Maximo Rossi - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Maximo Rossi

Revista de Economía del Rosario, Jan 31, 2011

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el grado de inequidad socioeconómica en el uso de servici... more El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el grado de inequidad socioeconómica en el uso de servicios médicos de la población adulta mayor en cinco ciudades latinoamericanas (Buenos Aires, Ciudad de México, Santiago de Chile, San Pablo y Montevideo), en base a los datos de la Encuesta de Salud, Bienestar y Envejecimiento relevada entre 1999 y 2000 (SABE, OPS/OMS, 2001). El análisis imputa el ingreso equivalente del hogar a través de la utilización de las encuestas de hogares de los distintos países, y considerando una amplia serie de indicadores de acceso, calidad y uso de servicios de salud. Una vez estandarizado el uso de servicios por las necesidades de cuidados, se encuentran desigualdades socioeconómicas pro-rico en el uso de servicios preventivos en todas las ciudades, desigualdades en la realización de visitas médicas en Santiago y Montevideo, y desigualdades en la calidad de acceso a la atención en todas las ciudades salvo Montevideo. Las desigualdades socioeconómicas dentro de los sistemas de salud públicos o privados explican una mayor proporción de las desigualdades en el acceso a la atención. Nuestros resultados son informativos en el contexto de las políticas recientes destinadas a la aplicación de paquetes mínimos * We are grateful to Daniel Ferrés, Juan Pablo Pagano, and Eugenia Rivas for valuable assistance and contributions to this study. The data used in this study are publicly available through the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. In preparing the data files for public archiving and distribution, the data producers removed all direct identifiers and characteristics that might lead to identification of data subjects. Because of the public nature of these data, no approval by any committee for the protection of human subjects was sought or awarded.

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, May 5, 2006

This paper explores the effect of religious observance and affiliation to the dominant religion (... more This paper explores the effect of religious observance and affiliation to the dominant religion (Catholicism) on trust in institutions, towards others and market attitudes. The analysis is performed using a Latin American database of twenty thousand respondents from 2004 by means of ordered probit models. The most interesting results are: i) Trust toward others is positively correlated with religious observance and with Catholic affiliation. ii) There is a positive correlation between trust in the government, in the police, in the armed forces, in the judiciary and in the banking system and religious practice in general. Identical positive results are obtained for Catholic affiliation. iii) Correlations with attitudes toward the market, in general, are heterogeneous but never negative. In sum, individual's level of religiosity crucially affects trust in institutions and toward peers. We also found that Catholicism encourages both trust in institutions and towards others. Thus, we found a positive effect of "religiosity" on social capital. In fact, we never found any negative (and significant) effect on the variables considered.

Cuadernos de Economía, Oct 4, 2017

La desigualdad ha vuelto a ser objeto central del análisis económico. La afirmación de Lucas (200... more La desigualdad ha vuelto a ser objeto central del análisis económico. La afirmación de Lucas (2004), según la cual la atención a las cuestiones distributivas sería venenosa para la profesión, ya no refleja el sentimiento dominante. El éxito de Stiglitz (2012), Atkinson (2015), Milanovic (2016) y, por supuesto, Piketty (2014), supone dos consideraciones importantes. En primer lugar, el estudio de la desigualdad no solo se ha vuelto una preocupación académica, sino que refleja un sentimiento común: la mala distribución conlleva consecuencias negativas sobre la sociedad (Salverda et al., 2014; Wilkinson y Pikett, 2009). En segundo lugar, un determinante clave del retorno de interés se debe al esfuerzo de recopilación de datos, sobre el cual Piketty es obviamente un modelo, pero no el único. A escala mundial, buena parte del interés se ha concentrado en los cambios distributivos generados por la globalización, es decir, por el conjunto de reformas institucionales a escala nacional e internacional que caracterizó a las cuatro últimas décadas. Desde 1980, la desigualdad ha crecido en casi todos los países.

para empresas del sector agua en Asia y Región del Pacífico Antonio Estache y Martín Rossi Texto ... more para empresas del sector agua en Asia y Región del Pacífico Antonio Estache y Martín Rossi Texto de Discusión N° 4 (Abril 1999) JEL N°: C4, L9 Resumen: En este trabajo se estima una frontera de costos estocástica para las empresas del sector agua en el continente Asiático y región del Pacífico, y se calculan las medidas de eficiencia individuales utilizando Mínimos Cuadrados Clásicos Corregidos y Máxima Verosimilitud, suponiendo en ambos casos que la distribución del término de ineficiencia sigue una distribución media normal. Asimismo, se presentan una serie de indicadores de performance alternativos utilizados por el Asian Development Bank (1997) y se los compara con las medidas de eficiencia calculadas a partir de la frontera estocástica. Por último, se analiza el impacto de la propiedad sobre los costos, encontrándose que los costos de las empresas concesionadas son significativamente más bajos.

European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 2018

The main objective of the paper is the analysis of intergenerational or cultural transmission of ... more The main objective of the paper is the analysis of intergenerational or cultural transmission of religious values during adolescence in order to explain interpersonal trust and confidence in institutions in adulthood. Trust and confidence in institutions outcomes are examined using the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) 2008 Religion III survey. Overall, the results are in line with previous literature: religious intensity and educational attainment are significantly and positively correlated with trust and confidence in institutions. When instrumental variables are used, the results suggest that religious engagement does not significantly explain interpersonal trust though it is significantly related to confidence in institutions.

The happiness literature provides evidence on various factors, other than money, that do seem to ... more The happiness literature provides evidence on various factors, other than money, that do seem to contribute to individual happiness. As one explores the produced “happiness economics” literature, it is direct to understand the difficulty to find proper information on developing countries reality. In our analysis we investigate the relationship between income, family composition, health and religion over subjective wellbeing in the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile and Uruguay). Specifically, we analyze data from the SABE survey a study conducted among people who are 60 years old or over, in various Latin American countries. Main obtained results show a positive correlation between higher levels of income and health, being married and the frequent religion practice and higher levels of subjective well-being. On the contrary, malnutrition has a negative impact on happiness indicators. In order to add robustness to our results and to deal with endogeneity issues, this paper uses differen...

Se considera homofobia todas aquellas actitudes negativas y discriminatorias hacia las personas h... more Se considera homofobia todas aquellas actitudes negativas y discriminatorias hacia las personas homosexuales. Hay evidencia que sugiere que cuando estas miradas o creencias se transforman en comportamientos, las consecuencias para las personas homosexuales son muy negativas. Al analizar los origenes de las actitudes homofobicas, la literatura encuentra a la religion como una de las fuentes con importancia. En este estudio analizamos la asociacion entre la intensidad de la actividad religiosa en la adolescencia y las actitudes homofobicas en etapa adulta. Los datos utilizados en este estudio fueron obtenidos de la encuesta International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) 2008 Religion III. Los resultados muestran tres aspectos interesantes. Primero, la transmision de las creencias religiosas durante la adolescencia esta asociada positivamente con la homofobia en la edad adulta. Segundo, a mayor educacion los individuos tienden a ser menos homofobicos y tercero, a pesar de que la intensid...

European Scientific Journal, ESJ, Apr 30, 2018

The aim of this paper is to analyze the intake of two types of sweet snacks by women using compet... more The aim of this paper is to analyze the intake of two types of sweet snacks by women using competitive environments as stressors. We study the effect of competition on food intake from two perspectives: overall consumption and the substitution between two snacks (a "healthy" and a "nonhealthy" snack). For this purpose we did a laboratory experiment in which the participants were women. They were offered chocolate candies and raisins as they solved several problems. Half of the participants completed the tasks at a noncompetitive piece rate and the other half under a competitive tournament incentive scheme. The results show that at the median the participants' intake was higher under tournament than piece rate payment. Moreover, the increase in food intake was led by a rise in chocolate consumption. We conclude that competition increases the consumption of fat, calories and carbohydrates and thus affects eating behavior and promotes unhealthy patterns. This research contributes to the strand of the literature that focuses on factors that affect the eating behavior which influences health.

This series was created in 2003 to promote debate, disseminate information and analysis, and conv... more This series was created in 2003 to promote debate, disseminate information and analysis, and convey the excitement and complexity of the most topical issues in economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the World Bank. The manuscripts chosen for publication represent the highest quality in each institution's research and activity output and have been selected for their relevance to the academic community, policy makers, researchers, and interested readers.

Journal of Public Economics, 2007

We investigate the determinants of the efficiency of firms with a focus on the role of corruption... more We investigate the determinants of the efficiency of firms with a focus on the role of corruption. We construct a simple theoretical model where corruption increases factor requirements of firms because it diverts managerial effort away from factor coordination. We then exploit a unique dataset comprising firm-level information on 80 electricity distribution firms from 13 Latin American countries for the years 1994 to 2001. As predicted by the model, we find that more corruption in the country is strongly associated with more inefficient firms, in the sense that they employ more inputs to produce a given level of output. The economic magnitude of the effects is large. The results hold both in models with country and firm fixed effects. The results survive several robustness checks, including different measures of output and efficiency, and instrumenting for corruption. Other elements associated with inefficiency are public ownership, inflation, and lack of law and order, but corruption appears to play a separate and more robust role.

El presente trabajo presenta los resultados de la Encuesta de Responsabilidad Social Empresarial ... more El presente trabajo presenta los resultados de la Encuesta de Responsabilidad Social Empresarial (ERSE_I) realizada por el Departamento de Economía (FCS-UDELAR) a ciudadanos mayores de 17 años en 2006. La Encuesta forma parte del Proyecto sobre

Semestre Económico, 2011

El objetivo de este trabajo es describir el comportamiento de las empresas uruguayas y la opinión... more El objetivo de este trabajo es describir el comportamiento de las empresas uruguayas y la opinión de los ciudadanos sobre la responsabilidad social empresarial (RSE). Para ello se utilizaron datos de las encuestas aplicadas a la opinión pública y las empresas sobre RSE. El trabajo presenta un análisis descriptivo comparado de los principales resultados de dichas encuestas con el objetivo de aportar al conocimiento de un tema en el que existen pocos antecedentes de investigación académica en Uruguay. El análisis de los datos muestra un cierto grado de conocimiento de la población sobre el tema de RSE. Se destaca que los ciudadanos tienen una opinión más favorable en cuanto al desempeño de las empresas que el de las propias empresas. Además, existe un cierto balance entre las acciones empresariales en RSE y la valoración de la opinión pública de aquellas áreas consideradas importantes.

Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Mar 1, 2009

Special thanks to Masao Ogaki who invited us to explore upon these ideas. Martha Gaustad revised ... more Special thanks to Masao Ogaki who invited us to explore upon these ideas. Martha Gaustad revised the English grammar. Pablo Brañas acknowledges the financial support received from the Fundación Ramón Areces (2005) and DGCYT (SEJ2004-07554/ECON).

Estudios De Economia, 2002

Resumen: Estamos interesados en la estimación de la elasticidad ingreso de la demanda de bienes a... more Resumen: Estamos interesados en la estimación de la elasticidad ingreso de la demanda de bienes ambientales. Resulta novedoso la aplicación de métodos econométricos que toman en cuenta el problema de los errores de medición cuando se estiman dichas elasticidades, errores que son frecuentes en los datos microeconómicos, y que no son totalmente considerados en la literatura sobre el tema. Nuestro objetivo es discutir si el error de medición tiene un efecto significativo en las elasticidades.

SAGE Open, Jul 1, 2019

We analyze individual and country factors that explain attitudes toward intimate partner violence... more We analyze individual and country factors that explain attitudes toward intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) in Latin America and the Caribbean. Most patterns at individual level are similar to the international ones: for example, approval of IPVAW is higher among women and people in rural areas or in disadvantaged socioeconomic situations. The most novel contribution of our work is the study of the variables at country level: approval of IPVAW increases with poverty, fertility rate, and equal gender outcomes. It decreases with Internet access and, less robustly, with the time elapsed since the enactment of women's suffrage.

Development in Practice, Apr 1, 2013

Based on data from the Latinobarómetro, this study analyses data on happiness to establish the pr... more Based on data from the Latinobarómetro, this study analyses data on happiness to establish the probability that an individual is happy. The focus is put on self-reported health status as a key aspect in increasing levels of happiness. The probability of being happy is econometrically estimated by probit models for each country. Results show that the main relationship is between happiness and health status. Whether this is a causal effect or only a correlation, is not clear. This issue is explored by using propensity score matching methods. These show that good health status increases the probability of being satisfied with life by between 13 and 17 percentage points. In line with the literature, we find that the relationship between age and happiness is U-shaped, with happiness at its lowest point at the age of 48.2.

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Aug 1, 2013

Revista de Economía del Rosario, Jan 31, 2011

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el grado de inequidad socioeconómica en el uso de servici... more El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el grado de inequidad socioeconómica en el uso de servicios médicos de la población adulta mayor en cinco ciudades latinoamericanas (Buenos Aires, Ciudad de México, Santiago de Chile, San Pablo y Montevideo), en base a los datos de la Encuesta de Salud, Bienestar y Envejecimiento relevada entre 1999 y 2000 (SABE, OPS/OMS, 2001). El análisis imputa el ingreso equivalente del hogar a través de la utilización de las encuestas de hogares de los distintos países, y considerando una amplia serie de indicadores de acceso, calidad y uso de servicios de salud. Una vez estandarizado el uso de servicios por las necesidades de cuidados, se encuentran desigualdades socioeconómicas pro-rico en el uso de servicios preventivos en todas las ciudades, desigualdades en la realización de visitas médicas en Santiago y Montevideo, y desigualdades en la calidad de acceso a la atención en todas las ciudades salvo Montevideo. Las desigualdades socioeconómicas dentro de los sistemas de salud públicos o privados explican una mayor proporción de las desigualdades en el acceso a la atención. Nuestros resultados son informativos en el contexto de las políticas recientes destinadas a la aplicación de paquetes mínimos * We are grateful to Daniel Ferrés, Juan Pablo Pagano, and Eugenia Rivas for valuable assistance and contributions to this study. The data used in this study are publicly available through the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. In preparing the data files for public archiving and distribution, the data producers removed all direct identifiers and characteristics that might lead to identification of data subjects. Because of the public nature of these data, no approval by any committee for the protection of human subjects was sought or awarded.

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, May 5, 2006

This paper explores the effect of religious observance and affiliation to the dominant religion (... more This paper explores the effect of religious observance and affiliation to the dominant religion (Catholicism) on trust in institutions, towards others and market attitudes. The analysis is performed using a Latin American database of twenty thousand respondents from 2004 by means of ordered probit models. The most interesting results are: i) Trust toward others is positively correlated with religious observance and with Catholic affiliation. ii) There is a positive correlation between trust in the government, in the police, in the armed forces, in the judiciary and in the banking system and religious practice in general. Identical positive results are obtained for Catholic affiliation. iii) Correlations with attitudes toward the market, in general, are heterogeneous but never negative. In sum, individual's level of religiosity crucially affects trust in institutions and toward peers. We also found that Catholicism encourages both trust in institutions and towards others. Thus, we found a positive effect of "religiosity" on social capital. In fact, we never found any negative (and significant) effect on the variables considered.

Cuadernos de Economía, Oct 4, 2017

La desigualdad ha vuelto a ser objeto central del análisis económico. La afirmación de Lucas (200... more La desigualdad ha vuelto a ser objeto central del análisis económico. La afirmación de Lucas (2004), según la cual la atención a las cuestiones distributivas sería venenosa para la profesión, ya no refleja el sentimiento dominante. El éxito de Stiglitz (2012), Atkinson (2015), Milanovic (2016) y, por supuesto, Piketty (2014), supone dos consideraciones importantes. En primer lugar, el estudio de la desigualdad no solo se ha vuelto una preocupación académica, sino que refleja un sentimiento común: la mala distribución conlleva consecuencias negativas sobre la sociedad (Salverda et al., 2014; Wilkinson y Pikett, 2009). En segundo lugar, un determinante clave del retorno de interés se debe al esfuerzo de recopilación de datos, sobre el cual Piketty es obviamente un modelo, pero no el único. A escala mundial, buena parte del interés se ha concentrado en los cambios distributivos generados por la globalización, es decir, por el conjunto de reformas institucionales a escala nacional e internacional que caracterizó a las cuatro últimas décadas. Desde 1980, la desigualdad ha crecido en casi todos los países.

para empresas del sector agua en Asia y Región del Pacífico Antonio Estache y Martín Rossi Texto ... more para empresas del sector agua en Asia y Región del Pacífico Antonio Estache y Martín Rossi Texto de Discusión N° 4 (Abril 1999) JEL N°: C4, L9 Resumen: En este trabajo se estima una frontera de costos estocástica para las empresas del sector agua en el continente Asiático y región del Pacífico, y se calculan las medidas de eficiencia individuales utilizando Mínimos Cuadrados Clásicos Corregidos y Máxima Verosimilitud, suponiendo en ambos casos que la distribución del término de ineficiencia sigue una distribución media normal. Asimismo, se presentan una serie de indicadores de performance alternativos utilizados por el Asian Development Bank (1997) y se los compara con las medidas de eficiencia calculadas a partir de la frontera estocástica. Por último, se analiza el impacto de la propiedad sobre los costos, encontrándose que los costos de las empresas concesionadas son significativamente más bajos.

European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 2018

The main objective of the paper is the analysis of intergenerational or cultural transmission of ... more The main objective of the paper is the analysis of intergenerational or cultural transmission of religious values during adolescence in order to explain interpersonal trust and confidence in institutions in adulthood. Trust and confidence in institutions outcomes are examined using the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) 2008 Religion III survey. Overall, the results are in line with previous literature: religious intensity and educational attainment are significantly and positively correlated with trust and confidence in institutions. When instrumental variables are used, the results suggest that religious engagement does not significantly explain interpersonal trust though it is significantly related to confidence in institutions.

The happiness literature provides evidence on various factors, other than money, that do seem to ... more The happiness literature provides evidence on various factors, other than money, that do seem to contribute to individual happiness. As one explores the produced “happiness economics” literature, it is direct to understand the difficulty to find proper information on developing countries reality. In our analysis we investigate the relationship between income, family composition, health and religion over subjective wellbeing in the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile and Uruguay). Specifically, we analyze data from the SABE survey a study conducted among people who are 60 years old or over, in various Latin American countries. Main obtained results show a positive correlation between higher levels of income and health, being married and the frequent religion practice and higher levels of subjective well-being. On the contrary, malnutrition has a negative impact on happiness indicators. In order to add robustness to our results and to deal with endogeneity issues, this paper uses differen...

Se considera homofobia todas aquellas actitudes negativas y discriminatorias hacia las personas h... more Se considera homofobia todas aquellas actitudes negativas y discriminatorias hacia las personas homosexuales. Hay evidencia que sugiere que cuando estas miradas o creencias se transforman en comportamientos, las consecuencias para las personas homosexuales son muy negativas. Al analizar los origenes de las actitudes homofobicas, la literatura encuentra a la religion como una de las fuentes con importancia. En este estudio analizamos la asociacion entre la intensidad de la actividad religiosa en la adolescencia y las actitudes homofobicas en etapa adulta. Los datos utilizados en este estudio fueron obtenidos de la encuesta International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) 2008 Religion III. Los resultados muestran tres aspectos interesantes. Primero, la transmision de las creencias religiosas durante la adolescencia esta asociada positivamente con la homofobia en la edad adulta. Segundo, a mayor educacion los individuos tienden a ser menos homofobicos y tercero, a pesar de que la intensid...

European Scientific Journal, ESJ, Apr 30, 2018

The aim of this paper is to analyze the intake of two types of sweet snacks by women using compet... more The aim of this paper is to analyze the intake of two types of sweet snacks by women using competitive environments as stressors. We study the effect of competition on food intake from two perspectives: overall consumption and the substitution between two snacks (a "healthy" and a "nonhealthy" snack). For this purpose we did a laboratory experiment in which the participants were women. They were offered chocolate candies and raisins as they solved several problems. Half of the participants completed the tasks at a noncompetitive piece rate and the other half under a competitive tournament incentive scheme. The results show that at the median the participants' intake was higher under tournament than piece rate payment. Moreover, the increase in food intake was led by a rise in chocolate consumption. We conclude that competition increases the consumption of fat, calories and carbohydrates and thus affects eating behavior and promotes unhealthy patterns. This research contributes to the strand of the literature that focuses on factors that affect the eating behavior which influences health.

This series was created in 2003 to promote debate, disseminate information and analysis, and conv... more This series was created in 2003 to promote debate, disseminate information and analysis, and convey the excitement and complexity of the most topical issues in economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the World Bank. The manuscripts chosen for publication represent the highest quality in each institution's research and activity output and have been selected for their relevance to the academic community, policy makers, researchers, and interested readers.

Journal of Public Economics, 2007

We investigate the determinants of the efficiency of firms with a focus on the role of corruption... more We investigate the determinants of the efficiency of firms with a focus on the role of corruption. We construct a simple theoretical model where corruption increases factor requirements of firms because it diverts managerial effort away from factor coordination. We then exploit a unique dataset comprising firm-level information on 80 electricity distribution firms from 13 Latin American countries for the years 1994 to 2001. As predicted by the model, we find that more corruption in the country is strongly associated with more inefficient firms, in the sense that they employ more inputs to produce a given level of output. The economic magnitude of the effects is large. The results hold both in models with country and firm fixed effects. The results survive several robustness checks, including different measures of output and efficiency, and instrumenting for corruption. Other elements associated with inefficiency are public ownership, inflation, and lack of law and order, but corruption appears to play a separate and more robust role.

El presente trabajo presenta los resultados de la Encuesta de Responsabilidad Social Empresarial ... more El presente trabajo presenta los resultados de la Encuesta de Responsabilidad Social Empresarial (ERSE_I) realizada por el Departamento de Economía (FCS-UDELAR) a ciudadanos mayores de 17 años en 2006. La Encuesta forma parte del Proyecto sobre

Semestre Económico, 2011

El objetivo de este trabajo es describir el comportamiento de las empresas uruguayas y la opinión... more El objetivo de este trabajo es describir el comportamiento de las empresas uruguayas y la opinión de los ciudadanos sobre la responsabilidad social empresarial (RSE). Para ello se utilizaron datos de las encuestas aplicadas a la opinión pública y las empresas sobre RSE. El trabajo presenta un análisis descriptivo comparado de los principales resultados de dichas encuestas con el objetivo de aportar al conocimiento de un tema en el que existen pocos antecedentes de investigación académica en Uruguay. El análisis de los datos muestra un cierto grado de conocimiento de la población sobre el tema de RSE. Se destaca que los ciudadanos tienen una opinión más favorable en cuanto al desempeño de las empresas que el de las propias empresas. Además, existe un cierto balance entre las acciones empresariales en RSE y la valoración de la opinión pública de aquellas áreas consideradas importantes.

Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Mar 1, 2009

Special thanks to Masao Ogaki who invited us to explore upon these ideas. Martha Gaustad revised ... more Special thanks to Masao Ogaki who invited us to explore upon these ideas. Martha Gaustad revised the English grammar. Pablo Brañas acknowledges the financial support received from the Fundación Ramón Areces (2005) and DGCYT (SEJ2004-07554/ECON).

Estudios De Economia, 2002

Resumen: Estamos interesados en la estimación de la elasticidad ingreso de la demanda de bienes a... more Resumen: Estamos interesados en la estimación de la elasticidad ingreso de la demanda de bienes ambientales. Resulta novedoso la aplicación de métodos econométricos que toman en cuenta el problema de los errores de medición cuando se estiman dichas elasticidades, errores que son frecuentes en los datos microeconómicos, y que no son totalmente considerados en la literatura sobre el tema. Nuestro objetivo es discutir si el error de medición tiene un efecto significativo en las elasticidades.

SAGE Open, Jul 1, 2019

We analyze individual and country factors that explain attitudes toward intimate partner violence... more We analyze individual and country factors that explain attitudes toward intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) in Latin America and the Caribbean. Most patterns at individual level are similar to the international ones: for example, approval of IPVAW is higher among women and people in rural areas or in disadvantaged socioeconomic situations. The most novel contribution of our work is the study of the variables at country level: approval of IPVAW increases with poverty, fertility rate, and equal gender outcomes. It decreases with Internet access and, less robustly, with the time elapsed since the enactment of women's suffrage.

Development in Practice, Apr 1, 2013

Based on data from the Latinobarómetro, this study analyses data on happiness to establish the pr... more Based on data from the Latinobarómetro, this study analyses data on happiness to establish the probability that an individual is happy. The focus is put on self-reported health status as a key aspect in increasing levels of happiness. The probability of being happy is econometrically estimated by probit models for each country. Results show that the main relationship is between happiness and health status. Whether this is a causal effect or only a correlation, is not clear. This issue is explored by using propensity score matching methods. These show that good health status increases the probability of being satisfied with life by between 13 and 17 percentage points. In line with the literature, we find that the relationship between age and happiness is U-shaped, with happiness at its lowest point at the age of 48.2.

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Aug 1, 2013

This paper analyzes the impact that the rules and characteristics of the political system have on... more This paper analyzes the impact that the rules and characteristics of the political system have on satisfaction with democracy in Latin America. Using individual level survey data provided by Latinobarometer and controlling for both personal characteristics and macroeconomic variables, we find that the rules and characteristics of the political system do matter: Satisfaction with democracy is higher in countries that use a proportional electoral rule for choosing the legislature, where voting is not enforced, and in countries with a federal system. The age of democracy has a negative impact on satisfaction with democracy while the electoral rule used to choose the president does not matter. On the economic side, we find that personal assessments of the economy impact more on satisfaction with democracy than actual macroeconomic data.

Con datos de la Encuesta de Alimentación y Bienestar del año 2014 (dECON-FCSUdelaR), representati... more Con datos de la Encuesta de Alimentación y Bienestar del año 2014 (dECON-FCSUdelaR), representativa de los hogares de Montevideo y la zona Metropolitana, se evaluó
la estructura factorial de la Escala Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Seguridad Alimentaria
(ELCSA) con una metodología de análisis factorial. Además se analizó, a través de
modelos probit, la influencia de las características socio-demográficas de los hogares en
cada una de las dimensiones de inseguridad alimentaria identificadas. El porcentaje de
respuestas afirmativas a las preguntas de la escala ELCSA varió entre el 31.7% a 4.4%. A
partir del análisis factorial se identificaron dos factores en aquellos hogares en donde solo
viven adultos y tres factores en aquellos en los que viven menores de 18 años. Los factores
identificados se asocian a diferentes niveles de inseguridad alimentaria. La probabilidad de
experimentar diferentes niveles de inseguridad alimentaria está afectada tanto por
características individuales de los encuestados como por las características del hogar en el
que viven, siendo el ingreso del hogar la variable que tiene mayor impacto en todas las
dimensiones.

In this paper we analyze the factors that explain attitudes towards intimate partner violence aga... more In this paper we analyze the factors that explain attitudes towards intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) in 23 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Analyses of IPVAW in LAC are relatively scarce although there is growing concern about this problem in the region. We aim to assess the effect of individual and country characteristics using data from common sources for all countries. This work contributes to the sparse literature dealing with methods that attempt to assess the effect of macro variables. We perform a two-step procedure. We first estimate a logit model at the individual level, we calculate a measure of relative approval of IPVAW at country level and we use this measure as a dependent variable to estimate the effect of macro variables. Our study finds that most LAC patterns at individual level are similar to the international ones: approval of IPVAW is higher among women, people in rural areas, people in a disadvantaged socio-economic situation and individuals with some particular cultural characteristics. Unlikely international evidence, attitudes do not differ between ages. Our findings at country level show that approval of IPVAW increases with poverty, fertility rate and equal gender outcomes. It decreases with internet access and, with a lesser degree of robustness, with the time elapsed since the enactment of women’s suffrage. The most novel contribution of our work is the study of the variables at country lev