Revistas electrónicas

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Volume 29, Issue 3, Pages 203-294 (June 2004)

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ABSTRACTS

Food losses in food service institutions Examples from Sweden
Rebecka Engström and Annika Carlsson-Kanyama.
pp. 203-213

Lowering food losses is a potential measure to overcome hunger and reduce the ecological side effects from the food system. However, few observations of food losses have been reported in the literature during recent years. We studied food losses in four food service institutions in Stockholm , Sweden . The results show that about one-fifth of the food is lost. Plate waste is the single largest source of loss, at 11-13% of the amount of food served. Losses in food service institutions can be of significant economic value, and arable land equivalent to 1.5% of the area under cultivation in Sweden may be used to produce food eventually lost in food service institutions. The results indicate that the economic and environmental consequences of current levels of food losses may be substantial. More research is needed in order to better estimate levels, devise prevention strategies and identify policy implications.

Consumer choices for quality and sustainability labelled seafood products in the UK
pp. 215-228

There has been a growing interest in recent years in the potential use of product differentiation in seafood products (mainly through eco-type labelling), as a means of promoting and rewarding the sustainable management and exploitation of fish stocks. The potential encapsulated by product differentiation has, however, yet to be tested in the market place within many countries, including the UK . This paper draws on a study exploring the nature and extent of the response of UK consumers to the introduction of labelled seafood products and explores the potential of product differentiation to promote sustainable fisheries. From the results presented in this paper, the scale of the effect has been shown to be greater for sustainability and quality forms of product differentiation than the effect generated by any of the other potential labels. The origin and mode of production also generated sizeable and significant effects. These results suggest that moves underway to implement certification schemes can be justified in support of sustainable fisheries management. The important policy implication is that improvement in the supply-side management of fisheries will be needed to facilitate more widespread adaptation of certification schemes. Nonetheless, the opportunities for higher premiums and greater market share due to certification will provide additional incentives for the required management improvements.

The development of private fresh produce safety standards: implications for developing Mediterranean exporting countries
Marian García Martinez and Nigel Poole.
pp. 229-255

Integration into global markets offers the potential for more rapid growth and poverty reduction for poorer countries. However, market barriers within advanced economies to agricultural imports have made it harder for developing countries to take full advantage of this opportunity. This article examines the impact of increasing demands for food safety and quality by European food retailers, and how the fundamental structure and culture of supplier organisations required by European retail chains are a major entry barrier for developing Mediterranean fresh produce exporting countries, and for developing countries in general. The long-term solution for such countries to sustain an international demand for their products lies in structural, strategic and procedural initiatives that build up the trust and confidence of importers/retailers in the quality and safety assurance mechanisms for their produce.

Instability in Indian agriculture-a challenge to the Green Revolution technology
Donald W. Larson, Eugene Jones, R. S. Pannu and R. S. Sheokand
pp. 257-273

The Green Revolution technology succeeded in transforming India from a large food importer and large recipient of food aid in the 1950s and 1960s, to a food secure country. Indeed, during periods of the 1980s and 1990s, India could occasionally export food. However, the Green Revolution technology may not have reduced the instability of agriculture during the last two decades. This paper examines the factors responsible for instability in area, yield and production for major crops in India from 1950-1951 to 2001-2002. This period is divided into a pre-Green Revolution and post-Green Revolution, with each period analyzed separately as well as jointly. Further, a similar analysis is done for rice yields for the top five producing states. The results show that the sources of growth of crop production have been achieved primarily from yield increases, especially since the introduction of the Green Revolution technology. Area cultivated did expand, but this expansion was not rapid enough to generate the realized production changes. Results for the Green Revolution technology impact on instability are somewhat mixed. The purest measure of crop instability, coefficient of variation, shows a decrease in production instability for wheat, total cereals, sugarcane, and total pulses for all of India . The remaining 10 crops and crop groups show an increase in production instability. Measures of dispersion for crop instability show similar results, but the interpretation of these results is less transparent because these measures involve covariances between area and yields and other interactions effects. Overall, many of the problems associated with production instability continue to persist, and the challenge to find increased stability continúes.

Farm investment, credit rationing, and governmentally promoted credit access in Poland: a cross-sectional analysis
Martin Petrick
pp. 275-294

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The aim of this paper is to empirically analyse the effects of governmentally promoted credit access on the investment behaviour of credit-rationed farmers in Poland . This is done by an econometric analysis of cross-sectional Polish farm household data. A Probit analysis revealed that the reputation of the borrower, but not the availability of land as collateral, had an effect of credit rationing. The estimates of an investment equation suggest that access to subsidised credit has a statistically significant role in determining investment behaviour of farmers. In various specifications of the credit-investment relationship, the average marginal effect of credit on investment was smaller than one, which implies that credit is partly used for purposes other than productive investment. Furthermore, investment volume is negatively related to farm size. A governmental policy which aims to promote productive investment should emphasise lending in larger amounts without discriminating against small farms.

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Volume 28, Issue 10, Pages 1925-2128 (September 2004)

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Para ingresar a la página principal de esta revista se recomienda entrar por la página de la Dirección General de Bibliotecas, UNAM
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ABSTRACTS

Equilibrium stock return dynamics under alternative rules of learning about hidden states
M.W.Michael W. Brandt, Qi Zeng and Lu Zhang
pp. 1925-1954

We examine the properties of equilibrium stock returns in an economy in which agents need to learn the hidden state of the endowment process. We consider Bayesian and suboptimal learning rules, including near-rational learning, conservatism, representativeness, optimism, and pessimism. Bayesian learning produces realistic variation in the conditional equity risk premium, return volatility, and Sharpe ratio. Alternative learning behaviors alter significantly the level and variation of the conditional return moments. However, when agents are allowed to be conscious of their learning mistakes and to price assets accordingly, the properties of returns under Bayesian and alternative learning rules are virtually indistinguishable.

A sufficient condition for the existence and the uniqueness of a solution in macroeconomic models with perfect foresight
J.-P.Jean-Pierre Laffargue
pp. 1955-1975

Macroeconomic models with perfect foresight have become easy to simulate because of the recent development of powerful algorithms. However, a priori, the existence and the uniqueness of a solution for these models are not warranted. Blanchard and Kahn established local conditions for these properties in terms of eigenvalues computed at the steady state of the model. These are easy to check. However, these conditions can be used only in linear models with coefficients independent of time. To overcome this difficulty, the usual practice has been to write a model which does not share these properties in reduced variables, to compute its linear approximation in the neighbourhood of a reference steady state and to apply Blanchard and Kahn's conditions to this approximation. However, this practice assumes that the reduced variables must converge to steady-states values. There are good reasons, both practical and economical, to question this condition and prefer the assumption that the original variables must converge to balanced growth paths. This paper provides sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of a solution satisfying this last condition of convergence

Cattle cycles, heterogeneous expectations and the age distribution of capital
David Aadland
pp. 1977-2002

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This paper builds a dynamic forward-looking model describing the approximate 10-year cattle cycle. The theoretical model improves on existing models by (1) keeping track of the age distribution of the capital stock, (2) allowing for heterogeneous expectations, and (3) recognizing that cow-calf operators make investment decisions on both the cow and calf margins. The structural parameters are estimated with GMM techniques and used to produce impulse response functions which show that the model endogenously propagates shocks to produce 10-year cattle cycles without relying on shocks that hit every 10 years. Focusing solely on several major macroeconomic shocks, I also show that the model is capable of matching the timing and amplitude of the U.S. cattle cycle.

Limited information capacity as a source of inertia
Giuseppe Moscarini
pp. 2003-2035

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We derive optimal time-dependent adjustment rules from Shannon 's (1948) Information Theory. In a continuous-time LQ prediction problem with a costly rate of information acquisition-processing, the optimal prediction evolves smoothly, but jumps at an optimally chosen frequency, when fresh information accrues. A more volatile and persistent target raises the information rate required to maintain a sampling frequency. This cost-effect moderates and may even reverse the benefit-effect on the value of information, so optimal inertia is unresponsive to and nonmonotonic in the predictability of the environment. Conventional models with a fixed cost per observation imply no such cost-effect, so inertia rises quickly in the predictability of the environment.

Optimal tax/subsidy combinations for the flu season 
P.J. Peter J. Francis
pp. 2037-2054

This paper uses a dynamic susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) epidemic model to identify optimal vaccination policy mixes for the flu season. It begins with the solution to the relevant optimal control problem and then gives the derivation of a perfect-foresight equilibrium outcome for vaccination behavior in an unregulated market. Both the optimal and market outcomes are characterized by switching curves in S - I state space; exact expressions for these are derived. The final section discusses taxes and subsidies that can be used to attain the optimal outcome.

The compound option approach to American options on jump-diffusions
C.R.Chandrasekhar Reddy Gukhal
pp. 2055-2074

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We derive analytical valuation formulas for compound options when the underlying asset follows a jump-diffusion process. We then apply these results to value extendible options, American call options on stocks that pay discrete dividends, and American options on assets that pay continuous proportional dividends. Numerical results are provided.

Learning to predict rationally when beliefs are heterogeneous 
Jan Wenzelburger
pp. 2075-2104

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This paper develops an adaptive learning scheme for an asset market with heterogeneous traders who are characterized by linear mean-variance preferences. We introduce the concept of a perfect forecasting rule which generates rational expectations for fundamentalists in the presence of investors with possibly non-rational beliefs. When these non-rational investors base their decisions on simple technical trading rules, perfect forecasting rules are approximated by successively estimating the excess demand function from historical data. Conditions are given under which trajectories generated by this adaptive learning scheme converge to trajectories with rational expectations for fundamentalists

On the relation between robust and Bayesian decision making
Klaus Adam
pp. 2105-2117

SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (259 K)

This paper compares Bayesian decision theory with robust decision theory where the decision maker optimizes with respect to the worst state realization. For a class of robust decision problems there exists a sequence of Bayesian decision problems whose solution converges towards the robust solution. It is shown that the limiting Bayesian problem displays infinite risk aversion and that decisions are insensitive (robust) to the precise assignment of prior probabilities. This holds independently of whether the preference for robustness is global or restricted to local perturbations around some reference model.

Portfolio selection subject to growth objectives
Klaus Hellwig
pp. 2119-2128

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This paper deals with the problem of how to determine a portfolio where the associated portfolio value satisfies given growth requirements. Based on a standard multiperiod model it is shown that under reasonable conditions such a portfolio exists

Editorial Board
Pages iii-iv

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Volume 74, Issue 2, Pages 269-513 (August 2004)

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ABSTRACTS

Evaluation of financial liberalization: a general equilibrium model with constrained occupation choice
Xavier Giné and Robert M. Townsend
pp. 269-307

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The objective of this paper is to assess both the aggregate growth effects and the distributional consequences of financial liberalization as observed in Thailand from 1976 to 1996. A general equilibrium occupational choice model with two sectors, one without intermediation and the other with borrowing and lending is taken to Thai data. Key parameters of the production technology and the distribution of entrepreneurial talent are estimated by maximizing the likelihood of transition into business given initial wealth as observed in two distinct datasets. Other parameters of the model are calibrated to try to match the two decades of growth as well as observed changes in inequality, labor share, savings and the number of entrepreneurs. Without an expansion in the size of the intermediated sector, Thailand would have evolved very differently, namely, with a drastically lower growth rate, high residual subsistence sector, non-increasing wages but lower inequality. The financial liberalization brings welfare gains and losses to different subsets of the population. Primary winners are talented would-be entrepreneurs who lack credit and cannot otherwise go into business (or invest little capital). Mean gains for these winners range from 17% to 34% of observed, overall average household income. But liberalization also induces greater demand by entrepreneurs for workers resulting in increases in the wage and lower profits of relatively rich entrepreneurs, of the same order of magnitude as the observed overall average income of firm owners. Foreign capital has no significant impact on growth or the distribution of observed income.

Growth and shocks: evidence from rural Ethiopia
Stefan Dercon
pp. 309-329

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Using panel data from rural Ethiopia , the article discusses the determinants of consumption growth (1989-1997), based on a microgrowth model, controlling for heterogeneity. Consumption grew substantially, but with diverse experiences across villages and individuals. Rainfall shocks have a substantial impact on consumption growth, which persists for many years. There also is a persistent growth impact from the large-scale famine in the 1980s, as well as substantial externalities from road infrastructure. The persistent effects of rainfall shocks and the famine crisis imply that welfare losses due to the lack of insurance and protection measures are well beyond the welfare cost of short-term consumption fluctuations

Trade reforms and wage inequality in Colombia
Orazio Attanasio, Pinelopi K. Goldberg and Nina Pavcnik
pp. 331-366
SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (307 K)

We investigate the effects of the drastic tariff reductions of the 1980s and 1990s in Colombia on the wage distribution. We identify three main channels through which the wage distribution was affected: increasing returns to college education, changes in industry wages that hurt sectors with initially lower wages and a higher fraction of unskilled workers, and shifts of the labor force towards the informal sector that typically pays lower wages and offers no benefits. Our results suggest that trade policy played a role in each of the above cases. The increase in the skill premium was primarily driven by skilled-biased technological change; however, our evidence suggests that this change may have been in part motivated by the tariff reductions and the increased foreign competition to which the trade reform exposed domestic producers. With respect to industry wages, we find that wage premiums decreased by more in sectors that experienced larger tariff cuts. Finally, we find some evidence that the increase in the size of the informal sector is related to increased foreign competition-sectors with larger tariff cuts and more trade exposure, as measured by the size of their imports, experience a greater increase in informality, though this effect is concentrated in the years prior to the labor market reform. Nevertheless, increasing returns to education, and changes in industry premiums and informality alone cannot fully explain the increase in wage inequality we observe over this period. This suggests that overall the effect of the trade reforms on the wage distribution may have been small.

Global corporations and local politics: income redistribution vs. FDI subsidies
Eckhard Janeba
pp. 367-391

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Income inequality has been used empirically to explain the mixed performance of developing countries in attracting FDI. This paper sets up a theoretical model that links the skewness of the income distribution to a host government's willingness to subsidize FDI. Large skewness makes government subsidies less likely because the median income person prefers redistribution. Little skewness, however, does not guarantee FDI. In addition, host governments may switch from positive to no subsidies if a shift in economic variables changes how the policymaker trades off the FDI benefits and income redistribution, thereby offering an alternative to the conventional hold-up story.

Activation of a modern industry
Ping Wang and Danyang Xie
pp. 393-410

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This paper constructs an integrated framework to disentangle the underlying economic mechanism of industrial transformation. We consider three essential elements for the analysis: skill requirements, industry-wide spillovers and degrees of consumption subsistence. We find that human and nonhuman resources, production factor matching and industrial coordination are all important for activating a modern industry. In the process of industrial transformation, job destruction may exceed job creation, and income distribution may get worse immediately following the activation of a modern industry. An array of policy prescriptions for advancing a poor country is provided.

Taxation by auction: fund raising by 19th century Indian guilds
Arijit Sen and Anand V. Swamy
pp. 411-428

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We describe a unique institution used by 19th century Indian guilds to raise funds: on certain holidays only one shop was allowed to operate; an auction would be held to sell this right, and the winning bid would go to the guild fund. We compare this "taxation by auction" mechanism with more conventional tax schemes and show that under certain conditions, not only will a majority of guild members prefer to be taxed via an auction, but that this form of taxation will be more equitable.

Does one size fit all?: a reexamination of the finance and growth relationship
Felix Rioja and Neven Valev
pp. 429-447

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Recent research has found a strong positive effect of a country's financial development on economic growth. We propose that this relationship may vary according to the level of financial development (divided in three regions). In the low region (countries with very low levels of financial development), additional improvements in financial markets have an uncertain effect on growth. In the intermediate region, financial development has a large, positive effect on growth. Finally, in the high region, the effect is positive, but smaller. We examine a panel of 74 countries using generalized method of moments (GMM) dynamic panel techniques and find support for the different regions

Household bargaining and microfinance
Eric Van Tassel
pp. 449-468

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This paper examines a household bargaining problem where one household member can use external finance to invest in an uncertain business project. Faced with limited income generating opportunities, we show that the household member will consistently choose safe investment projects. We also explain why other members of the household can be made worse off from investment, even when aggregate household consumption is expected to rise. In a dynamic version of the bargaining problem, we study incentives for the household to contribute towards loan repayments and identify conditions under which the borrower will transfer control over her loan to her partner.

Eviction threats and investment incentives
Abhijit V. Banerjee and Maitreesh Ghatak
pp. 469-488

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We show that the effect of eviction threats on unobservable investment effort can be positive. We demonstrate this apparently counter-intuitive result in a model of tenancy where investment by a tenant in the current period raises the chances of doing well in the next period, and therefore retaining the job in the period after next period. If the tenant earns rents, the landlord can partly substitute eviction threats for the crop share as an incentive device. This makes it more attractive for him to elicit investment effort. However, there is a direct negative effect of eviction threats on the tenant's discount factor. We find conditions under which the former effect dominates and eviction threats can increase investment incentives.

Are experience and schooling complementary? Evidence from migrants' assimilation in the Bangkok labor market
Futoshi Yamauchi
pp. 489-513

This paper models the assimilation process of migrants and shows evidence of the complementarity between their destination experience and upon-arrival human capital. Bayesian learning is assessed, using panel data of wages from Bangkok , Thailand . It is found that (i) schooling returns are lower for migrants than for natives, (ii) the accumulation of destination experience raises wages for migrants, (iii) the experience effect is greater for more educated agents and (iv) the complementarity increases as destination experience accumulates. The results imply that more educated migrants have higher learning efficiency and can perform tasks of greater complexity, ultimately yielding higher wage growth in the destination market.

Editorial Board
Page CO2

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Elsevier announces participation in AGORA  (PUBLISHER'S NOTE)
Pages I-II

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Volume 73, Issue 2, Pages 201-407 (August 2004)

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ABSTRACTS

Firm size and the gains from acquisitions
Sara B. Moeller, Frederik P. Schlingemann and René M. Stulz
pp. 201-228

PDF (297 K)

We examine a sample of 12,023 acquisitions by public firms from 1980 to 2001. The equally weighted abnormal announcement return is 1.1%, but acquiring-firm shareholders lose $25.2 million on average upon announcement. This disparity suggests the existence of a size effect in acquisition announcement returns. The announcement return for acquiring-firm shareholders is roughly two percentage points higher for small acquirers irrespective of the form of financing and whether the acquired firm is public or private. The size effect is robust to firm and deal characteristics, and it is not reversed over time.

New lists: Fundamentals and survival rates
Eugene F. Fama and Kenneth R. French
pp. 229-269

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The class of firms that obtain public equity financing expands dramatically in the 1980s and 1990s. The number of new firms listed on major U.S. stock markets jumps from 156 per year for 1973-1979 to 549 per year for 1980-2001. The characteristics of new lists also change. The cross section of profitability becomes progressively more left skewed, and growth becomes more right skewed. The result is a sharp decline in survival rates. We suggest that the changes in the characteristics of new lists are due to a decline in the cost of equity that allows weaker firms and firms with more distant expected payoffs to issue public equity.

Appearing and disappearing dividends: The link to catering incentives
Malcolm Baker and Jeffrey Wurgler
pp. 271-288

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We document a close link between fluctuations in the propensity to pay dividends and catering incentives. First, we use the methodology of Fama and French (J. Finan. Econ. (2001)) to identify a total of four distinct trends in the propensity to pay dividends between 1963 and 2000. Second, we show that each of these trends lines up with a corresponding fluctuation in catering incentives: The propensity to pay increases when a proxy for the stock market dividend premium is positive and decreases when it is negative. The lone disconnect is attributable to Nixon-era controls.

Why constrain your mutual fund manager?
Andres Almazan, Keith C. Brown, Murray Carlson and David A. Chapman
pp. 289-321

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We examine the form, adoption rates, and economic rationale for various mutual fund investment restrictions. A sample of U.S. domestic equity funds from 1994 to 2000 reveals systematic patterns in investment constraints, consistent with an optimal contracting equilibrium in the fund industry. Restrictions are more common when (i) boards contain a higher proportion of inside directors, (ii) the portfolio manager is more experienced, (iii) the fund is managed by a team rather than an individual, and (iv) the fund does not belong to a large organizational complex. Low- and high-constraint funds produce similar risk-adjusted returns, also consistent with an optimal contracting equilibrium.

The costs of shared ownership: Evidence from international joint ventures
Mihir A. Desai, C. Fritz Foley and James R. Hines, Jr.
pp. 323-374

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This paper analyzes the determinants of partial ownership of the foreign affiliates of U.S. multinational firms and, in particular, the marked decline in the use of joint ventures over the last 20 years. The evidence indicates that whole ownership is most common when firms coordinate integrated production activities across different locations, transfer technology, and benefit from worldwide tax planning. Because operations and ownership levels are jointly determined, it is helpful to use the liberalization of ownership restrictions by host countries and the imposition of joint venture tax penalties in the U.S. Tax Reform Act of 1986 as instruments for ownership levels to identify these effects. Firms responded to these regulatory and tax changes by using wholly owned affiliates instead of joint ventures and expanding intrafirm trade and technology transfer. The implied complementarity of whole ownership and intrafirm trade suggests that the reduced costs of engaging in integrated global operations contributed substantially to the sharply declining propensity of American firms to organize their foreign operations as joint ventures over the last two decades. Estimates imply that as much as one-fifth to three-fifths of the decline in the use of joint ventures by multinational firms is attributable to the increased importance of intrafirm transactions. The forces of globalization appear to have diminished, rather than accelerated, the use of shared ownership.

Grandstanding, certification and the underpricing of venture capital backed IPOs
Peggy M. Lee and Sunil Wahal
pp. 375-407

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We examine the role of venture capital backing in the underpricing of IPOs. Controlling for endogeneity in the receipt of venture funding, we find that venture capital backed IPOs experience larger first-day returns than comparable non-venture backed IPOs. Between 1980 and 2000, the average return difference ranges from 5.01 percentage points to 10.32 percentage points. This return difference is particularly pronounced in the "bubble" period of 1999-2000. Consistent with the grandstanding hypothesis proposed by Gompers (J. Financial Econ. 42 (1996) 133), we find that higher underpricing leads to larger future flows of capital into venture capital funds, particularly after 1996. Cross-sectionally, the effect of underpricing is attenuated for younger venture capital firms and those that have previously conducted fewer IPOs

Editorial Board

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Volume 36 - Issue 03 - August 2004

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ABSTRACTS

The Ombudsman in Latin America
FREDRIK UGGLA
Published Online: 05 Aug 2004 pp. 423-450
[ PDF ]

During the last 20 years ombudsmen have been established in most Latin American countries. This article provides an overview of the how these institutions have evolved in six countries, particularly with regard to their political independence and strength. In spite of the potentially important role that such institutions may have in promoting public accountability, respect for human rights and the rule of law in new democracies, some ombudsmen have been more successful than others in these tasks. This article reflects on possible factors accounting for the relative effectiveness of the ombudsman, and discusses the role that this institution plays in contemporary Latin America

The Evolution of Judicial Autonomy in Argentina : Establishing the Rule of Law in an Ultrapresidential System
REBECCA BILL CHAVEZ
Published Online: 05 Aug 2004 pp. 451-478

[ abstract ] [ PDF ]

This article uses a diachronic study of Argentina to explain how the nascent democracies of Latin America build the rule of law. The changing relationship between Argentina 's executive and judicial branches demonstrates that the construction of the rule of law is not a linear process. There have been periods of regression away from, as well as progress towards, the rule of law. This article uses party competition to explain Argentina 's varying levels of judicial independence. The rule of law results from a balance of power between at least two political parties, neither of which has monolithic control, meaning that no highly disciplined party sustains control of both the executive and legislative branches. Competitive politics creates a climate in which an autonomous judiciary can emerge.

The Pinochet Case and Human Rights Progress in Chile : Was Europe a Catalyst, Cause or Inconsequential?
DAVID PION-BERLIN
Published Online: 05 Aug 2004 pp. 479-505
[ abstract ] [ PDF ]

This article assesses the impact, if any, of Spanish and British Court rulings on the Pinochet case on human rights progress in Chilean courts. Chilean judges chafe at the notion that foreign courts exerted any influence on them, arguing that, based solely on Chilean law and the evidence already before them, they were empowered to strip Pinochet of his immunity, and proceeded to do so. Human rights critics allege that the courts had been thoroughly immobilised by the authoritarian legacy to which they were enjoined. No progress at all would have occurred were it not for the dramatic verdicts handed down in British courts. The author contends that change was underfoot in Chile prior to Pinochet's arrest in London , but that Europe set Chile on a faster and steeper trajectory toward justice than would have been possible otherwise. It did so by shaming the Chilean Government into pressuring its own high courts to deliver a modicum of justice to the victims of Pinochet.

The Best Laid Schemes . Gang Aft A-gley: Judicial Reform in Latin America - Evidence from Costa Rica
BRUCE M. WILSON, JUAN CARLOS RODRÍGUEZ CORDERO, ROGER HANDBERG
Published Online: 05 Aug 2004 pp. 507-531
[ abstract ] [ PDF ]

Judicial independence is a means to a strong judicial institution, which is a means to personal liberty and prosperity.' United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer.

Starting in the 1980s, and accelerating through the 1990s, international financial institutions (IFIs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and development agencies funnelled considerable resources into judicial reform and rule of law programmes in virtually every Latin American and Caribbean country. The assumption was that reformed court systems would foster free market economic development strategies. This article examines the impact of two frequently advocated aspects of judicial reform, judicial access and judicial independence, on economic policy making in Costa Rica . We argue that there is a potentially significant disjuncture between the sponsors' expectations of the judicial reforms' economic impact and the observed outcomes.

Chicken Thieves, Witches, and Judges: Vigilante Justice and Customary Law in Guatemala
JIM HANDY
Published Online: 05 Aug 2004 pp. 533-561

This article explores the reasons for the spread of vigilante justice ( linchamientos ) in contemporary Guatemala . It investigates three specific linchamientos and suggests that the roots of such vigilante justice lie in a collapsing peasant economy, insecurity of all sorts, and an unravelling of the social fabric in rural communities through the militarisation of rural Guatemala.
The article also argues that linchamientos are caused partly by a conflict over the attempts by the Guatemalan state to impose a certain type of order in rural Guatemala . It discusses the literature on customary law, in Guatemala and in various other locales around the world, and suggests that attempts to impose a state sanctioned legal system without adequate provision for customary law has helped contribute to a perception that the legal system is illegitimate, not just incompetent.

(Commentary) The Principle of Consent in Latin and Anglo-American Independence
JOSÉ CARLOS CHIARAMONTE*
Published Online: 05 Aug 2004 pp. 563-586
[ abstract] [ PDF ]

This commentary aimed originally to compare the function of the principle of consent in Latin and Anglo-American history. Yet, as it developed, I could no longer ignore the reasons behind the neglect of the close links between the principle of consent and the law of nature and nations. I grew increasingly interested in a comparison between this and another equally interesting anomaly emerging from it: the limitations nationalism has imposed on historians in studying their national histories. The end result has been to use my original subject as a means to reflect on some of the presuppositions that can limit historical research.