Mauricio G. Villena

Diego Portales University · Faculty of Economics and Business

We exploit a national administrative dataset to estimate labour supply elasticities at the firm level in Chile, distinguishing for the first time the source of separation (quits versus layoffs), which is crucial as only the former is consistent with employees’ responses to changes in wages. Our results suggest that labour supply elasticities increa...

We formally model a Cournot duopoly market in which a corporate socially responsible (CSR) firm interacts with a profit-maximizing firm and where the market is regulated with an emission tax. We consider three different kinds of CSR firm behaviors: (i) consumer-friendly; (ii) environmentally-friendly; and (iii) consumer-environmentally friendly. Un...

We model how individual preferences are shaped by strategic reciprocity choices. Our model accounts for heterogeneous players — with intrinsic altruistic, selfish or spiteful preferences —who randomly engage in short-run, as well as long-run, pairwise interactions. To disentangle the strategic component of preferences we allow players to act recipr...

The main aim of this work is to explain the Chilean gender wage gap using a dynamic monopsony model to estimate the labour supply elasticities at the firm level. Our results suggest that the elasticities of labour supply to firms are small, which implies that firms have labour market power. We also found that Chilean men would earn approximately 22...

We present a theoretical model of corruption in organizations. Our specific focus is the role of incentives that aim to encourage whistleblowing behaviour. Corruption is modelled as a social norm of behaviour using evolutionary game theory. In particular, the dynamics of whistleblowing behaviour is captured using the replicator dynamics equation wi...

Previous empirical evidence on municipal efficiency mostly uses cross-sectional data which makes it impossible to separate unobserved heterogeneity from inefficiency. Furthermore, they also typically use a two-stage approach which has been widely criticized as the assumptions in the first stage are violated in the second stage, generating biased re...

The main aim of this paper is to present a longitudinal analysis of the AmericaEconomia MBA Ranking for the period 2005–2014. AmericaEconomia was the first international ranking specifically devoted to Latin American business schools, and with data gathered from this publication, we build a panel to study its stability and the main determinants of...

We propose a game-theoretic model of reciprocity and trust that incorporates personality traits. In the model, positive and negative reciprocity are “reciprocal preferences:” parameters of heterogeneous utility functions that take into account the material welfare of others (positively if they have been kind, negatively if they have been hostile)....

This paper analyzes the political support for different funding regimes of education in a one‐person, one‐vote democracy. We focus the analysis on four systems that have had a preponderant presence in the political debate on education: a private system, a public system that delivers the same resources to each student (universal‐free education), a p...

In several countries governments fund childcare provision but in many others it is privately funded as labor regulation mandates that firms have to provide childcare services. For this later case, there is no empirical evidence on the effects generated by the financial burden of childcare provision. In particular, there is no evidence on who effect...

Thermal energy storage systems (TES) are a key component of concentrated solar power (CSP) plants that generally use a NaNO3/KNO3 mixture also known as solar salt as a thermal storage material. Improvements in TES materials are important to lower CSP costs, increase energy efficiency and competitiveness with other technologies. A novel alternative...

The growth of urban areas adjacent to forest areas, as well as international trade growth, has accelerated the demand for food. These areas of growth have led to the deforestation of tropical forests, a process that contributes negatively to climate change, and a decline in the provision of environmental services and biodiversity. This article seek...

The basic research question behind this work is how the economic value of an environmental good differs considering surrounding beneficiaries (those who live near the good in question) and not surrounding beneficiaries (who inhabit the country where the good is, living in distant communities and therefore rarely enjoying the benefits provided by th...

This paper analyzes the relationship between rural poverty and forestland management in the context of charcoal production under slash and burn. An optimal control model determines how a representative household makes decisions on the allocation of labor and forest areas to exploit, which in turn affects the renewable resource base available to the...

Synonyms Learning (and evolution) of social norms, social rules, conventions, customs. Definition Social norms can be understood as standards of behavior that are based on widely shared beliefs of how individual group members ought to behave in a given situation (Horne 2004). The group can be a family, an organization, or a society. Members may fol...

F. Arrocha, and M.G. Villena. 2012. Applying a bioeconomic optimal control model to charcoal production: the case of slash-and-burn agriculture in Mexico. Cien. Inv. Agr. 39(3): 489-504. This paper analyzes the relationship between rural poverty and forest land management for the case of charcoal production under slash-and-burn agriculture. An opti...

The main aim of this article is to investigate the behavioral consequences of the provision of subject-specific information in the group effort levels chosen by players in an experimental CPR game. We examine two basic treatments, one with incomplete information and the other with complete information. In the former, subjects are informed only abou...

The role of whistle-blowing as a mechanism for deterring corruption has been conspicuously neglected in the economic literature. This is quite surprising given the increase in legislation aimed at preventing corruption that includes whistle-blowing clauses and the extensive literature on whistle-blowing outside economics. In fact, we know of no for...

Estudiamos la propiedad de costo-efectividad de un sistema de permisos de emisión transferibles (SPET) frente un sistema de estándares de emisión. Nuestro análisis agrega a los costos de abatimiento, los costos de fiscalización para inducir cumplimiento. Consideramos, además, escenarios de información completa e incompleta. Las simulaciones numéric...

We study the cost-effectiveness of a transferable emissions permit system (TEPS) vis a vis a system of emissions standards. Our analysis includes along with abatement costs, the costs of enforcing the system to induce compliance. Further, the analysis considers complete and incomplete information. The numerical simulations are performed for the cas...

We analyze the cost of enforcing a system of firm specific emissions standards vis a vis a transferable emissions permit system in the context of complete and incomplete information. We also examine the optimality of a transferable emissions permit system when abatement costs and enforcement costs are considered. We show that under incomplete infor...

We consider the pricing of a uniformly mixed pollutant with a model of optimal, possibly firm-specific, emissions taxes and their enforcement under incomplete information about firms' abatement costs, enforcement costs, and pollution damage. We argue that optimality requires an enforcement strategy that induces full compliance by every firm, except...

In 1979, the "Ley de Aviaciýn Comercial" (Commercial Aviation Act) was passed in Chile. Its main goal was to improve the air transport by means of "Open Sky Policies", competence (freedom of prices) and a progressive lesser intervention of the official authority. Since then an international air policy is applied under the frame of "Open Skyes with...

In 1979, the “Ley de Aviación Comercial” (Commercial Aviation Act) was passed in Chile. Its main goal was to improve the air transport by means of “Open Sky Policies”, competence (freedom of prices) and a progressive lesser intervention of the official authority. Since then an international air policy is applied under the frame of “Open Skyes with...

In 1979, the “Ley de Aviación Comercial” (Commercial Aviation Act) was passed in Chile. Its main goal was to improve the air transport by means of “Open Sky Policies”, competence (freedom of prices) and a progressive lesser intervention of the official authority. Since then an international air policy is applied under the frame of “Open Skyes with...

Why does an altruistically inclined player behave altruistically in some contexts and egoistically or spitefully in others? This article provides an economic explanation to this question. The basic argument is centered on the idea that social norms shape our preferences through a process of cultural learning. In particular, we claim that, in contex...

This work analyses the effects and potential consequences of deregulating the Chilean electricity generating market. It proposes a model generation system to which non-cooperative game theory is applied within a static and dynamic context. Similar studies for purely thermal systems have been carried out in Chile where operational decisions only dep...

This work analyses the effects and potential consequences of deregulating the Chilean electricity generating market. It proposes a model generation system to which non-cooperative game theory is applied within a static and dynamic context. Similar studies for purely thermal systems have been carried out in Chile where operational decisions only dep...

El objetivo de este artículo es ligar la obra de Veblen sobre economía evolutiva con el enfoque de la recientemente desarrollada teoría de juegos evolutivos (TJE). Este es el primer paso en la incorporación de la teoría de evolución socioeconómica de Veblen en la discusión sobre la aplicación de la TJE a los ambientes sociales. También investigamos...

This essay provides an approach to the analysis of the link between Thorstein Veblen's evolutionary approach and evolutionary game theory (EGT). We shed some light on the potential contribution of Veblen's theory of socioeconomic evolution to the discussion on the application of EGT to social environments. We also investigate to what extent element...

El objetivo de este artículo es ligar la obra de Veblen sobre economía evolutiva con el enfoque de la recientemente desarrollada teoría de juegos evolutivos (TJE). Este es el primer paso en la incorporación de la teoría de evolución socioeconómica de Veblen en la discusión sobre la aplicación de la TJE a los ambientes sociales. También investigamos...

Territorial Use Rights (commonly known as TURFs in the literature) consists in the allocation of fishing rights to individuals and/or groups to fish in certain geographical locations. A requisite for these communities to be granted fishing rights is the formulation of a management and exploitation plan (MEP). While thus far the literature on TURFs...

La presente investigación tiene dos objetivos básicos. Primero, se utilizarán elementos de la Teoría de Juegos Evolutivos para evaluar la estabilidad de distintos tipos de preferencias en el contexto de la explotación de un recurso de propiedad común. En particular, analizaremos la evolución de preferencias egoístas, altruistas y envidiosas usando...

One type of regulation that has recently started to attract the attention of policymakers regarding artisanal fisheries is that of Territorial Use Rights (commonly known as TURFs in the literature). TURFs basically consist in the allocation of fishing rights to individuals and/or groups to fish in certain geographical locations. A requisite for the...

One type of regulation that has recently started to attract the attention of policymakers regarding artisanal fisheries is that of Territorial Use Rights (commonly known as TURFs in the literature). TURFs basically consist in the allocation of fishing rights to individuals and/or groups to fish in certain geographical locations. A requisite for the...

I modify the uniform-price auction rules in allowing the seller to ration bidders. This allows me to provide a strategic foundation for underpricing when the seller has an interest in ownership dispersion. Moreover, many of the so-called "collusive-seeming" equilibria disappear.

Using an indirect evolutionary framework we formally examine the evolutionary stability of reciprocal behaviour in the context of a common property resource game. While most previous theoretical research on this topic focuses on the analysis of the evolutionary stability of preferences, in this article we adopt a dierent approach; suggesting that w...

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the optimality property of a market-based environmental policy when both, abatement and enforcement costs are considered. To our knowledge there is no work squarely dealing with this specific issue. The main hypothesis in this paper is that while a transferable emissions permit system allows an environ...

This research has been divided into two main parts. First we use elements of Evolutionary Game Theory (EGT) to examine the evolutionary stability of different types of preferences in the context of common property resource exploitation. Particularly, we analyze the evolutionary stability of selfish, altruistic, and spiteful preferences using an �in...