Economic policy is too important NOT to be left to professional economists. This is so clear in Argentina nowadays, that no presidential candidate for the 1999 election, has picked up as his minister of economics, someone who do not have intensive training in "modern" economic analysis. This has been so since mid 1980's, and it has been increasingly so since the beginning of the 1960's.

LDC’s have provided the economic profession with a wide range of macroeconomic experiences. Many are experiences of failure, a few of success. It is my belief that useful lessons can be obtained from all those experiences. Contrary to the widely held belief that it is not possible to transfer to LDC’s theories and policies designed for Developed Countries, I hold the position that there is only one body of economic theory and that the best policies apply to all patients and are, for most cases, the simplest: market rules, free trade, and orthodox monetary and fiscal policy.

In this paper, we introduce a Transactionally Efficient Market Model, which evolves from the standard efficient market  model, encompassing both transaction costs and bid-ask prices. Hence, we delve into how arbitrage makes its way within this complex setting. The main outgrowth of the analysis is the “trap set”, which is the place where most of price trajectories should enter to put an end to supernormal profits, although the underlying dynamics seems far from coming to a halt, and becomes bewildering instead.

This paper evaluates the usefulness of a currency board regime based on Argentina’s experience.  Argentina adopted the currency board in March 1991 to put an end to a long history of large macroeconomic imbalances and high inflation that culminated in the hyperinflation process of 1989-91.  The regime has been extremely successful in restoring macroeconomic stability and ensuring low inflation.

In this paper we use weekly interest rate data for a group of Latin American countries to analyze the extent to which these countries have been subject to "contagion." We are particularly interested in understanding volatility contagion, or the way in which periods of high volatility spillover across countries. Our paper departs from the existing literature in one important aspect: we allow the data to endogenously determine whether there have been periods of contagion. Then, we use the dates to study contagion periods.

This paper develops and provide evidence for three statements: a) In Argentina, there has been a marked shift in corporate governance structure from big family-owned domestic companies towards foreign groups and investment funds ownership. b)While coping with governance issues, Argentina has been performing as if it were following the common law countries tradition. c) The capital markets development has been nurturing contradictory forces which could bring about alternative governance structures in the foreseeable future.

En épocas recientes ha resurgido con fuerza la consideración del problema del brain drain, que había suscitado el interés de economistas y organismos internacionales en las décadas del sesenta y del setenta. 

objetivo de estos apuntes es doble. Por un lado buscan resumir los principales aportes que la teoría económica ha hecho al campo del análisis del derecho, siguiendo los lineamientos de la literatura que empezó a desarrollarse a partir de los trabajos liminares de Coase (1960) y Calabresi (1961). Por otro lado, tienen también el objetivo de avanzar de manera preliminar sobre el territorio (hasta el momento prácticamente inexplorado por el análisis económico) del derecho vigente en la Argentina.

En épocas recientes se han ido produciendo cambios de importancia en los mercados de trabajo y en las relaciones laborales prevalecientes en los mismos. Estos cambios se han puesto en evidencia a partir de los años ochenta y han sido principalmente consecuencia de profundas transformaciones estructurales de la economía, de innovaciones técnicas de características singulares e inéditas1 y de cambios en la estructura, composición y niveles educativos de la fuerza de trabajo.

This study attempts to explain differentials in production efficiency in Argentine agriculture. The paper focuses attention on the 1970's and 1980's. During this period, technological change was pervasive. Moreover, during the mid 1970’s and the mid to late 1980’s Argentina had the doubtful privilege of ranking as one of the countries with highest inflation of the world.  The principal objective of the paper is to test the hypothesis that human capital (education) is a relevant variable in explaining efficiency differentials.