Banco Central de ChileRevista Economía Chilena
Published Issues
Volume 3 Nº 1 April 2000
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| Household Saving in Chile: Microeconomic Evidence Andrea Butelmann P. / Francisco Gallego Saving behavior at the household level in Chile has not been analyzed in recent decades. Based on 1988 and 1996-1997 Chilean microeconomic evidence (Household Budget Survey), this article studies household saving behavior. The analysis is extended to include broader definitions of saving such as investment in human capital and durable goods purchases. Income and permanent characteristics such as education are shown to be important determinants of the rate of household saving. Furthermore, we find an income/expenditure parallelism and positive saving rates for the elderly. At a first stage of analysis, these facts contradict the predictions of the life cycle theory, but some corrections (using demographic corrections and a different treatment of pensions) change these preliminary conclusions. Differences in credit constraints faced by different groups are studied for their likely effects on consumption smoothing. Finally saving rates of the elderly are analyzed focusing on their contradictory role found in macro and micro studies. |
| Are bank-based or market-based financial systems better? Ross Levine. For over a century, economists and policy makers have debated the relative merits of bank-based versus market-based financial systems. Recently, however, proponents of the legal-based view of financial development have argued that the century long debate concerning bank-based versus market-based financial systems is analytically vacuous. According to this view, the critical issue is establishing a legal environment in which both banks and markets can operate effectively. This paper represents the first broad, cross-country examination of which view of financial structure and economic growth is most consistent with the data. |
| Alternative monetary schemes: a positive evaluation for the chilean peso Felipe Morandé L. / Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel D. The choice between maintaining or giving up the national currency is determined by putting on balance the benefits of macroeconomic flexibility derived from a floating exchange rate and an independent monetary policy, and the microeconomic benefits derived from joining a currency union or adopting unilaterally a foreign currency. This paper assesses this choice for Chile. The country's financial development and macroeconomic stability imply low microeconomic and efficiency costs in sticking to the peso. Optimal currency-area criteria show that Chile is not a natural candidate for joining a monetary union with prospective partners in Latin America, NAFTA, or the European Union. Unilateral dollarization is even less beneficial. Among Southern Hemisphere countries with various exchange rate regimes, Chile would gain the least from giving up its national currency. For a country like Chile, subject to large idiosyncratic shocks and significant temporary price and wage rigidity, a flexible exchange rate and an independent monetary policy anchored to an inflation target comprise the dominant regime choice |
| Research Notes |
Chile: Recent Policy Lessons and Emerging Challenges por Guillermo Perry y Danny M. Leipziger Juan Andrés Fontaine. The Economics of Saving and Growth: Theory, Evidence and Implications for Policy por Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel y Luis Servén Rodrigo Fuentes |
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