The objective of this research is to evaluate the impact of the Innovative Entrepreneurship instrument, implemented by the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII by its Spanish acronym) of Uruguay. This study presents several significant contributions. First, it uses data from innovative start-ups funded between 2008 and 2021, which were compiled into one of the largest databases used for this type of research. As well, an innovative econometric technique is applied that allows to work with unbalanced panels —an especially important aspect when analyzing a program that supports innovative start-ups, for which mortality rate is high— while also estimating the duration of the treatment effect. The findings provide evidence of investment leverage in innovation activities of 195%, indicating that firms supplement public funds with their own resources. Furthermore, it is observed that participation in the program induces persistent changes in the innovative behavior of companies, which persist over time. No impacts were found on the economic performance of companies.

This paper analyzes the evolution of wage inequality in Uruguay across generations using synthetic cohorts. Using repeated cross sections we study income dispersion amongst individuals born between 1924 and 1991. A decomposition methodology was used to disentangle the period, age and cohort effects. The results show that inequality, measured by the variance of log-earnings, increases steadily when comparing younger to older generations. This result is caused by an increase of the dispersion in the low and medium part of the income distribution and a rise in the ratio between high and low income percentiles. In order to explain the evolution of observed inequality between cohorts, variables related to human capital literature were used. Changes in the average years of education, its dispersion and returns to schooling explain the observed pattern in wage inequality across generations entirely.

This paper presents evidence that female researchers have 7.1 percentage points lower probability of being accepted into the largest national research support program in Uruguay than male researchers.They also have lower research productivity than their male counterparts.Differences in observable characteristics explain 4.9 of the 7.1 percentage point gap.The gender gap is wider at the higher ranks of the program consistent with the existence of a glass ceiling.The results are robust to issues of bidirectionality (impact of research productivity on the probability of accessing the program and impact of the program on research productivity), joint determination and correlation of variables (e.g.having a Ph.D., publishing, and tutoring), and initial productivity effects (positive results at early stages may have long-term effects on career development).The paper presents three hypotheses for the gender gap (an original sin in the organization of the system, biases in the composition of evaluation committees, and differences in field of concentration) and finds some evidence for each.Glass ceilings are stronger in the fields where women are overrepresented among the applicants to the system: medical sciences, natural sciences, and humanities.Finally, it presents a counterfactual distribution of the program in the absence of discriminatory treatment of women and discusses the economic costs of the gender gap.

espanolEl presente trabajo analiza la evolucion de la distribucion salarial en Uruguay por generaciones. Utilizando cortes transversales repetidos se estudio la desigualdad de ingresos para los indivi-duos nacidos entre 1924 y 1991 y se vinculo con variables relevantes en la teoria del capital humano. Aplicando una metodologia de descomposicion se separo esta evolucion en los efectos cohorte, edad y periodo. Los resultados muestran que la desigualdad, medida por la varianza del logaritmo del ingreso, aumenta sostenidamente a lo largo de las generaciones. Dicho crecimiento se explica por aumentos de la desigualdad en la parte baja y media de la distribucion y por un aumento en el ratio de ingresos los percentiles mas altos respecto de los mas bajos. La evolucion de los anos de educacion promedio, su dispersion y los retornos a la educacion permiten logran explicar el patron observado en la desigualdad por generaciones en su totalidad. EnglishThis paper analyzes the evolution of wage inequality in Uruguay across generations using syn-thetic cohorts. Using repeated cross sections we study income dispersion amongst individuals born between 1924 and 1991. A decomposition methodology was used to disentangle the period, age and cohort effects. The results show that inequality, measured by the variance of log-earn-ings, increases steadily when comparing younger to older generations. This result is caused by an increase of the dispersion in the low and medium part of the income distribution and a rise in the ratio between high and low income percentiles. In order to explain the evolution of observed inequality between cohorts, variables related to human capital literature were used. Changes in the average years of education, its dispersion and returns to schooling explain the observed pat-tern in wage inequality across generations entirely

This paper analyzes the effects of financial and nonfinancial obstacles to innovation on Uruguayan firms. We contribute to the literature by including the role of systemic and institutional factors affecting the different stages of the innovation process. The empirical analysis is based on four waves of national innovation surveys covering firms in the industry and services sector. In line with recent studies, we confine our analysis to the relevant sample of potentially innovative firms. Our results show that market, financial, knowledge, and context obstacles are the most important factors reducing innovation propensity and the amount invested in innovation activities. The effects are similar for firms in the industry and services sectors. We do not find evidence that institutional factors hamper innovation. Investment in equipment and investment in R&D and other intangible activities are affected differently by obstacles. On the other hand, innovation outcomes are affected mainly by financial and market-related barriers. We do not find evidence that obstacles to innovation have a significant impact on labor productivity.

The goal of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the innovation promotion programs carried by the National Research and Innovation Agency (ANII). A combination of non-experimental methods was used to quantify the effects of public support to innovation in three dimensions of the firms’ behavior: innova-tion investment, innovation results and economic performance. The results show evidence of crowding-in of public support to innovation. Also, beneficiaries of the programs show larger probability of successfully introducing new products and processes. We do not find impact in the economic performance indicators of the firms.

This paper presents evidence that female researchers have 7.1 percentage points lower probability of being accepted into the largest national research support program in Uruguay than male researchers. They also have lower research productivity than their male counterparts. Differences in observable characteristics explain 4.9 of the 7.1 percentage point gap. The gender gap is wider at the higher ranks of the program consistent with the existence of a glass ceiling. The results are robust to issues of bidirectionality (impact of research productivity on the probability of accessing the program and impact of the program on research productivity), joint determination and correlation of variables (e.g. having a Ph.D., publishing, and tutoring), and initial productivity effects (positive results at early stages may have long-term effects on career development). The paper presents three hypotheses for the gender gap (an original sin in the organization of the system, biases in the composition of evaluation committees, and differences in field of concentration) and finds some evidence for each. Glass ceilings are stronger in the fields where women are overrepresented among the applicants to the system: medical sciences, natural sciences, and humanities. Finally, it presents a counterfactual distribution of the program in the absence of discriminatory treatment of women and discusses the economic costs of the gender gap. JEL codes: J16, J4, J71

How the entrepreneurship rate changes with age and the business cycle has been theoretically and empirically studied. On the other hand, cohort effects have been mostly neglected in the literature. Cohort effects are intrinsic generation characteristics that follow individuals over their lifetime and the business cycles. We propose a methodology to differentiate between age, time (business cycle) and cohort effects in entrepreneurship. We find that time effects are highly correlated with GDP growth. Age effects show and inverse U shaped with maximum between 40 and 50 years. In Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay we find decreasing entrepreneurship in younger cohorts, and almost no change in Peru and Chile.

Esta investigacion tiene como objetivo evaluar los impactos de los instrumentos de promocion de la innovacion empresarial implementados por la Agencia Nacional de Investigacion e Innovacion (ANII). Si bien la ANII implementa multiples instrumentos, este trabajo se enfoca en aquellos que proveen incentivos financieros a las empresas de manera individual para apoyar la innovacion y la mejora de su competitividad. Una caracteristica a destacar de la presente investigacion es la construccion de un panel con empresas postulantes a la ANII (beneficiarias y no beneficiarias) a las cuales se aplico la Encuesta de Actividades de Innovacion, en los periodos 2007-2009 y 2010-2012, de modo de seguir el desempeno innovador y economico de las mismas a lo largo del tiempo. Dado el horizonte temporal disponible para la evaluacion, los impactos encontrados se han centrado en el corto plazo. Los resultados muestran que los instrumentos de la ANII han sido efectivos en incrementar las inversiones en investigacion y desarrollo (I+D) y las actividades de innovacion de las empresas beneficiarias. Ademas, la participacion en el programa de la ANII es significativa para mejorar el desempeno innovador de estas firmas, en cuanto a la introduccion de nuevos productos al mercado.

This paper studies the causal relationship between air transport demand and economic growth in Italy for the period 1971-2012. Johansen cointegration analysis shows the existence of one cointegrated vector between real GDP and air transport (represented by aircrafts movements) where the corresponding elasticities are positive. The Granger Causality test shows that causality goes unidirectionally from air-transport to GDP. The results imply that Italy can improve its economic growth performance by strategically harnessing the contribution of the air transport industry and improving their governance performance. Although air transport industry has grown significantly in Italy, there are no empirical analyses, to our knowledge, regarding European region as an entire case of study, neither the particular case of Italy. Therefore, the value of this work is that it deals with the dynamics between the air transport sector and the Italian economy.

Esta investigación tiene como objetivo evaluar los impactos de los instrumentos de promoción de la innovación empresarial implementados por la Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (ANII). Si bien la ANII implementa múltiples instrumentos, este trabajo se enfoca en aquellos que proveen incentivos financieros a las empresas de manera individual para apoyar la innovación y la mejora de su competitividad. Una característica a destacar de la presente investigación es la construcción de un panel con empresas postulantes a la ANII (beneficiarias y no beneficiarias) a las cuales se aplicó la Encuesta de Actividades de Innovación, en los períodos 2007-2009 y 2010-2012, de modo de seguir el desempeño innovador y económico de las mismas a lo largo del tiempo. Dado el horizonte temporal disponible para la evaluación, los impactos encontrados se han centrado en el corto plazo. Los resultados muestran que los instrumentos de la ANII han sido efectivos en incrementar las inversiones en investigación y desarrollo (I+D) y las actividades de innovación de las empresas beneficiarias. Además, la participación en el programa de la ANII es significativa para mejorar el desempeño innovador de estas firmas, en cuanto a la introducción de nuevos productos al mercado.

The cruise industry has become a significant component of the Uruguayan tourism economy in the last few years. The present study aims to provide a better understanding of the cruise industry by considering the expenditure of cruise ship passengers disembarking in the ports of call of Montevideo and Punta del Este as a key variable in the economic analysis of the cost and benefits. We estimate two cross-sectional regression models for the cruise expenditures, showing that the group size the visitors travel with and the mobility the visitors have within the country are the most important variables to explain individual expenditure behaviour. Also, we include some managerial recommendations that policy makers could implement in order to improve the economic profits derived from cruise ship tourism.

This paper follows an income-based, time-dependence approach to measure social mobility in Uruguay between 1982 and 2010. The paper finds that social mobility in Uruguay is considerable and reports evidence suggesting that this mobility is greater within cohorts of groups, such as those defined by gender or region, than between groups. Entrepreneurship and self-employment are associated with greater social mobility.

Resumen es: En el correr de los ultimos anos la cantidad de cruceros arribados a puertos de Uruguay ha aumentado significativamente, convirtiendo a este sector del t...

The cruise industry has become a significant component of the Colombian tourism economy and Cartagena de Indias has become the largest cruise port in the country. This paper provides a better understanding of the cruise industry by considering the expenditures of cruise ship passengers disembarking in Cartagena de Indias as a key variable in the economic analysis of the costs and benefits. The authors estimate two cross-sectional regression models for the cruising expenditure, showing the existence of different tourist profiles related to different expenditure levels. In particular, heavy spenders are distinguishable from the other segments in terms of age, hours spent off the ship, nationality, income levels and spending patterns.

Given the rapid growth of the cruise activity in the world, governments and other policy actors involved in this type of tourism have noted the necessity of knowing the form and magnitude of the different impacts that the cruise activity produces on the different destinations. In particular, to clearly understand how the cruisers spend their money during the stay in the port, this is essential information to the actors involved in the management and development of this activity. The aim of this paper is to analyze the profiles of tourists related to different types of expenditure of passengers arriving in cruise ships to Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. Between September 27 and November 14 of 2009 visitors returning to the cruise ship completed 1361 questionnaires just minutes before their departure. The results show that the heavy spender segment can be distinguished from the rest of the cruisers by the following characteristics: a) they spent more on jewelry and, in general, they spent more on all categories; b) they were younger; c) they have high income; d) the heavy spenders in jewelry are females residents in the USA; e) they are traveling in their first or second cruise; f) they stayed longer at destination; and g) they tend to travel in groups.

Dado el rapido crecimiento de la actividad de los cruceros en el mundo, gobiernos y demas actores involucrados en esta tipologia del turismo han visto la necesidad de conocer mas a fondo la forma y magnitud de los diferentes impactos que el crucerismo produce en los diferentes destinos. En particular, entender claramente como los cruceristas gastan su dinero durante su estadia en un puerto, es una informacion esencial para los diferentes actores involucrados en la gestion y desarrollo de esta actividad. El objetivo de este articulo es analizar el perfil de turistas en relacion a los diferentes gastos realizados por quienes llegan en cruceros a Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. Para esto se entregaron 1361 cuestionarios entre el 27 de septiembre y el 14 de noviembre de 2009 para ser completados minutos antes de regresar al barco. Los resultados muestran que el segmento de grandes consumidores puede ser distinguido del resto de los cruceristas por las siguientes caracteristicas: a) gastan mas en joyas y, en general, gastan mas en todas las categorias; b) son mas jovenes; c) tienen ingresos altos; d) los grandes consumidores en joyas son mujeres residentes en Estados Unidos; e) viajan por primera o segunda vez en un crucero; f) permanecieron un periodo mas extenso en Cartagena de Indias; g) tienden a viajar en grupos