PRESENTATION

 

 

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The decisions of one economic agent affect those of others. The behavior of one economy influences the performance of other countries. The economy globalizes and the economic problems that seemed to be particular for certain geographical or cultural environments, today look very similar in different contexts. In that sense, economic theory should be built based on those phenomena that are not particular cases but rather general regularities; in other words, models to explain economic behavior should be based on assumptions of rational behavior of economic agents maximizing their wellbeing in a stochastic and dynamic environment.

The search to construct models to interpret the reality of the Bolivian economy, and of the countries that form the Latin American world, has been the premise on which this Journal was born. We hope that the papers included in this issue will help towards the achievement of this important objective.

We are grateful to the investigators that sent us their papers, and to the referees that spent their time evaluating and contributing to improving the drafts. Like in the previous issue, we are indebted to Dr. Carlos Gerke, Rector of our University, and to all the authorities of the Universidad Católica Boliviana that supported this publication. Our special recognition goes to Mtro. Carlos Rosso, Director of the Department of Culture. Without his collaboration, this effort would not nave culminated successfully. We express our gratefulness to the generous support of the Institut für Weltwirtschaft in Germany.

To our colleagues and friends that today begin to thumb through this Journal: bon appétit.

 

Alejandro F. Mercado

DIRECTOR IISEC - UCB