Libros

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to quantify the impact on retail prices of the Shell-Terpel merger in the Chilean gasoline market, and to evaluate the effectiveness of gas stations’ divestitures in highly concentrated locations as a tool to mitigate an eventual raise in prices. The identification strategy relies on the fact that a merger between two national retail networks should be independent of previous characteristics of different local markets. Results show a modest but significant increase in margins of gas stations geographically impacted by the merger. The divestitures were effective in mitigating this anticompetitive effect, but only for retail outlets closely located to divested stations, i.e., within a 2 Km. radius. Notably, these effects are symmetric for both merging and non-merging parties. Moreover, the evidence suggests that divested gas stations that use an alternative brand (different from Terpel) set significantly lower prices on average. Finally, the presence of unbranded gas stations and/or small alternative brands within a 1 Km. radius seems to be enough in order to offset the price increase generated by the merger in these specific locations.

Resumen

Parent engagement with their children plays an important role in children’s eventual economic success and numerous studies have documented large gaps in parent engagement between low- and higher-income families. While we know remarkably little about what motivates parents to engage in their children’s development, recent research suggests that ignoring or discounting the future may inhibit parental investment, while certain behavioral tools may help offset this tendency. This paper reports results from a randomized field experiment designed to increase the time that parents of children in subsidized preschool programs spend reading to their children using an electronic reading application that audio and video records parents as they read. The treatment included three behavioral tools (text reminders, goal-setting, and social rewards) as well as information about the importance of reading to children. The treatment increased usage of the reading application by one standard deviation after the six-week intervention. Our evidence suggests that the large effect size is not accounted for by the information component of the intervention and that the treatment impact was much greater for parents who are more present-oriented than for parents who are less present-oriented.

Resumen:
 

In general, special tax regimes create inefficiencies and might destroy horizontal equity. However, many countries have special tax regimes for small businesses or specific economic sectors. The goal is usually to reduce compliance costs, but also to reduce inequality since it is assumed that owners of small businesses are generally low-income taxpayers. To study the magnitude of tax avoidance of special tax regimes in Chile and their effects on horizontal equity, I use administrative data from the Chilean IRS to simulate a tax reform that replaces them with a cash flow tax for small firms. The results show that a reform of this type would have positive effects, especially in terms of horizontal tax equity as 85.6% of the profits from firms under presumptive taxes and 77.6% of the profits from the small firms under special tax regimes, belong to taxpayers in the top income decile.

Even though is one of the most developed and equal countries of the world, Australia presents important disparities on economic development across its regions. For instance, weekly family net income in 2006 varied from $478 to $5,000 across sub-state regions and unemployment rate shown figures of zero to up to 20%. The factors underlying these disparities across the country are not fully understood and research trying to capture their relevant contribution to different development indicators is scarce. This study builds on previous literature to econometrically assess the extent to which different natural, demographic and geographic factors determine economic development across all Australian regions, looking with special attention to changes in population, income, employment and urban growth over the period 2006-2011.