HUMAN CAPITAL IN THE PRICE SYSTEM
This essay explores some fundamental implications of the introduction of human capital in a system of general equilibrium of prices of production. In particular, the implications concerning the determination of wages, the aggregates, the homogeneity of labor, the capital-labor ratio, the natural rate of profit and the fluctuations of equilibrium prices.
BASIC GOODS, STANDARD COMMODITY AND THE RATE OF PROFIT IN PIERO SRAFFA
This essay describes the role of basic goods and the standard commodity in the prices of production scheme proposed by Piero Sraffa. Its central theme concerns the problems related to the interpretation of Homero Cuevas: the importance of basic goods and luxury goods in the determination of prices and the distribution of the surplus; the composition and role of the standard commodity; the limitations of the distinction between the two types of goods and the concept of standard commodity and the supposed impossibility of constructing the standard commodity.
MONETARY ORDER AND CENTRAL BANKS
With the evolutionist and institutionalist focus of the economics of the French conventions, this paper analyzes the historical rise of the central bank and the institutional creation of the "art of the central bank". The article studies formal models of the monetary order, free banking and the central bank, and analyzes the historic events that led to the Bank of England inventing the art of managing the central banks, in conjunction with the collective and institutional learning that made it possible. Aglietta shows that the central bank is not a creation of the State, but rather an institutional creation endogenous to the market system.
THE STATISTICAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INFLATION AND INDEPENDENCE OF THE CENTRAL BANK
This article reviews the empirical evidence about the statistical relationship between formal measures of central bank independence and inflation. It demonstrates that the inflationary performance of the Bank of Japan and the Federal Reserve contradict the existence of that relationship, and concludes that in discussions about the restructuring of central banks to stabilize prices there should not be so much importance attached to that statistical relationship, as the results are not statistically robust.
CENTRAL BANK AUTONOMY IN EUROPE AND LATIN AMERICA: ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENCES AND APPLICATIONS
This article makes a comparative analysis of the experiences of the independent central bank in Latin America and Europe. After reviewing the problems and theories of central bank autonomy, it studies the recent evolution of the Latin American central bank in comparison with the European central bank, highlights the perverse effects of the reforms, and shows that their objective is more the stability of the financial system than the stability of prices. Finally, it describes the tests to which the new Latin American central banks have been subjected and the effects on their credibility. It concludes that these entities have had to correct and pay for the incoherences and errors of the market, and that their independence or autonomy depends on their continuing to fulfill this role, not only for economic or monetary reasons but for the needs of political and social democracy.
CENTRAL BANK INDEPENDENCE IN LATIN AMERICA
This article describes the origin and evolution of the central banks of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela, and analyzes their respective institutional structures. It also studies the contribution of the central bank to stabilization and the problems for maintaining this independence into the future.
FISCAL AND MONETARY POLICIES IN LIGHT OF THE INCREASING DEBT SERVICE
The progressive increase in the servicing of the debt reflects a weakening of the structure of public finance and an intensification of the policy of monetary stabilization. In the last few years, the external debt has been replaced by internal debt. In an imperfect capital market, such as that which exists in Colombia, this handling of monetary policy distorts the interest rate and turns it into merely the expression of the immediate objectives of monetary policy.
NEW FISCAL CRISIS
The fiscal deficit in Latin America is currently caused by the external and internal debt, and the fact that economic authorities have lost the ability to manage an important part of macroeconomic policy as a result of the process of decentralization. Along with less macroeconomic control, destabilizing factors increase due to the greater mobility of international financial markets, where any change in signals provokes abrupt and massive movements of capital in favor of or against a country. This problem is aggravated by the dismantling of the principal regulations, especially those relating to exchange controls, foreign investment, and international trade. Fiscal policy ends up defending the stability of the main economic variables, in an uncertain and unpredictable context determined by an autonomous finance capital. It defends the stability of three key prices: inflation, currency, and interest rate. An abrupt change in any of these may depreciate the real value of financial assets, with which financial wealth would disappear like foam.
NEW PERSPECTIVES IN FISCAL HISTORIOGRAPHY
Studies about Colombian fiscal themes have responded, in part, to the need to understand economic policy in this area. This article reviews Colombian fiscal historiography over the twentieth century, which has been concerned with juridical aspects of the arrangements contemplated in the tax reforms and the macroeconomic impact of fiscal policy; in addition, following the Annales school and regulation theory, it explores other methodological options for investigating the tax system. To illustrate the new methodology, it comments on the role played by business associations in the dismantling of the double tax and the way that the tax administration evolved.
EMPLOYMENT AND PUBLIC WAGES IN COLOMBIA
This article studies the evolution and determination of employment and public wages in Colombia between 1970 and 1994, and seeks to establish if their behavior responded to political or economic factors. For the 1990s, it evaluates up to what point the government's objectives were fulfilled with respect to the reorientation of the human factor towards the areas where state intervention is assumed to be essential: the decentralization of public employment and the professionalization of its personnel. It also analyzes the role of public wages as an instrument for smoothing the cycles of the economy and achieving equilibrium in public finances.
A DEFECT IN SRAFFA'S STANDARD COMMODITY?
Homero Cuevas has repeatedly claimed that the standard commodity proposed by Sraffa is defective and, therefore, unacceptable. This essay shows that such a conclusion is incorrect, as it is based on a mistaken reading of Sraffa's objective and method.