Economía Coyuntural

Presentación

Firm migration to informality and trade openness in developing countries

Our main question is why a formal firm becomes informal. We hypothesize that sales behavior and trade openness and are related to this behavior. We present empirical evidence to argue that firm informalization is a strategy conducted to face a downturn in sales. However, the country level of trade openness as a proxy for the average level of managerial abilities of firms reduces the impact of a drop in sales on firm informalization. For this purpose, we draw upon data from 636 firms in 12 developing countries from World Bank surveys and apply a simultaneous equation framework with a dichotomous dependent variable.

Impact of education on poverty in Bolivia

This research evaluates the impact of education levels (literacy, primary, secondary, technical, higher and postgraduate) on poverty in Bolivia during 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. The investigation also uses various sociodemographic variables describing households to see their impact on poverty. The results indicate that there is a clear link between education and poverty, where technical, higher and postgraduate education variables had the highest incidence. In analyzing the results as a whole, it appears that education becomes an effective tool to overcome poverty.

The Presidential Transition and Economic Activity in Mexico, 1994-2013

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar los efectos de la transición presidencial en la actividad económica en México en el periodo de 1994 a 2013. En este periodo, se llevaron a cabo cuatro transiciones presidenciales: 1994- 1995, 2000-2001, 2006-2007 y 2012-2013. Se confirma la desaceleración de la actividad en el primer año de cada sexenio, especialmente notoria en sectores ligados al mercado interno. Se comentan algunas implicaciones de este fenómeno y se identifican algunas líneas de investigación.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the effects of the Presidential transition in the Mexican economic activity. The period under study covers from 1994 to 2013, in which four Presidential transitions took place: 1994-1995, 2000-2001, 2006-2007 and 2012-2103. It is confirmed the deceleration of the economy in the first year of each Presidential administration, especially in sectors associated with the internal market. Some implications are commented and some Unes of future research are identified.

State of the art in portfolio theory: the individual analysis of actions to the multiobjective optimization

La publicación de Markowitz (1952), conocida como Teoría Moderna de Portafolios, sugiere que los inversionistas deben considerar el desempeño y el riesgo general para determinar la asignación de fondos entre alternativas de inversión. Sin embargo, debido a la complejidad del entorno financiero, el modelo propuesto en esta teoría sigue siendo muy relevante con diferentes extensiones, variantes y nuevos desarrollos, tanto en la academia como en la práctica. Este artículo comienza por describir los antecedentes de esta teoría, para posteriormente examinar y construir un análisis de diferentes enfoques de investigación incluyendo, entre otras, el uso de momentos de orden superior, nuevos procedimientos de optimización computacional y metodologías innovadoras para abordar las cuestiones de implementación. Este documento muestra un resumen temático y cronológico de los diferentes enfoques de la teoría de la cartera y los diversos desarrollos que han contribuido a la conceptualización del fenómeno del riesgo financiero.

The publication of Markowitz (1952), known as Modern Portfolio Theory suggests that investors should consider the performance and the overall risk to determine the allocation of funds between investment alternatives. However, due to the complexity of the financial environment, the model proposed in this theory is still very relevant with different extensions, variants and new developments, both in academia and in practice. This article begins by describing the background of this theory, then examining and constructing an analysis of different research projects including, among others, the use of higher order moments, new computational optimization procedures and innovative methodologies to address implementation issues. This document shows a thematic and chronological summary of different approaches to portfolio theory and the various developments that have contributed to the conceptualization of the phenomenon of financial risk.