Archivos: Repositorios

El crecimiento y la extensión de los clubes de trueque fue un fenómeno extraordinario en la Argentina durante la crisis de los años 2001/02, por la magnitud de la actividad que allí se realizaba, por la cantidad de personas que en ellos participa-ron, por los que dependieron de ello para garantizar su sub-sistencia. Surgieron alrededor de 1995 como la iniciativa de unos emprendedores, quienes vieron en esto una forma de des-arrollar un modelo utópico de sociedad, pero tuvieron un cre-cimiento explosivo durante los años de la crisis cuando la pobla-ción argentina vio en ellos una alternativa para subsistir en medio del caos económico generalizado, un muy elevado des-empleo y la profunda caída de los ingresos reales.

Austrian economists have been ambivalent on the foundational contributions of Ronald Coase to modern law and economics. One side supported a Lockean natural rights view based on the property over one’s own body as a determinant of rights and considerations of justice. The other side supported a Coasean efficiency view, with a Hayekian evolutionary perspective. Our conclusion will be that both are found in informal slums, but informal solutions of disputes among neighbors generally follow a “rights” approach and do not intentionally look for efficiency.

Nothing appears more surprizing to those, who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission, with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers. When we enquire by what means this wonder is effected, we shall find, that, as Force is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is therefore, on opinion only that government is founded; and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments, as well as to the most free and most popular.

The debate over lighthouses has become a central feature of economic theory. It addresses the question of different assignments of property rights and what kind of institutional setting may be able to supply services characterized by limitations to exclude nonpayers and the potential for free- riding conducts. In a seminal work, Ronald Coase (1974) reported on the history of lighthouse provision in England and stressed the role of private investors and private funding for their building and operation. A debate ensued on whether the provision of lighthouse services could be qualified as “private” considering they were financed through “light dues” of a coercive nature. Van Zandt (1993) classifies the different institutional settings in five categories ranging from total private provision and financing to complete government supply. He and other authors claim there are no historical cases of private provision of financing with government enforcement of property and contract rights only. This article shows one such present case in San Isidro, a northern suburb of Buenos Aires. Its existence raises new issues to be considered.

Personnel Economics has allowed us to better understand compensation schemes in face of the problems coming out of the principal-agent relationship, with individuals pursuing their own private interests making necessary a mechanism to promote the alignment of interests within the organization. The theory had to simplify its assumptions, particularly reducing the utility maximization principle to its monetary value. This paper considers the need to introduce the “heterogeneity” of agents for monetary and non-monetary incentives. There are problems with the limitation of knowledge and the possibility preferences may be revealed through some kind of exchange in which the principal offers a “menu of contracts”.

Central America is a region in the Americas with potential for higher economic growth. For the regional economy to grow in a sustainable manner in the years ahead, policymakers must act on three fronts: economic diversification, workforce upskilling, and intra-regional cooperation.