The paper combines a brief review of basic monetary theory, a discussion of the critical monetary and banking experience undergone by Argentina between 1980 and 2002, an essay on the stability of velocity of circulation and a proposal for reform. Our thesis is that after a hyperinflation episode (or under currency substitution), when velocity of circulation stops being a parameter to become a very volatile magnitude, an independent or active monetary policy (a floating exchangerate regime) becomes a high-risk policy.

In contrast to previous empirical work on electoral cycles, which implicitly assumes the executive has full discretion over fiscal policy, this paper contends that under separation of powers an unaligned legislature may have a moderating role. Focusing on the budget surplus, we find that stronger effective checks and balances explain why cycles are weaker in developed and established democracies. Once the discretional component of executive power is isolated, there are significant cycles in all democracies.

This is a sequel to UCEMA working paper # 277, and as such, the draft of the second chapter of a book project on Argentina as a ‘parasite state’, i.e., one that simultaneously lives off the rest of the world and consumes itself, harboring parasitical segments within its political elite, bourgeoisie, bureaucracy and proletariat. This chapter delves on the so-called “piqueteros”, the picketing organizations that emerged during the 1990s and have since thrived.

In this paper we set forth a new perspective from which to understand and measure the brokerage of asymmetric information that intermediaries usually carry out. Firstly, we deal with partitions of a given set so as to lay grounds to our line of research. Secondly, we argue that trade splits up imperfect information sets, over which traders try to negotiate and profit, but also hide their opportunistic behavior from their counterparts.

In 1891, Baron Maurice de Hirsch founded the Jewish Colonization Association (J.C.A.), through which he would manage a gigantic social welfare project concerning the immigration of thousands of people from the Russian Empire towards Argentina, and their settlement in agricultural colonies. In this paper, we evaluate the result of this project, which is generally qualified as a failure by historians on the subject.

This paper sets forth the foundations for a transactional approach for the performance of arbitrage in foreign exchange markets. Firstly, we review both the standard model of financial arbitrage and the so-caled covered-interest arbitrage environment, and we also lay bare striking shortcomings in these points of view, mainly grounded on a wide- ranging empirical evidence.

Al analizar la problemática particular de las empresas de familia surgen dos características bien distintivas: a) la gran contribución que realizan estas empresas al desarrollo de las economías donde actúan y b) la altísima probabilidad de desaparecer en sus primeros años de vida. Para superar esta amenaza es necesario recurrir a las herramientas que nos provee la disciplina llamada “Governancia Corporativa”.

En el presente documento analizamos los alcances, limitaciones y consecuencias de la nueva ley de financiamiento de los partidos políticos y las campañas electorales (Ley 25.600). Para ello, nos preguntamos cuáles son las características principales del sistema legal vigente en Argentina en materia de financiamiento de partidos y campañas. Luego formulamos un balance provisorio de la experiencia de aplicación de estas nuevas normas con motivo de la elección presidencial del 2003.

This paper is a primer on corporate performance, corporate governance, and their interrelationships and measurement systems, with particular focus on Small and MediumSized Enterprises (SMEs). This is the first report of a larger on going research project.  In the domain of performance measurement the paper describes the trend from financial to non-financial measures, as well as a taxonomy of measures and the impact of the TQM movement on measurement practices.

La tradicional regla marshalliana de inversión (o abandono) cuando el valor del activo subyacente es mayor (o menor) al costo de la inversión se ve modificada cuando existen situaciones de incertidumbre e irreversibilidad, generando un componente de opción en dichas decisiones. Este componente se ve afectado por la volatilidad del activo subyacente, que a su vez puede encontrar en el agregado su origen en la volatilidad de la tasa de crecimiento de la economía.