Journal Economía Chilena (The Chilean Economy)

Articles
Structural Changes in the Demand of Labor in Chile Claudia Martínez A. / Gustavo Morales M. / Rodrigo Valdés P. The ability of the Chilean economy to generate employment has been surprisingly low during 2000 and 2001. Despite output growth since August 2000, the unemployment rate has not decreased as expected. One hypothesis that has been put forward to explain this fact, supported by simple data analysis, is that the output-employment elasticity has declined during the nineties. Another hypothesis is that a once-and-for-all change in the output-employment relation has taken place. This paper studies the output-employment relation using co-integration analysis and estimates two alternative labor demand models. The results, based on formal statistical analysis, provide support to the second.
Theoretical and Practical Approaches for Determining Trend Output: an Application to Chile Francisco Gallego Y. / Christian Johnson M. This article presents alternative output trend theories and discusses different estimations for Chile’s GDP, using quarterly data from 1986 to 2001. Among methods considered are the Hodrick-Prescott filter, Quadratic and Gaussian kernels, the wavelets filter, and structural vector autoregressive models (SVAR). Output trend estimates are very sensitive to idiosyncratic assumptions. However, the Hodrick-Prescott filter and SVAR models look more accurate for generating output gaps related to variables such as inflation. We also present confidence intervals for these two methodologies.
Scale and Scope Economies in the Chilean Banking System Carlos Budnevich L. / Helmut Franken M. / Ricardo Paredes M. This paper estimates a cost function for the Chilean banking system for a sample comprising all banks operating during 1989-2000. We found evidence of increasing returns to scale for small banks but not for larger banks. We did not find support for the popular belief that a financial supermarket increases efficiency, as we found no evidence of economies of scope in banking. The strength of our results relies on the specification of the cost function and their robustness to different definitions of the basket of financial services and other robustness tests. Finally, among other results, the paper provides evidence that banks that held subordinated debt with the Central Bank (due to rescue measures adopted in the wake of the banking crisis of the early eighties) raised their efficiency levels after the latter debt with the Central Bank was extinguished.
Research Notes
Cuarta Conferencia Anual del Banco Central: "10 Años de Metas de Inflación: Diseño, Desempeño, Desafíos" Norman Loayza O.; Raimundo Soto M.; Matías Tapia G.
¿El Fin del Dinero? Revisión del Debate Reciente Felipe Morandé L.; Matías Tapia G.
Books review
Handbook of Macroeconomics de John B. Taylor y Michael Woodford Raphael Bergoeing V. Monetary Theory and Policy de Carl E. Walsh Francisco Rosende R.
Publications Review
Catastro de publicaciones recientes Resúmenes de artículos seleccionados

Structural Changes in the Demand of Labor in Chile
Claudia Martínez A. / Gustavo Morales M. / Rodrigo Valdés P.

The ability of the Chilean economy to generate employment has been surprisingly low during 2000 and 2001. Despite output growth since August 2000, the unemployment rate has not decreased as expected. One hypothesis that has been put forward to explain this fact, supported by simple data analysis, is that the output-employment elasticity has declined during the nineties. Another hypothesis is that a once-and-for-all change in the output-employment relation has taken place. This paper studies the output-employment relation using co-integration analysis and estimates two alternative labor demand models. The results, based on formal statistical analysis, provide support to the second.

Theoretical and Practical Approaches for Determining Trend Output: an Application to Chile
Francisco Gallego Y. / Christian Johnson M.

This article presents alternative output trend theories and discusses different estimations for Chile’s GDP, using quarterly data from 1986 to 2001. Among methods considered are the Hodrick-Prescott filter, Quadratic and Gaussian kernels, the wavelets filter, and structural vector autoregressive models (SVAR). Output trend estimates are very sensitive to idiosyncratic assumptions. However, the Hodrick-Prescott filter and SVAR models look more accurate for generating output gaps related to variables such as inflation. We also present confidence intervals for these two methodologies.

Scale and Scope Economies in the Chilean Banking System
Carlos Budnevich L. / Helmut Franken M. / Ricardo Paredes M.

This paper estimates a cost function for the Chilean banking system for a sample comprising all banks operating during 1989-2000. We found evidence of increasing returns to scale for small banks but not for larger banks. We did not find support for the popular belief that a financial supermarket increases efficiency, as we found no evidence of economies of scope in banking. The strength of our results relies on the specification of the cost function and their robustness to different definitions of the basket of financial services and other robustness tests. Finally, among other results, the paper provides evidence that banks that held subordinated debt with the Central Bank (due to rescue measures adopted in the wake of the banking crisis of the early eighties) raised their efficiency levels after the latter debt with the Central Bank was extinguished.

Research Notes

Cuarta Conferencia Anual del Banco Central: "10 Años de Metas de Inflación: Diseño, Desempeño, Desafíos"
Norman Loayza O.; Raimundo Soto M.; Matías Tapia G.

¿El Fin del Dinero? Revisión del Debate Reciente
Felipe Morandé L.; Matías Tapia G.

Handbook of Macroeconomics de John B. Taylor y Michael Woodford
Raphael Bergoeing V.
Monetary Theory and Policy de Carl E. Walsh
Francisco Rosende R.

Publications Review

Catastro de publicaciones recientes

Resúmenes de artículos seleccionados

Banco Central de Chile

Revista Economía Chilena

Published Issues