Editor´s Note

María Teresa Ramírez

The present issue of this journal contains six articles. In the first one, Javier Ávila and Ivonne León evaluate the incidence of the Colombian tax legislation on investment, using marginal effective tax rates by economic sector. The average marginal effective tax rate calculated for Colombia is 31%.

In the second article Sandra Rozo analyzes the impact of a reduction in payroll taxes on production and the formal an informal Colombian labor markets. The results indicate that a reduction in payroll taxes induces higher employment and production levels in the formal sector, and generates the inverse effect in the informal sector, with a positive effect in the aggregated variables.

Then, Christian Bustamante and Santiago Arroyo analyze the influence of labor discrimination by race on the access to a good quality job in Cali. The econometric estimation shows that being a black worker in Cali increases the probability of having a bad quality job during the second quarter of 2004 by 12.2%.

In the fourth article Francisco Lasso, based on the estimation of plutocratic and democratic price indexes for Colombia, through individual inflation, finds evidence of the anti-poor effect of relative price shifts occurred between 1998 and 2007 and its regressivity with respect to income distribution.

Next, Constanza Martínez studies the effects of financial intermediation on the Colombian economic growth. She finds that such effects are positive in both the short and long run supporting the hypothesis of economic growth literature.

In the last papers, Juan José Echavarría, Enrique López and Martha Misas estimate the equilibrium real exchange rate and its misalignment using a structural VEC model. The results indicate that the real exchange rate has not appreciated in recent years.

Finally, from June 2009 (volume 27, number 59) ESPE will have a new editorial committee. The new editor will be Ana María Iregui, senior researcher of Banco de la República.