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Gustavo Ferro

UCEMA, Economics, Faculty Member

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Papers by Gustavo Ferro

The Productive Efficiency of Science and Technology Worldwide: A Frontier Analysis

Journal on Efficiency and Responsibility in Education and Science, 2021

We are interested in how codified knowledge is produced around the globe (which inputs are used t... more We are interested in how codified knowledge is produced around the globe (which inputs are used to produce scientific articles and patented inventions) and the efficiency of the process (how do the best performers produce more with the same inputs or produce the same with less inputs). Using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) efficiency frontier approach, we aim to determine which countries are more efficient at producing codified knowledge. We proxy knowledge production by publications and patents, obtained through human (researchers) and non-human (R&D expenditure) resources. We built a 15-year database with more than 800 observations of these and other variables. Our findings enable us to distinguish efficiency by country, geographical region, and income area. We run four different specifications and correlate the results with partial productivity indexes seeking consistency. Under constant returns to scale, the most traditional producers of knowledge are not fully efficient. Inst...

R&D worldwide

Country statistics on referred scientific publications, human and material resources devoted to R... more

Annotated bibliography : global study on the aggregation of water supply and sanitation services

This Annotated Bibliography provides a list of citations to books, articles, and documents releva... more This Annotated Bibliography provides a list of citations to books, articles, and documents relevant to the theme of related to the aggregation of water supply and sanitation (WSS) utilities. Each citation is followed by a brief description, denoting the relevance of the publication to the global study on aggregation. This Annotated Bibliography complements the Literature Review which aims to show the different strands of the literature and their evolution in recent years to yield insights about what is known and how useful such knowledge can be for policy goals. The work conducted has allowed providing concrete, evidence-based guidance to policy makers and practitioners regarding when, why, and how water and sanitation utilities can work together (aggregate) to successfully deliver specific policy outcomes, such as better services or lower costs.

Macroeconomic shocks and regulatory dilemmas: The affordability and sustainability constraints and the Argentine default experience

The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 2005

... Poorest, 21.98, 46.44, 10.26, 46.44, 65.20, 98.98, 18.32, 22.81. Richest, 90.94, 99.18, 63.02... more

Inflation Targeting. What's new under the sun?

Gobierno Corporativo: los problemas y el estado actual de la discusión en la literatura

UADE Textos de Discusión, 2007

Construcción de modelos de equilibrio general computado regionales: explorando el caso de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires

Infraestructura, integración y equidad: el impacto social de la infraestructura sanitaria y de transporte de personas

A Tango Tale: On the Closure of the Argentine

With an early welfare system, Argentina’s demography is more similar to the South European countr... more With an early welfare system, Argentina’s demography is more similar to the South European countries than to the majority of Latin American ones. The country reformed its old fashioned Pay-As-You-Go system in the 1990s, introducing a Fully Funded scheme, which was intended to solve the financial stress of the social security, as well as to yield positive externalities on the financial system, the savings rate and economic growth. After 15 years of functioning, the system was closed, their affiliates sent to Pay-As-You-Go again, and the accumulated savings went to the public social security administration, which is in charge of future benefits. The official explanation for such an ending was that the international financial crisis was a peril for future pensioners, and also that the (private) pension funds administrators were not the proper managers of the funds. In the Congress, the political majorities for this reform were remarkable strong in both chambers. Protests of the saving ...

Foreign Direct Investment. A Bid For Progress? 1 Foreign Direct Investment. A Bid For Progress?

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is not a unique explanation for growth and progress, but is one o... more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is not a unique explanation for growth and progress, but is one of the more useful indicators of the open opportunities. It reveals preferences of the developed countries ’ private sector, while the emerging economies seem to participate in a global bid. That bid is for capital, for the technology and know-how normally associated to investments, and for the final award, progress and development. Besides policies, politics and initial conditions, the economy matters. An estimation of economic determinants to FDI is done, and to take into account best relative results, an econometric frontier is calculated in order to determine how do the more efficient in attracting FDI. Some new perspective is added to conventional wisdom: there are countries, which are in some sense “more efficient producers ” of FDI. The efficient frontier approach could shed some light of the link from sowing to reaping. Some shocking results were attained, when we tried to ask the...

1 Currency Board: From Stabilization to Full Dollarization? The

The aim of this work is to present in a systematic way elements around the debate on the persiste... more The aim of this work is to present in a systematic way elements around the debate on the persistence of a central bank arrangement, currency boards or the Dollarization option. In some special circumstances, both later arrangements could be desirable. They are not a universal panacea in the way to stabilization and sound growth. The case of Argentina in recent decades is analyzed. There, the currency board could be an intermediate step to full Dollarization. Comparing to advanced economies, Latin American inflation in Post World War II to date, was 100 times more volatile, and GDP growth twice more volatile, with more frequent and extreme recessions. A great deal of that volatility was caused by unstable policies. Changes in money

A comparison of the Luenberger and Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen Productivity Indicators Applied Argentinean Pension Funds: 1996-2007

Abstract.In this paper, the two nonparametric models, the “Luenberger Productivity Model ” and “L... more Abstract.In this paper, the two nonparametric models, the “Luenberger Productivity Model ” and “Luenberger–Hicks–Moorsteen Productivity Indicator ” are used to estimate the productivity of Argentinean Pension Fund Management Companies. These companies are ranked according to their total productivity change with annual data from 1996 to 2007. The performance of the industry has been flat or decreasing during our period of analysis. But the industry shows reaction to shocks, like tighter regulations or macroeconomic crisis. The Luenberger Productivity Indicator and Luenberger–Hicks–Moorsteen Productivity Indicator yield similar results. Resumen En este trabajo se presentan dos modelos no paramétricos, el “Modelo de Productividad de Luenberger ” y el “Indicador de Productividad de Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen”, usados para estimar la productividad de las administradoras de fondos de pensión argentinas. Esas compañías son rankeadas de acuerdo al cambio total de su productividad, estimado ...

Higher Education Efficiency Frontier Analysis: A Review of Variables to Consider

Journal on Efficiency and Responsibility in Education and Science

The measurement of efficiency in higher education has gained a growing interest in recent years, ... more The measurement of efficiency in higher education has gained a growing interest in recent years, especially due to the expansion of the university system. This paper provides a review of the literature on efficiency in higher education institutions by covering empirical articles which applied frontier efficiency measurement techniques from 1997 to 2019. We review the methodological approaches used, both parametric and non-parametric techniques, such as Data Envelopment Analysis, Malmquist index and Stochastic Frontier Analysis. Secondly, we list the applied inputs, input prices, outputs, quality, and environment variables and based on the overview, we discuss the advantages and drawbacks of the different empirical proxy variables used. We address the importance of characterizing students and research funding as raw materials of both the teaching and research services, respectively, and we provide suggestions on how to deal with them empirically. We also discuss the difference between quality and environmental variables, and we give some practical indications to distinguish them in doubtful cases.

Servicio universal en telecomunicaciones: Concepto y alcance en Argentina

El trabajo efectua en primer termino una revision de la literatura para echar luz sobre los aspec... more El trabajo efectua en primer termino una revision de la literatura para echar luz sobre los aspectos teoricos y conceptuales del Servicio Universal en las industrias reguladas de servicios publicos. Se examina su alcance y financiamiento, la evolucion historica del concepto y ya sobre el caso especifico de la industria de telecomunicaciones -donde la idea tuvo su origen-, se estudia la aplicacion internacional y especifica en Argentina, del concepto.

Regulación de la Calidad del Producto y del Servicio

En este documento se presentara primero una discusion conceptual-metodologica sobre la tematica d... more En este documento se presentara primero una discusion conceptual-metodologica sobre la tematica de calidad en el contexto de organizacion industrial y en particular en monopolios naturales regulados. Luego se ofrece la leccion que representa la regulacion de calidad en Inglaterra y Gales luego de las privatizaciones de los ochenta.

Evolución Reciente del Mercado Mundial de Vinos y el desempeño de Argentina

How did the wine world market perform in the last decades in terms of production, international t... more How did the wine world market perform in the last decades in terms of production, international trade, prices and consumption? What happened with Argentina’s wine industry in the same period? To answer these questions, we categorize countries and analyze FAO statistics from 1961 on. We verify that production, exports and consumption had displaced from traditional Old World traditional producers to New World. Production has decreased in volume, consumption has tended to reduce its dispersion regionally, the internationalization of the market had tripled in a little more than half a century and quality –proxy by export relative prices- has increased on average and has reduced its dispersion with respect to world average and to the prices of the more reputed producer and exporter. Resumen: ?Cual ha sido la evolucion del mercado mundial de vinos en las ultimas decadas en materia de produccion, comercio internacional, precios y consumo? ?Que ha ocurrido con Argentina en ese periodo? Se r...

Participación del Sector Privado y Regulación en Agua y Saneamiento en Argentina: Casos Seleccionados

Este trabajo, fue parte de un estudio financiado por el Banco Mundial para ENOHSA, referido a un ... more Este trabajo, fue parte de un estudio financiado por el Banco Mundial para ENOHSA, referido a un diagnostico rapido sobre el sector de agua y saneamiento en Argentina. En cuatro secciones, introduce al sector en Argentina, describe de la regulacion, efectua un analisis y propone medidas de politica, referidas a los casos seleccionados de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Formosa, Mendoza, Chubut, Salta y Campana (Municipio de la Provincia de Buenos Aires).

Options for Radical Reforms to Pension Systems: Chilean and Swedish Models Compared

Pension systems are under stress in the whole world. Demographic tendencies, informal labour mark... more Pension systems are under stress in the whole world. Demographic tendencies, informal labour markets, and distributive designs –inter alia-, coupled with the rigidity of the legislation, and implied financial imbalances, social debate and –sometimes-, reforms. These could be classified into two main categories: parametric and radical reforms. Two models have features to be classified as radical pension reforms in the last decades: Chilean (or AFP) and Swedish (or NDC) models. The central aim of this essay is to compare both radical reforms, at the level of “ideal types”. Doing that, some questions are answered, namely: In what feature do they have differences? Which are the incentives they set to human behaviour in order to meet the goals of the design? Are the models truly different? Which problems do they address and which to they set aside? Moreover, which problems remain unsolved, and what troubles do they add? Here, the intention is to concentrate in the technical aspects of th...

Are There Cost Differences in the Argentinean Pension Fund Industry? An Efficiency Frontier Analysis

The purpose of this paper is to study the existence of differences in costs between pension fund ... more The purpose of this paper is to study the existence of differences in costs between pension fund administrators (PFAs) through the estimation of an econometric cost frontier for Argentina. Like in other eleven Latin American, and some other Central Asian and Eastern Europe countries, the social security has been privatized, and the individual accounts of defined contribution plans are managed by PFAs. The issue is relevant because of its potential regulatory implications. Cost savings (efficiency gains) could be passed-through to contributors, increasing their pension funds (that is, their pensions at retirement). The concept is applied to utilities’ regulation in countries where price-caps are applied, and an X-factor is set by the regulator to distribute the efficiency gains, but it is not the practice in privatized social security systems. In Argentina a price-cap has been introduced in pension funds markets since a 2007 reform. Though it allows the regulator to modify that cap, ...

Sector de Agua y Saneamiento, Tarifa Social en Argentina

La economia argentina se halla en recesion desde la Crisis Financiera de Rusia, en 1998. El probl... more La economia argentina se halla en recesion desde la Crisis Financiera de Rusia, en 1998. El problema se agravo en el primer trimestre de 1999 con la devaluacion de Brasil, el principal socio comercial de Argentina, y los cambios politicos posteriores en este pais. A fines de 2001 se declaro la moratoria de la deuda y en los primeros dias de 2002 se abandono el sistema de Junta Monetaria que por once anos mantuvo fijo el tipo de cambio del peso al dolar, a una tasa de 1 por 1. Desde entonces, la moneda se ha depreciado, hasta rondar los $ 3,50-4, habiendose acumulado en el mismo periodo una inflacion minorista cercana al 30%, y una mayorista que supera el 97%.