living Standards Measurement Surveys we compare employment duration data for the formal and informal sectors using empirical hazards and parametric estimations of hazard functions. After the reforms, there is an increase in the hazard function for formal wage earners relative to the hazard function of informal sector wage earners. We find higher hazards for informal, private, temporary and blue-collar workers.

Food and Nutrition Security Indicators: A Review

In this paper, we review existing food and nutrition security indicators, discuss some of their advantages and disadvantages, and finally classify them and describe their relationships and overlaps. In order to achieve this, the paper makes reference to the existing definitions of food and nutrition security (FNS), in particular as they have been agreed upon and implemented in the FoodSecure project (www.foodsecure.eu). The main existing conceptual frameworks of FNS predating the present paper are also used as guidelines and briefly discussed. Finally, we make recommendations in terms of the most appropriate FNS indicators to quantify the impacts of various shocks and interventions on food and nutrition security outcomes.

Understanding the Impact of High Food Prices in Latin America

Since the late 1980s, almost all Latin American countries have adopted a series of far-reaching economic reforms, especially trade, financial, and capital account liberalization. Increased economic openness has gone hand in hand with large financial inflows—particularly in the first half of the 1990s—and has brought new sources of economic growth. As a result, economies grew, inflation declined, and there was a big surge in foreign cap- ital inflows. Although overall growth slowed after 1995, the region has expe- rienced strong growth in the past five years, the best sustained performance since the 1970s. With the exception of a handful of countries, this economic growth has been accompanied by relatively modest inflation. Despite these positive results, virtually all Latin American countries share similar problems: uneven economic growth, unacceptably high poverty and malnutrition rates, and lagging agricultural growth. More than 60 percent of the region’s poor live in rural areas, where slow economic growth, unequal distribution of assets, inadequate public investment and public services, and vulnerability to natural and economic shocks are major policy issues. The 2007–08 food price crisis exacerbated these problems. Prior to the cri- sis, the region was considered relatively stable and capable of absorbing exter- nal shocks, thanks to its higher foreign exchange liquidity; decreased public sector and external borrowing needs; exchange rate flexibility; lower exposure to currency, interest rate, and rollover risks in public sector debt portfolios; and improved access to local-currency loans. Nevertheless, the food price cri- sis severely affected most of the Latin American countries in terms of inflation, especially food inflation.

Ethnicity and Earnings in a Mixed‐Race Labor Market

This study examines the relationship between earnings and racial differences in a context in which various races have coexisted and mixed during several centuries, as is true in many parts of the postcolonial world and specifically urban Peru. Coarse indicators of racial differences do not suffice in capturing this relationship; therefore, we introduce a score‐based procedure of white and indigenous racial intensities that allows us to approximate these mixed racial heritages. We introduce a score‐based procedure of white and indigenous racial intensities that allows us to approximate the heterogeneity within the mestizo population. We construct two types of indicators of racial intensities using a score‐based procedure: a single‐dimensional indicator of degrees of whiteness and a two‐dimensional indicator combining degrees of both whiteness and indigenousness. This second indicator allows us to study nonlinearities in earning differences across mixed white and indigenous racial characteristics. Our estimates from a semiparametric model show evidence of a race premium for whiteness on earnings, statistically significant among wage earners but not among the self‐employed. These results may be consistent with a story of employer discrimination.

The social impact of privatization and the regulation of utilities in Peru

The authors address the question of infrastructure reforms in a novel way by focusing on the impact which they can have on consumers through the prices paid by different groups and on their access to the networks. They analyse original material from four Latin American countries – Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Peru – and two European countries – Spain and the UK. Access is especially relevant when considering immature systems which have not yet extended to cover the majority of the population, as is the case in many Latin American countries. The authors also address the widespread impact of privatization on the economy (via macroeconomic influences) and the more general issues of subsidies and regulation which are endemic to these industries. The book focuses on the reform of four sectors: telecommunications, electricity, gas, and water and sanitation.

ON THE PREFERENCES OF PRINCIPALS AND AGENTS

One of the reasons why market economies are able to thrive is that they exploit the willingness of entrepreneurs to take risks that laborers might prefer to avoid. Markets work because they remunerate good judgement and punish mistakes. Indeed, modern contract theory is based on the assumption that principals are less risk averse than agents. We investigate if the risk preferences of entrepreneurs are different from those of laborers by implementing experiments with a random sample of the population in a fast-growing, small-manufacturing, economic cluster. As assumed by theory, we find that entrepreneurs are more likely to take risks than hired managers. These results are robust to the inclusion of a series of controls. This lends support to the idea that risk preferences are an important determinant of selection into occupations. Finally, our lotteries are good predictors of financial decisions, thus giving support to the external validity of our risk measures and experimental methods.

Does Geography Explain Differences in Economic Growth in Peru

In Peru, a country with an astonishing variety of different ecological areas, including 84 different climate zones and landscapes, with rainforests, high mountain ranges and dry deserts, the geographical context may not be all that matters, but it could be very significant in explaining regional variations in income and welfare. The major question this paper tries to answer is: what role do geographic variables, both natural and manmade, play in explaining per capita expenditure differentials across regions within Peru? How have these influences changed over time, through what channels have they been transmitted, and has access to private and public assets compensated for the effects of an adverse geography? We have shown that what seem to be sizable geographic differences in living standards in Peru can be almost fully explained when one takes into account the spatial concentration of households with readily observable non-geographic characteristics, in particular public and private assets. In other words, the same observationally equivalent household has a similar expenditure level in one place as another with different geographic characteristics such as altitude or temperature. This does not mean, however that geography is not important but that its influence on expenditure level and growth differential comes about through a spatially uneven provision of public infrastructure. Furthermore, when we measured the expected gain (or loss) in consumption from living in one geographic region (i. e. , coast) as opposed to living in another (i. e. , highlands), we found that most of the difference in log per-capita expenditure between the highland and the coast can be accounted for by the differences in infrastructure endowments and private assets. This could be an indication that the availability of infrastructure could be limited by the geography and therefore the more adverse geographic regions are the ones with less access to public infrastructure. It is important to note that there appear to be non-geographic, spatially correlated, omitted variables that need to be taken into account in our expenditure growth model. Therefore policy programs that use regional targeting do have a rationale even if geographic variables do not explain the bulk of the difference in regional growth, once we have taken into account differentials in access to private and public assets.

Access to Telephone Services and Household Income in Poor Rural Areas Using a Quasi-Natural Experiment for Peru

We take advantage of a quasi-natural experiment in Peru in which a privatized telecommunications company was required by the government to randomly install and operate public pay phones in small rural towns throughout the country. Using an especially designed household survey for a representative sample of rural towns, we are able to link access to telephone services with household income. We find that, regardless of income measurement, most characteristics of public telephone use are positively linked with income. Remarkably, the benefits are given at both non-farm and farm income levels. The findings hold when using propensity score matching methods.

Food Price Volatility and Its Implications for Food Security and Policy

This book provides fresh insights into concepts, methods and new research findings on the causes of excessive food price volatility. It also discusses the implications for food security and policy responses to mitigate excessive volatility. The approaches applied by the contributors range from on-the-ground surveys, to panel econometrics and innovative high-frequency time series analysis as well as computational economics methods. It offers policy analysts and decision-makers guidance on dealing with extreme volatility.

The Impact of Telecommunications Privatization in Peru on the Welfare of Urban Consumers

Specifically, this paper analyzes how, in addition to the improvement in the performance of the firm and the quality of service, the privatization of the telecommunications industry in Peru led to price changes that had an impact on consumer welfare and that may be correlated with the negative public opinion of the privatization process.