Determinants of the cost of starting a business in Mexico

We construct a panel data at the state level in Mexico for the years 2006, 2008 and 2011 in order to investigate the impact that entry deregulation efforts have on the cost of opening new businesses in Mexico, where this cost is taken from the Doing Business in Mexico report of the World Bank. Using a model that the controls for the financial strength of the states, market profitability, regional fixed effects, and considering endogenous effects, we find that the measures of entry deregulation are strongly associated with a reduction in the cost of opening a new business

Patterns of total factor productivity growth in Mexico: 1991-2011

We review some patterns of Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth in the Mexican economy during the period 1991-2011 using the KLEMS data set published by INEGI in 2013. The data shows a strong positive correlation between TFP and output growth. As a result, tests were performed in order to determine a possible causality between these two variables, with the results not rejecting the hypothesis of causality running in both directions. Another pattern that also emerges from the data set is that TFP growth in Mexico tends to be fairly concentrated and highly irregular, as just a reduced share of the subsectors in any given time period tends to account for most of the TFP growth, and also because the distribution of their performance is far from being the same across time. These patterns are similar to those found in other data sets of the Mexican economy, as well as in data from the United States and the United Kingdom at different levels of aggregation

A new method for the estimation of variance matrix with prescribed zeros in nonlinear mixed effects models

We propose a new method for the Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE) of nonlinear mixed effects models when the variance matrix of Gaussian random effects has a prescribed pattern of zeros (PPZ). The method consists in coupling the recently developed Iterative Conditional Fitting (ICF) algorithm with the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm. It provides positive definite estimates for any sample size, and does not rely on any structural assumption on the PPZ. It can be easily adapted to many versions of EM.Comment: Accepted for publication in Statistics and Computin

Cientópolis: motorizando la ciencia ciudadana

En ciertas situaciones como la toma, clasificación y etiquetado de muestras, el científico realiza un gran número de tareas simples, repetitivas, que no pueden ser automatizadas y que podrían ser ejecutadas por personas sin formación en la materia si se las entrena y asiste con herramientas. En el pasado, en proyectos de conservación, astronomía y biología, entre otros, este tipo de tareas se ha delegado de manera efectiva a voluntarios. Cuando se convoca a ciudadanos voluntarios para colaborar con los científicos, se habla de ciencia ciudadana. Encontrar e involucrar a esos voluntarios, sumado a coordinar y reconocer su trabajo, es una tarea compleja. Definir y conducir proyectos de ciencia ciudadana presenta desafíos en tres áreas críticas: metodologías, tecnologías y construcción de comunidades de voluntarios. El proyecto Cientópolis (http://cientopolis.org) tiene como objetivo producir avances en estas tres áreas y socializarlos con la comunidad. En la actualidad, Cientópolis brinda espacios para compartir conocimiento y experiencias, ofrece herramientas para la construcción de proyectos de toma de muestras con dispositivos móviles y construcción colaborativa de conocimiento, da acceso a una comunidad creciente de ciudadanos científicos y explora estrategias de ludificación para consolidar y sostener dicha comunidad.Trabajo presentado por el Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzada (LIFIA

The Introduction of DTT in Latin America: Politics and Policies

The switch to digital terrestrial television is now a global trend. In Latin America, where the terrestrial platform has a dominant role, the introduction of DTT raises important questions for economic and industrial development, as well as pluralism. This article focuses on the earliest experiences (Brazil, México and Argentina) and those of the newcomers (Chile, Colombia and Uruguay). The aim is to outline the differences between the various political decision processes and the way with which they have been turned into communication policies, so as to draw some conclusions that contribute to visualizing the future of television in the region.Publicad

Search for Gravitational-wave Inspiral Signals Associated with Short Gamma-ray Bursts During LIGO's Fifth and Virgo's First Science Run

Progenitor scenarios for short gamma-ray bursts (short GRBs) include coalescenses of two neutron stars or a neutron star and black hole, which would necessarily be accompanied by the emission of strong gravitational waves. We present a search for these known gravitational-wave signatures in temporal and directional coincidence with 22 GRBs that had sufficient gravitational-wave data available in multiple instruments during LIGO's fifth science run, S5, and Virgo's first science run, VSR1. We find no statistically significant gravitational-wave candidates within a [ – 5, + 1) s window around the trigger time of any GRB. Using the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney U-test, we find no evidence for an excess of weak gravitational-wave signals in our sample of GRBs. We exclude neutron star-black hole progenitors to a median 90% confidence exclusion distance of 6.7 Mpc