Finance Commons^™

Mexican Northern Border Municipalities, Financial Dependence And Institutions, Jorge Ibarra Salazar, Andre V. Mollick

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

Mexican northern border municipalities have experienced economic and populational growth rates that are much higher than other Mexican regions resulting in higher demand for public services and infrastructure. The different institutional framework, both fiscal and legal, faced by municipalities in every Mexican State might impact the fiscal behavior of local governments. This article examines whether border municipalities are more financially dependent on central authorities due to the high demand for public services in their jurisdictions and their inability to obtain sufficient funding. Several econometric models are estimated for 300 Mexican municipalities in the year 2000. A strong and negative relationship …

La Ley De Concursos Mercantiles En México: Algunas Reflexiones A Cuatro Años De Su Entrada En Vigor [The New Bankruptcy Law In Mexico: Some Reflections Since Enacted 4 Years Ago], Armando R. Lopez-Velasco, Leonardo E. Torre Cepeda

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

• La función de una ley de quiebras consiste en maximizar el valor de empresas que llegan a caer en situaciones de insolvencia. Su buen funcionamiento es esencial para la operación eficiente del mercado de crédito y, por ende, para el crecimiento y desarrollo sostenido de la economía.

• Una ley de quiebras debe ser modificada cuando se presentan, simultáneamente: (i) una restricción crediticia que impide que empresas potencialmente rentables reciban los fondos necesarios para financiar sus inversiones, (ii) retrasos en el cierre de empresas que deben ser liquidadas y (iii) costos elevados por retrasar la reorganización o liquidación de …

Foreign Trade And The Gender Earnings Differential In Urban Mexico, Gautam Hazarika, Rafael Otero

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

This paper examines the effect of foreign trade induced product market competition, upon workplace gender discrimination in urban Mexico as measured by the gender earnings differential. More than 3 decades ago, Becker (1957) argued that labor market discrimination was economically inefficient in that discriminating firms must forego a quantity of profit. Thus, firms with more market power, i.e., firms facing less competition, may be likelier to discriminate. It therefore follows that competition in product markets may reduce discrimination in labor markets. The spread of foreign trade has traditionally been a major factor in increased product market competition. Hence, Becker's thesis …

Access To Credit, Plot Size And Cost Inefficiency Among Smallholder Tobacco Cultivators In Malawi, Gautam Hazarika, Jeffrey Roger Alwang

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

Using data from the Malawi Financial Markets and Household Food Security Survey, this paper examines the effect of access to credit from formal sources, and tobacco plot size, on cost inefficiency among Malawian smallholder tobacco cultivators. Farm-specific cost inefficiency is estimated within the framework of stochastic frontier analysis. Access to credit is measured as the sum of household members' self-reported credit limits at credit organisations, arguably a truer measure of an exogenous credit constraint than credit program participation or actual loan uptake. It is found that tobacco cultivation is significantly less cost inefficient per acre on larger plots. While access …

Schooling Costs And Child Work In Rural Pakistan, Gautam Hazarika, Arjun Bedi

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

A conventional argument in the child–labour debate is that improvements in access to schools are an effective way to reduce the labour force participation of children. It is argued that schooling competes with economic activity in the use of children's time, and enhanced access to schools, interpretable as reduction in schooling costs, may raise school attendance at the expense of child labour. In this article, we draw a distinction between child labour within the household (intra-household) and child work in the labour market (extra-household), and examine the separate effects of schooling costs upon these two types of child labour in …

Mercado Telefónico En México: Diez Años Después De La Privatización De Telmex Privatización De Telmex [The Telephone Market: 10 Years After The Privatization Of Telmex], Leonardo E. Torre Cepeda, Armando R. Lopez-Velasco

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

• El sector de las telecomunicaciones en México experimentó una profunda transformación durante la década de los años noventa: el monopolio público telefónico fue privatizado (1990), se emitió una nueva ley del sector (1995), se creó un nuevo ente regulador (1996) y se abrió a la competencia el segmento de larga distancia (1997).

• El cambio estructural en el sector trajo consigo avances importantes en materia de densidad, calidad y precios de los servicios. Sin embargo, estos avances han sido insuficientes para impedir que en México sigamos contando con una baja densidad telefónica y precios elevados de los servicios, en …