NEP: New Economics Papers Central and South America

NEP: New Economics Papers
Central and South America

Edited by:	Maximo Rossi
	Universidad de la República
Issue date:	2010-01-23
Papers:	3

Note: Access to full contents may be restricted.
NEP is sponsored by SUNY Oswego.

In this issue we have:

1. Latin American Immigration in the United States: Is There Wage Assimilation Across the Wage Distribution?
   Catalina Franco Buitrago
2. Evolución de la informalidad laboral en Colombia: determinantes macro y efectos locales
   Gustavo Adolfo García
3. Developing countries, dispute settlement, and the advisory centre on WTO law
   Bown, Chad P.; McCulloch, Rachel

Contents.

1. Date:	2010-01-18
   By:	Catalina Franco Buitrago
   URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000118:006447&r=lam
   Immigration has been one of the main driving forces that have contributed to shape the United States as it is today. The current wave of immigration started in 1965 and has different characteristics to the previous inflows of immigrants1. In particular, the 1965 Immigration Act had an impact in shifting the national origin of U.S. immigrants mostly to Latin Americans and Asians, widening therefore the gap between natives and immigrants in terms of language and culture (Card, 2005). Since immigration from Latin America has constituted between 40 and 50 percent of total immigration in the current wave, and given that Latin Americans are relatively less skilled than U.S. natives and other immigrants, it is worth studying the wage differentials that potentially exist between natives and Latin American immigrants.

2. Date:	2010-01-18
   By:	Gustavo Adolfo García
   URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000118:006449&r=lam
   En este trabajo se estudian los determinantes macroeconómicos de la informalidad laboral en Colombia. Teniendo en cuenta varias definiciones de informalidad, se encuentra que este fenómeno tiene una relación inversa con el nivel de educación de la población ocupada y el grado de desarrollo industrial de las ciudades. También se observa que un sector público muy grande genera un efecto positivo sobre la informalidad, lo cual indica que existen posibles ineficiencias estatales o cargas institucionales que afectan la decisión de formalizarse. Así mismo se evidencia que existe un importante efecto local en la informalidad asociado con la estructura productiva e integración comercial, que dependen de la ubicación geográfica de las ciudades.

3. Date:	2010-01-01
   By:	Bown, Chad P. McCulloch, Rachel
   URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5168&r=lam
   Critical appraisals of the current and potential benefits from developing country engagement in the World Trade Organization (WTO) focus mainly on the Doha Round of negotiations. This paper examines developing country participation in the WTO dispute settlement system to enforce foreign market access rights already negotiated in earlier multilateral rounds. The dispute data from 1995 through 2008 reveal three notable trends: developing countries’ sustained rate of self-enforcement actions despite declining use of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) by developed countries, developing countries’ increased use of the DSU to self-enforce their access to the markets of developing as well as developed country markets, and the prevalence of disputes targeting highly observable causes of lost foreign market access, such as antidumping, countervailing duties, and safeguards. The paper also examines potential impacts of the Advisory Centre on WTO Law (ACWL) into the WTO system in 2001. A close look at the data reveals evidence on at least three channels through which the ACWL may be enhancing developing countries’ability to self-enforce foreign market access: increased initiation of sole-complainant cases, more extensive pursuit of the DSU legal process for any given case, and initiation of disputes over smaller values of lost trade.
   Keywords:	Debt Markets,World Trade Organization,Trade Law,Emerging Markets,Country Strategy&Performance

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