This paper studies the impact of product and labor market regulations on informality and unemployment in a general framework where formal and informal firms are subject to the same externalities, differing only with respect to some parameter values. Both formal and informal firms have monopoly...

The Brazilian economy grew 7.5% in 2010, when Mr. Lula finished his second mandate as president with a popularity rate of 85%. Six years later, his successor, Ms. Rousseff, is suspended from the presidency under an impeachment trial, while the economy endures a recession of 3.8% of the GDP for...

In the transfer problem debate with Keynes, Ohlin suggests that income effects should lessen relative price variations necessary to produce trade surpluses, and that that impact is related to the degree of openness of the economy. We illustrate this mechanism in a simple model, and take it to...

This paper presents a theoretical model based on the distributive effects of real exchange rate (RER) changes that generates RER electoral cycles of the type identified in Latin American countries: more appreciated RER before elections and more depreciated after elections. Typically, a RER...