This paper postulates the hypothesis that the stability of the rules under which different interest groups compete is a relevant consideration for explaining economic growth. Under this hypothesis, it is possible to propose indices that may capture the degree of stability of the rules of the redistributive game better than the usual measures of political stability.

El sindicato constituyó en sus orígenes el centro predominante de la vida laboral y aún social de los trabajadores. Ya en la óptica de los influyentes socialistas británicos Sidney y Beatrice Webb se visualizaba el sindicato, a principios de siglo, como a la institución que aglutinaba a los trabajadores con el fin de obtener, a través de la unión, mejoras imposibles de alcanzar por la acción individual de los trabajadores. Sin embargo, no existe unanimidad, y ni siquiera consenso, respecto de qué es en realidad un sindicato.

This paper asks why trade unions' stabilization policy can be colored by political considerations, as suggested for example by Argentina's history of bitter divisions over Peronism. Wage decisions are considered as part of a game between the government and trade unions, where income distribution can be altered by political parties and a successful stabilization program increases the chances the incumbent will be reelected. The main result is that trade unions may cooperate with a friendly government, and harass a non-friendly government, in a polarized political climate.

This paper estimates the returns to education in Greater Buenos Aires from 1986 to 1993. It uses the Mincer wage equation for men aged 25 to 54 who were employed during the survey period. The data are derived from tapes of the Permanent Household Survey, comprising approximately 15,000 individuals and subsamples of around 2,000 men.

*Este trabajo incorpora mayormente escritos realizados durante el segundo semestre de 1994 y es, por lo tanto, previo al denominado "efecto tequila" que tuvo lugar a partir de la crisis financiera mexicana a mediados de diciembre de 1994. El último capítulo, denominado El Efecto Tequila (escrito en mayo de 1995), describe algunos brevemente aspectos de esta crisis que es sin duda la más seria enfrentada por el plan de convertibilidad.

This paper studies the relationship between the marginalist revolution and the use of the mathematical method in economics. A first version of this work was written as a term paper when I was a student of George Stigler at the University of Chicago. The present version has been benefited from his comments and suggestions, as well as from the original bibliographical references provided by professor Stigler.

Ten years ago Sargent and Wallace [1981] provided with the simple and elegant analysis that has now become the classic "unpleasant monetarist arithmetic": a fall in the rate of monetary expansion without a corresponding fall in the primary deficit is not only doomed to be transitory, but will eventually bring about an inflation rate higher than before the change.

Abstract The permanent income/transitory income distinction from consumption functions can be applied to cost functions. Transitory deviations of actual output from potential output, i.e., variations in capacity utilization, are relevant to the U-shaped average cost pattern found in econometric studies. Data from retail banks in Argentina are used to illustrate this issue, with the number of branches as a proxy for potential output, and product per branch as a proxy for the utilization level.

It is usually asserted that political instability significantly lowers private investment, as well as economic growth, since it has adverse influence on property rights, and by that on investment and growth (i.e., Robert Barro, 1991; Ross Levine & David Renelt, 1992; Paolo Mauro, 1994; Edgardo Zablotsky, 1994).