This paper extends the methodology first proposed by Ahmad and Stern for the design of tax reforms that are optimal at the margin. The extension centers on a sharper approximation of welfare measures. The original approach and its variant are illustrated in the case of the current Mexican tax...

This paper proposes some changes to the official methodology that is currently in use to measure the state of poverty in Mexico. Among other suggestions, it is recommended the use of bootstrapping to estimate confidence intervals for the poverty statistics, as well as the use of dominance...

This paper characterizes a class of multivariate distributions that includes the multinormal and is contained in the exponential family. The wide range of possible applications of these distributions is suggested by some of the characteristics germane to them: First, they maximize Shannon's...

This note warns about the careless computation of poverty indexes when the welfare of each household is measured by its net income, since this can be negative. As is illustrated in the case of Mexico, even if only a handful of households report negative incomes, the resulting poverty aggregates,...

The purpose of this paper is to make an appraisal of the tax reforms that took place in Mexico in the eighties and the beginning of the nineties, putting emphasis on their macroeconomic consequences. The paper also examines the pattern of government expenditures along the last three presidential...

This paper provides omnibus tests for multivariate normality of both observations and residuals. They are derived by considering as the alternatives to the multivariate normal a class of maximum-entropy distributions studied elsewhere by the author. The tests, being Lagrange multiplier...

This paper contains a GAUSS program that can be used, among other things, to find equilibria for computable general equilibrium models, and fix-price equilibria for general non-Walrasian models. Simple applications for those two cases, as well as for linear and quadratic programming, are also...

Vector autoregressive models are often used in Macroeconomics to draw conclusions about the effects of policy innovations. However, those results depend on the researcher’s priors about the particular ordering of the variables. As an alternative, this paper presents a simple rule based on the...

It is noted that the regression procedure commonly used when testing for Zipf’s law is erroneous.

This paper aims at identifying attributes of players in franchising process that contribute in delivering satisfaction in purchasing and operating the outlets in Mexico. The discussion also focuses the impact of cultural diversities in franchisee selection, outlet management and achieving high...