In this article, we empirically analyze the impact of central and subnational government spending on human development in a sample of 57 developed and developing countries over the period 2000-18. Specifically, we focus on the effects of health and education public expenditure on the Human Development Index (HDI) and its dimensions (life expectancy, education, and income). Applying data panel analysis, our empirical evidence shows the importance of central and subnational government health expenditure positively impacting on HDI and each of its components, while in the case of the education expenditure, this positive effect is only confirmed on the educational dimension of HDI. Our study shows how governments can stimulate human development, improving the well-being of citizens, by allocating more resources to healthcare through the different administrative levels.

Commodity exports depend on global demand and prices, but the increasing volatility of real exchange rates (RER) introduces an additional factor. Thus, this paper studies the RER volatility dynamics, estimated through GARCH and IGARCH models for Brazil, Chile, New Zealand, and Uruguay from 1990 to 2013. We study the impact of RER volatility on total exports using Johansen's methodology, including proxies for global demand and international prices. The results suggest that exports depend positively on global demand and international prices for all countries; however, conditional RER volatility resulted significant and negative only for Uruguay, in the short-and long-run.

El impacto de la incertidumbre del tipo de cambio sobre las exportaciones: un análisis de panel VAR

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This paper analyses the empirical trade-offs between equity and efficiency of various instruments of welfare state fiscal policies. To this end, we present and estimate different systems of structural equations and their error components through which these fiscal policies affect redistribution and economic growth. The empirical results, obtained by using a panel data of 35 high-and upper-middle-income countries over the period 1980-2014, suggest that not all policies depress economic growth rates. In relation to cash transfer variables, we can observe a significant empirical trade-off of old-age-related transfers. However, we do not find a significant equity-efficiency trade-off for working-age transfers. This variable has only a significant and positive effect in the redistribution equation, but does not affect the economic growth rate. If we consider measures of direct taxes, we find a significant and important trade-off for social contributions, and to a lesser extent for income taxes. We do not find a significant trade-off for capital taxes. These taxes only have a significant and negative unexpected effect on redistribution.